Herbert Ross

Herbert David Ross, born on May 13, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, was an American choreographer, director, and producer whose career spanned Broadway, television, and film. The son of Louis Chester Ross, a postal clerk, and Martha Ross, née Grundfast, he came from a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants. His mother died when he was nine, after which his father relocated the family to Miami and opened a luncheonette. Ross left high school without graduating and returned to New York to pursue acting, where he instead discovered dance and committed himself to studying it.

Ross made his stage debut in 1942 as Third Witch in a touring production of Macbeth. His Broadway career as a performer began the following year with Something for the Boys, in which he appeared as a dancer. He went on to dance in Follow the Girls during the 1943–44 season, Laffing Room Only in 1944–45, Beggar's Holiday in 1946–47, and Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'!, with his Broadway performing credits spanning 1943 to 1948.

By 1950, Ross had transitioned from performer to choreographer, joining the American Ballet Theatre in that capacity. His first Broadway choreography credit came with the 1951 Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields musical adaptation of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. He subsequently choreographed House of Flowers in 1954 for director Peter Brook and The Body Beautiful in 1958. His first film choreography work came, without screen credit, on Carmen Jones in 1954. During this period he also choreographed for television, contributing to All Star Revue, The Milton Berle Show, and The Steve Allen Plymouth Show, as well as specials including The Jerry Lewis Show in 1957, Wonderful Town in 1958, and Meet Me in St. Louis and A Christmas Festival, both in 1959.

Ross directed and choreographed a Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow in 1960 and served as musical director on The Gay Life during the 1961–62 season. He choreographed I Can Get It for You Wholesale in 1962, a production directed by Arthur Laurents and featuring Barbra Streisand. Working abroad, he choreographed The Young Ones in 1961 and Summer Holiday in 1963, both British films starring Cliff Richard, and The Bacchantes in Italy in 1961. Back on Broadway, he choreographed Tovarich in 1963, which starred Vivien Leigh, and Anyone Can Whistle in 1964, again collaborating with Laurents. His work on Anyone Can Whistle earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography in 1964. He also choreographed Tovarich and staged numbers for the films Inside Daisy Clover in 1965, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966, and Doctor Dolittle in 1967. His Broadway choreography credits continued with Do I Hear a Waltz? and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, both in 1965, the latter of which he also effectively directed during its troubled pre-Broadway tryout in Boston, though without receiving official credit. He directed and choreographed Kelly in 1965, contributed additional staging to The Apple Tree in 1966–67, and served as choreographer and director of musical numbers for Funny Girl in 1968, produced by Ray Stark.

Ross made his feature film directorial debut with the MGM-British musical Goodbye, Mr. Chips in 1969, starring Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark. His second directorial effort, The Owl and the Pussycat in 1970, produced by Ray Stark and starring Streisand, was a commercial success. He followed it with T.R. Baskin in 1971 and Play It Again, Sam in 1972, the latter starring Woody Allen and based on Allen's own play. Ross directed The Last of Sheila in 1973, co-written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, and reunited with Stark and Streisand for Funny Lady in 1975. That same year he directed The Sunshine Boys, adapted from a Neil Simon play, beginning a sustained creative partnership with Simon. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution followed in 1976. Ross both produced and directed The Turning Point in 1977, which earned him Academy Award nominations for both Best Picture and Best Director, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. Two further collaborations with Simon and Stark, The Goodbye Girl in 1977 and California Suite in 1978, were major box-office successes. After directing the ballet film Nijinsky in 1980, Ross made Pennies from Heaven in 1981 and the film version of I Ought to Be in Pictures in 1982. His final film with Simon was Max Dugan Returns in 1983.

Ross returned to Broadway during this period to direct Neil Simon's Chapter Two, which ran from 1977 to 1979, and Simon's I Ought to Be in Pictures during the 1980–81 season. His film career continued with Footloose in 1984, a major commercial hit, followed by Protocol in 1984 with Goldie Hawn and The Secret of My Success in 1987 with Michael J. Fox. Dancers also appeared in 1987. Steel Magnolias in 1989 was another significant success. His subsequent films included My Blue Heaven in 1990, True Colors in 1991, Undercover Blues in 1993, and Boys on the Side in 1995.

In his personal life, Ross married ballerina Nora Kaye in 1959; the two collaborated as producers on four films together. Kaye died of cancer in 1987. In September 1988, Ross married Lee Radziwiłł, the younger sister of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. That marriage ended in divorce in 2001. Ross died of heart failure in New York City on October 9, 2001. A memorial was held at the Majestic Theater on West 44th Street, where speakers included Leslie Browne, Barbara Cook, Arthur Laurents, Marsha Mason, Mike Nichols, and Mary-Louise Parker. He was interred alongside Nora Kaye at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. The 2011 remake of Footloose was dedicated to his memory.