Herbert Ross

Herbert Ross (born May 13, 1927, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died October 9, 2001, New York, New York) was an American dancer and film director who made a significant contribution to the world of dance as a choreographer for ballet companies, the stage, and motion pictures before turning to directing motion pictures. Among his numerous and varied popular films were Neil Simon comedies, vehicles for Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam (1972), and a number of movies that tapped his knowledge of the dance milieu, most notably The Turning Point (1977).

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Early life and dance career

Ross was the son of a postal worker who relocated his family from New York City to Miami, where he opened a small restaurant. After dropping out of high school, Ross went to New York to pursue an acting career but became smitten with and studied dance. Having danced in the choruses of several shows, Ross stumbled into his career as a choreographer; during his recuperation from a broken ankle, he attended an exhibition of artwork by Francisco de Goya, and, much taken with the artist’s series of satirical etchings Los Caprichos (“The Caprices”), Ross choreographed a ballet based upon it. American Ballet Theatre was so impressed with a 1950 workshop production of the resulting ballet, Caprichos, that it chose Ross’s work for inclusion in its 10th anniversary season. Ross created more ballets for the company during the following several years, most notably The Maids (1957), as well as choreographing for Broadway, television programs, and performers such as Marlene Dietrich, whose supper-club acts he helped construct.

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In 1954 he choreographed both House of Flowers on Broadway and Otto Preminger’s film Carmen Jones. Ross’s best-known Broadway work came after he and renowned ballerina Nora Kaye (whom he married in 1959) toured for roughly a year with their own ballet company, Ballet of Two Worlds, which presented his ballets Angel Head, Rashomon Suite, and The Dybbuk. Among Ross’s biggest successes as a choreographer for the Broadway stage were Finian’s Rainbow (1960) and I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1962), which launched Streisand’s career. His work as a choreographer for motion pictures included Doctor Dolittle (1967) and Funny Girl (1968).

First films

Ross was in his 40s when he directed his first motion picture, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), a musical version of Sam Wood’s 1939 classic film of the same name, which, in turn, was based on James Hilton’s novella Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934). British pop singer-actress Petula Clark starred opposite Peter O’Toole, who played the titular schoolmaster, in Ross’s version, which was moderately successful commercially but took a beating from many critics. The response was more positive for the frenetic comedy The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), Ross’s adaptation of Bill Manhoff’s play about the burgeoning romance between an uptight aspiring writer (played by George Segal) and his prostitute neighbor (Streisand). Ross’s next directorial effort, the drama T.R. Baskin (1971), with Candice Bergen, was much less noticed than its follow-up, the comedy Play It Again, Sam (1972), which became a cult favorite. Woody Allen starred in this adaptation of his own play as an awkward film critic who is coached in his love life by the ghost of Humphrey Bogart. The intricate murder mystery The Last of Sheila (1973), with a cast that included James Coburn, Raquel Welch, James Mason, and Dyan Cannon, fared better with the critics than it did at the box office, but it too garnered a cult following.

Films of the mid-1970s

Because he had already both worked with Streisand and choreographed William Wyler’s Funny Girl, Ross seemed like a logical choice to direct its sequel, Funny Lady (1975), which most critics found entertaining though not the equal of the original. The Sunshine Boys (1975), Ross’s first handling of source material by playwright Neil Simon, proved to be an excellent comic vehicle for George Burns and Walter Matthau, who played a pair of ancient vaudevillians coming out of retirement to make a television special. Burns won an Academy Award as best supporting actor, and Matthau received a best actor nomination. In the eyes of many critics, Ross’s next film, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), was a near-perfect realization of Nicholas Meyer’s adaptation of his own best-selling novel. Nicol Williamson starred as cocaine-addicted detective Sherlock Holmes, who seeks help from psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (Alan Arkin); Robert Duvall played Holmes’s able assistant Dr. Watson, and Laurence Olivier took on the role of the dastardly Moriarty.

Ross’s next two films, released in the same year, were the pinnacle of his filmmaking career. His most personal film, The Turning Point (1977), from a story by Arthur Laurents (who coproduced with Ross), focused on two former prima ballerinas—one modeled on Ross’s wife Kaye, with whom he frequently collaborated—whose lives had diverged many years before. Shirley MacLaine played a housewife whose daughter (Leslie Browne) is ready to make her debut as a dancer, and Anne Bancroft was the imperious former star who may deign to become the new ballerina’s teacher. Highly praised, The Turning Point was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, with McLaine and Bancroft both nominated for best actress, Browne for best supporting actress, Mikhail Baryshnikov for best supporting actor, Laurents for his screenplay, and Ross for best director.

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The Goodbye Girl (1977), a slick romantic comedy written by Simon, was an even bigger commercial success. It featured Richard Dreyfuss as a struggling actor and Marsha Mason as a single mom who fall in love after being reluctant roommates in a New York City apartment. Both were nominated for Academy Awards (for best actor and best actress, respectively), as was Quinn Cummings (who earned a nomination as best supporting actress for her portrayal of the daughter) and the picture itself. Thus, two films directed by Ross and seven actors in them were nominated for Academy Awards that year. (Dreyfuss was the lone winner of the group.)

Ross’s last film of the 1970s, California Suite (1978), another Simon comedy, was something of a mixed bag. Nevertheless, Maggie Smith’s performance in it earned an Academy Award for best supporting actress. She joined the long list of actresses who had thrived under the direction of Ross, earning him a reputation as a “women’s director.”

Films of the 1980s

Nijinsky (1980), a biography of legendary Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky (George De La Pena), failed to tap into the success of The Turning Point. Pennies from Heaven (1981), an ambitious adaptation of Dennis Potter’s acclaimed British Broadcasting Corporation series, was celebrated by many critics but failed to connect with audiences. Steve Martin was daringly cast against type as the desperately unhappy sheet-music salesman whose fantasies—envisioned as glorious musical numbers in the style of the Fred Astaire–Ginger Rogers pictures—briefly relieve him of the Great Depression’s grim realities. I Ought to Be in Pictures (1982), with Walter Matthau, and Max Dugan Returns (1983), with Jason Robards and Marsha Mason starring as father and daughter, were Simon vehicles that preceded Ross’s biggest box-office hit, Footloose (1984), a teen-oriented musical that starred Kevin Bacon as a live-wire newcomer who brings the joys of dancing and rock music to the repressed kids in a conservative town.

Protocol (1984) was an unremarkable comedic vehicle for Goldie Hawn, and the comedy The Secret of My Success (1987) earned less than universally glowing reviews for Michael J. Fox, then at the height of his film stardom. The little-seen Dancers (also 1987) reteamed Browne and Baryshnikov but without the dramatic or commercial success of The Turning Point. On the other hand, Steel Magnolias (1989), adapted by Robert Harling from his own play, was generally well received by the critics and a hit at the box office. The titular southern belles in this star-studded comedy set in Louisiana included MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, and Sally Field.

Last Films

My Blue Heaven (1990), written by Nora Ephron, was a not widely successful showcase for Martin. Ross then directed True Colors (1991), a drama starring John Cusack and James Spader as former law-school friends whose careers diverge. Undercover Blues (1993), a spy farce starring Kathleen Turner and Dennis Quaid, followed. Ross’s final theatrical release was the well-received Boys on the Side (1995), with Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore, and Mary-Louise Parker starring as three women whose fates become intertwined when they agree to travel on a cross-country car ride. The film garnered strong reviews and attracted a considerable audience, accomplishments that few of the films in the latter stages of Ross’s career could claim.

After the death of his wife Kaye in 1987, Ross married Lee Radziwill, sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; they divorced in 2001. He died of heart failure in New York, where he had returned to live after leaving Hollywood not long before.