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Director Herbert Ross Dies
Often dubbed a women's director, although he hated to be so categorized, Ross' talent showcased Hollywood ladies of all types, from Barbra Streisand (who headlined Funny Lady in 1975) to Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft (the dance diva duo of 1977's The Turning Point) to Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis and Sally Field (the ensemble cast of 1988's Steel Magnolias) to Drew Barrymore, Mary-Louise Parker and Whoopi Goldberg (the oddball trio of Boys on the Side, his final film in 1995).
Despite his label, however, he could also handle the guys. His directing debut, the musical Goodbye Mr. Chips, starred Peter O'Toole; Walter Matthau and George Burns headlined his version of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys; Richard Dreyfuss was Marsha Mason's costar in the Simon hit The Goodbye Girl; Michael J. Fox played the lead in The Secret of My Success; and ballet great Mikhail Baryshnikov made his acting debut in Turning Point.
Dance was Ross' first love and lasting legacy. Born in Brooklyn (biographies list his birth year variously as 1935 or 1937) and raised in Miami, he studied classical and modern dance. He worked as a chorus boy in Broadway musicals. His first wife, Nora Kaye, was a prima ballerina and he became a choreographer with the American Ballet Theater and later on Broadway and for television.
He worked first in Hollywood as a choreographer and dance director, most notably on the 1967 musical version of Doctor Doolittle and Streisand's 1968 movie debut as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, directed by the famed William Wyler. Ross had choreographed the ingenue Streisand in her Broadway stage debut, I Can Get It For You Wholesale, and, besides directing her in the Brice bio sequel Funny Lady, they also collaborated on the 1970 romance flick The Owl and the Pussycat.
MacLaine referred to Ross as "a [dance] gypsy," telling the Los Angeles Times, "Herbert was a great director because he took his knowledge of dance into the movement of acting. He mastered flamboyance and sensitivity."
Ross was indeed a combination of those qualities, a tall, elegant man with good manners but a commanding determination, who didn't suffer fools gladly.
It was his determination, in partnership with Kaye, that enabled the ballet story The Turning Point to become a mainstream movie. "We both feel a tremendous responsibility to the ballet, and I believe we've represented it correctly," said Ross, whose other ballet films, Dancers and Nijinsky, failed to generate much box-office interest. On the flip side, his latter-day dance flick Footloose was a monster hit.
Ross perhaps hit his professional peak in 1977. Two of his films, The Turning Point and The Goodbye Girl, received Best Picture Oscar nominations, but lost to Annie Hall, starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton--a twosome Ross had directed in the Allen-scripted 1972 comedy romance Play It Again, Sam. Ross also received a Best Director Oscar nod for Turning Point but lost out to Allen. That same year he also returned to Broadway to direct Neil Simon's comedy Chapter Two. His close association with the prolific playwright also included the movies California Suite, I Ought to Be in Pictures and Max Dugan Returns.
Kaye died of cancer in 1987. In 1989, Ross persuaded Jackie Kennedy's sister, Princess Lee Bouvier Radziwill, to give up her title and become the second Mrs. Ross. They recently divorced.
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