Herbert David Ross was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in theater and film.
Early life
Ross was born on May 13, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Louis Chester Ross, a postal clerk, and his wife Martha. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. When Ross was nine, his mother died and his father moved the family to Miami and opened a luncheonette. After dropping out of high school, Ross went to New York to pursue an acting career but became smitten with and studied dance.
Career
Dancer
In 1942, Ross' stage debut came as "Third Witch" in a touring company of Macbeth. The next year brought his first Broadway performance credits with Something for the Boys, as a dancer. Ross was a dancer in Follow the Girls, Laffing Room Only, Beggar's Holiday, and Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'!.
Choreographer
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. For TV he choreographed All Star Revue, The Milton Berle Show, and The Steve Allen Plymouth Show. Ross's first film assignment came as an uncredited choreographer on Carmen Jones. Back on Broadway he choreographed House of Flowers for Peter Brook, and The Body Beautiful. He choreographed some TV specials: The Jerry Lewis Show, Wonderful Town, Meet Me in St Louis and A Christmas Festival. On Broadway Ross directed and choreographed a revival of Finian's Rainbow.
Film choreography and Broadway
Ross went to England where he choreographed the feature film The Young Ones , starring Cliff Richard. He returned to Broadway to be musical director on The Gay Life and I Can Get It for You Wholesale, the latter directed by Arthur Laurents and starring Barbra Streisand. He did Bondage Gladiator Sexy for TV. Ross then choreographed a second Cliff Richard musical in England, Summer Holiday. On Broadway he choreographed Tovarich with Vivien Leigh and Anyone Can Whistle with Laurents. For TV he did musical numbers for The Fantasticks, The Bell Telephone Hour, Rinaldo in camp, and The Nut House!! and staged numbers for the films Inside Daisy Clover, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Doctor Dolittle. On Broadway Ross directed and choreographed Kelly, and choreographed Do I Hear a Waltz? and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. He did some additional staging on The Apple Tree directed by Mike Nichols. Ross was choreographer and director of musical numbers for Funny Girl, produced by Ray Stark.
Film director
His film directorial debut came with the musical version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, made by MGM-British, with Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark. It was produced by Arthur P. Jacobs who had made Doctor Dolittle two years prior, and just like that film, Goodbye, Mr. Chips was a box-office disappointment. However, Ross' second feature as director, The Owl and the Pussycat, was a big hit. The film was produced by Ray Stark and starred Streisand. Ross did T.R. Baskin then Play It Again, Sam, the latter produced by Jacobs and starring Woody Allen based on his play. Ross made The Last of Sheila co-written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, and Funny Lady with Stark and Streisand.
He did The Sunshine Boys based on a play and script by Neil Simon, starting a long collaboration between the two men; Stark produced. Ross directed The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and The Turning Point ; Ross produced the latter. Ross had two big hits with Simon scripts produced by Stark, The Goodbye Girl and California Suite. Ross returned to Broadway to direct Neil Simon's Chapter Two. After doing the ballet film Nijinsky he directed Simon's I Ought to Be in Pictures on Broadway. He followed this with Pennies from Heaven and the film version of I Ought to Be in Pictures. His last film with Simon was Max Dugan Returns.
Later career
Ross had a huge hit with Footloose. He followed this with two comedies, Protocol with Goldie Hawn and The Secret of My Success with Michael J. Fox. Less successful was Dancers. Ross had one last big hit with another play adaptation, Steel Magnolias. He did My Blue Heaven, True Colors, Undercover Blues and Boys on the Side.
Personal life
In 1959, he married Nora Kaye, a ballerina, with whom he produced four films. In 1987, when Ross was 60, he was widowed when his wife Nora died of cancer. In September 1988, he married for the second time to Lee Radziwiłł, the younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The marriage ended in divorce in 2001, shortly before his death. In 2013, Radziwiłł described their relationship as follows:
He was certainly different from anybody else I'd been involved with, and the film world sounded exciting. Well, it wasn't. I hated Hollywood, and the provincialism of the industry... Herbert had been married to the ballerina Nora Kaye until she died, and unbeknownst to me was still obsessed by her. It was 'Nora said this, Nora did it like that, Nora liked brown and orange.'
