Herbert Ross

Herbert David Ross (May 13, 1927 – October 9, 2001) was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in the stage and film fields.

Life and career

Ross was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Martha (Grundfast) and Louis Chester Ross.^[1] His stage debut came as "Third Witch" in a 1942 touring company of Macbeth. The next year brought his first Broadway performance credits with Something for the Boys. By 1950, he was a choreographer with the American Ballet Theatre and choreographed his first Broadway production, the Arthur Schwartz-Dorothy Fields musical adaptation of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Ross's first film assignment came as an uncredited choreographer on Carmen Jones (1954). In the UK, he choreographed The Young Ones (1961) and Summer Holiday (1963), both starring Cliff Richard. Later, he worked with Barbra Streisand as choreographer and director of musical numbers for Funny Girl (1968)

His film directorial debut came with the musical version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), made by MGM-British, with Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark. He went on to direct films involving ballet, such as The Turning Point (1977), Nijinsky (1980) and Dancers (1987). Other movies of critical acclaim followed in the 1970s and 1980s such as Neil Simon's adaptations of his own plays and film adaptations of Broadway productions through his last project, Boys on the Side (1995).

Personal life

He was widowed from his first wife the ballerina Nora Kaye, she succumbed to cancer in 1987 at 67. His second marriage in 1988 to Lee Radziwill, the younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, ended in divorce in 2001.^[2]

Ross died from heart failure in New York City on October 9, 2001.^[3] He was interred with Kaye in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.^[4]

Works

References

External links

• Herbert Ross at Find A Grave
• Herbert Ross at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Herbert Ross at the Internet Movie Database