Biography
Herbert David Ross was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in the stage and film. Ross was born on May 13, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Martha Grundfast and Louis Chester Ross, a postal clerk. At the age of 9, his mother died and his father moved the family to Miami and opened a luncheonette. 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 S...
Known For
Complete Filmography

And the Oscar Goes To...
2014
as Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy ...

Poster Boy
2004
Producer
The gay son of a conservative senator who is also the poster boy for his father's re-election unknowingly befriends a gay activist bent on destroying ...

Jean-Pierre Aumont, charm and laughter
1999
A doumentary of the life and career of French actor, Jean-Pierre Aumont.

Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough
1997
as Self
A profile of the life of actor Walter Matthau.

Shirley Maclaine: Kicking Up Her Heels
1996
as Self
Shirley MacLaine was the product of a strict middle-class background from which she and her brother, the future actor Warren Beatty, escaped into the ...

Boys on the Side
1995
Director, Producer
After breaking up with her girlfriend, a nightclub singer, Jane, answers a personal ad from Robin, a real estate agent with AIDS, seeking a cross-coun...

Undercover Blues
1993
Director, Executive Producer
When fun-loving American agents Jeff and Jane Blue are called back from maternity leave for a special assignment in New Orleans, the spy parents decid...

Soapdish
1991
Executive Producer
Celeste Talbert is the star of the long-running soap opera "The Sun Also Sets." With the show's ratings down, Celeste's ruthlessly ambitious co-star, ...

True Colors
1991
Director, Producer
Two law school friends find themselves at odds when one becomes a Justice Department lawyer and the other goes into politics.

My Blue Heaven
1990
Director, Producer
FBI agent Barney Coopersmith is assigned to protect former Mafia figure turned informant Vincent Antonelli. In the witness protection program one is s...

Steel Magnolias
1989
Director
A young beautician, newly arrived in a small Louisiana town, finds work at the local salon, where a small group of women share a close bond of friends...

Dancers
1987
Director
A successful aging dancer takes a young female protegee.

The Secret of My Success
1987
Producer, Director
Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York, but once in New York, he learns that jobs - and gir...

Follies: In Concert
1986
as Self- Concert Director
A backstage documentary film including footage from the legendary 1985 concert performance of Stephen Sondheim's classic musical at Lincoln Center's A...

Sondheim on Broadway: Follies - Four Days in New York
1986
as Self
Documentary that follows four hectic days of rehearsal for a celebrated 1985 concert performance from Lincoln Center of Stephen Sondheim's musical Fol...

Protocol
1984
Director
A Washington waitress saves the Emir of Ohtar's life, launching her diplomatic career and a scandal.

Footloose
1984
Director
When teenager Ren and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he's in for a real case of culture shock after discovering he...

Max Dugan Returns
1983
Director, Producer
An English teacher and struggling single mother has her life disrupted when the father who abandoned her as a child comes back into her life.

I Ought to Be in Pictures
1982
Director, Producer
Grandmother has nothing to say when Libby tells her that she is off to LA to look up Dad, a Hollywood screenwriter. Grandmother has been in a New York...

Pennies from Heaven
1981
Director, Producer
During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent school te...

Nijinsky
1980
Director
A ballet dancer struggles with his homosexuality and the increasing allure of a young ballerina who seeks to draw him away from his domineering lover.

California Suite
1978
Director
The misadventures of four groups of guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The Goodbye Girl
1977
Director
After being dumped by her live-in boyfriend, an unemployed dancer and her 10-year-old daughter are reluctantly forced to live with a struggling off-Br...

The Turning Point
1977
Director, Producer
As young dancers, they were best friends and fierce rivals. Deedee left the stage for marriage and motherhood, while Emma would become an internationa...
The Making of 'The Goodbye Girl'
1977
as Self
Documentary of the making of Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl (1977)
The Amazing Miss Cummings: An Actress at Work and Play
1977
A promotional short for The Goodbye Girl. It takes a behind the scenes look at the production, with a focus on actress Quinn Cummings.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
1976
Director, Producer
Concerned about his friend's cocaine use, Dr. Watson tricks Sherlock Holmes into travelling to Vienna, where Holmes enters the care of Sigmund Freud. ...

The Sunshine Boys
1975
Director
Lewis and Clark, aka The Sunshine Boys, were famous comedians during the vaudeville era, but off-stage they couldn't stand each other and haven't spok...

Funny Lady
1975
Director
Famous singer Fanny Brice has divorced her first husband Nicky Arnstein. During the Great Depression she has trouble finding work as an artist, but me...

The Last of Sheila
1973
Director, Producer
A year after Sheila is killed in a hit-and-run, her multimillionaire husband invites a group of friends to spend a week on his yacht playing a scaveng...

Play It Again, Sam
1972
Director
A neurotic film critic obsessed with the movie Casablanca (1942) attempts to get over his wife leaving him by dating again with the help of a married ...

T.R. Baskin
1971
Director
Enthusiastic young woman runs away to Chicago to start a new life. She is soon confronted with the emotional coldness of the big city and has to searc...

The Owl and the Pussycat
1970
Director
Meek, owlish Felix and strident, catty Doris live in the same apartment building. His incessant typing bothers her; her gentlemen callers bother him. ...

Goodbye, Mr. Chips
1969
Director
Academy Award-honoree Peter O'Toole stars in this musical classic about a prim English schoolmaster who learns to show his compassion through the help...

Funny Girl
1968
Choreographer
The life of famed 1930s comedienne Fanny Brice, from her early days in the Jewish slums of New York, to the height of her career with the Ziegfeld Fol...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1966
Choreographer
A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the ...

Inside Daisy Clover
1965
Choreographer
A girl on the road to stardom fights the dehumanizing effects of Hollywood life.

The Fantasticks
1964
Choreographer
Widowers Amos and Ben plot to romantically unite Amos’ daughter, Luisa, and Ben’s son, Matt, by pretending to feud and forbidding the teens to associa...

The Bacchantes
1961
Choreographer
The god Dionysus decides to pay a visit to the city of Thebes. Dionysus wants to be the worshiped by the masses, but the kingdom is suffering a horrif...

Meet Me in St. Louis
1959
Choreographer
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family up to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Wonderful Town
1958
Director
Ruth Sherwood and her sister, Eileen, have moved to 1935 Greenwich Village. They're surrounded by colorful Village characters (including an out-of-wor...