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Ulu Grosbard, noted stage and film director, dies at 83

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Ulu Grosbard, the stage and film director who helmed ‘The Subject was Roses’ on Broadway and later as a movie, has died at 83. The director died in New York earlier this week, the New York Times reported.

In a career that spanned Broadway and Hollywood, Grosbard worked with some of the top actors in the profession, including Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Martin Sheen and Michelle Pfeiffer. He also had directed works by a number of celebrated playwrights, including Arthur Miller, David Mamet and Beth Henley.

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Grosbard worked with Miller twice, on the original Broadway production of ‘The Price’ in 1968 and an off-Broadway production of ‘A View from the Bridge’ in 1965. The director was twice nominated for a Tony Award for the Broadway productions of Frank D. Gilroy’s ‘The Subject Was Roses’ and Mamet’s ‘American Buffalo.’

‘The Subject Was Roses,’ which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1965, starred Martin Sheen, Jack Albertson and Irene Daily. Grosbard directed the movie adaptation in 1968, with Sheen and Albertson reprising their roles alongside Patricia Neal.

Born in Belgium, Grosbard emigrated to the U.S. at a young age with his family. He studied at the University of Chicago and the Yale School of Drama before launching his theater career as a director.

His movie directorial credits also include ‘Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?,’ ‘Straight Time,’ ‘True Confessions,’ ‘Falling in Love,’ ‘Georgia’ and ‘The Deep End of the Ocean.’

His other Broadway directorial credits include Henley’s short-lived play ‘The Wake of Jamey Foster’ and Woody Allen’s ‘The Floating Light Bulb.’

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-- David Ng

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