Herbert Ross

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Herbert Ross
Born Herbert David Ross
May 13, 1927(1927-05-13)
Brooklyn, NY
Died October 9, 2001 (aged 74)
New York, NY
Years active 1958-1995
Spouse(s) Lee Radziwill (1988–1999)
Nora Kaye (1959-1987)

Herbert Ross (May 13, 1927October 9, 2001) was an American film director, producer, choreographer and actor.

Born Herbert David Ross in Brooklyn, New York, he made his stage debut as Third Witch with a touring company of Macbeth in 1942. His Broadway credits as a performer included Something for the Boys (1943), Laffing Room Only (1944), Beggar's Holiday (1946), and Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'! (1948). His choreography career began with the American Ballet Theatre in 1950; the following year he choreographed his first Broadway production, the Arthur Schwartz-Dorothy Fields musical adaptation of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. His first film assignment was Carmen Jones in 1954.

In 1968, Ross worked with Barbra Streisand as choreographer and director of musical numbers for the film Funny Girl. The following year, he made his motion picture directorial debut with a musical version of the classic Goodbye, Mr. Chips, starring Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark.

In 1975, Ross worked on the film adaptation of the Neil Simon play The Sunshine Boys, the first of several Simon play adaptations he directed. Two years later, he helmed the ballet-oriented drama The Turning Point, for which he won the Golden Globe and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Director.

He had a huge hit with the film adaptation of Robert Harling's play Steel Magnolias, featuring Sally Field, Dolly Parton and Shirley MacLaine, in 1989. His last film was in 1995, when he produced and directed Boys on the Side, with Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore.

He was married twice, the first time to ballerina Nora Kaye, who died of cancer in 1987 at the age of 67. His second marriage was to Lee Radziwill and ended in divorce in 2001. [1]

Herbert Ross died of heart failure at age 74 in New York City and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Contents

[edit] Additional Broadway credits

(As choreographer, unless otherwise noted)

[edit] Films as director

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Lee Bouvier Radziwill Weds Herbert Ross, Film Director", New York Times, September 24, 1988. Retrieved on 2007-06-21. "Lee Bouvier Radziwill and Herbert Ross were married yesterday evening at the bride's home in New York by Justice E. Leo Milonas of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, First Department. After the ceremony, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the sister of the bride, gave a dinner party for the couple at her home in New York. Rudolf Nureyev, the dancer and director of the Paris Opera Ballet, and John Taras, the associate director of American Ballet Theater, attended the couple." 

[edit] External links