- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJerome Rabinowitz
- Nickname
- Jerry
- Jerome Robbins was one of the founding members of the Ballet Theatre when it was formed in 1940 portraying a variety of roles for several years before devising his own creations such as 'Fancy Free' about 3 sailors on leave in New York which marked a long association with Leonard Bernstein. With Jerome in one of the leading roles it opened at the Metropolitan Opera House in April 1944 and quickly established Jerome and Leonard as important talents particularly when the play was turned into the film'On the Town' Among ballets Jerome staged for the New York City Ballet, of which he became company director are 'Pied Piper','The Cage',and 'Inter Play'. In 1958 he formed his own company 'Ballets: USA which did tours of Europe and the Middle East, New York and a national tour. Several members of the company were in the film West Side Story which Jerome staged fir Broadway, the National Company and London.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- Extremely athletic choreography, driven by character and story
- Infamous for his volatile temper and tyrannical directiorial style
- In May, 1953, Robbins was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He admitted to having belonged to the American Communist Party's Theatrical Transient Group between 1943 and 1947, and also named eight colleagues as members.
- Along with Delbert Mann, Robert Redford, James L. Brooks, Kevin Costner and Sam Mendes, he is one of only six people to win the Academy Award for Best Director for their directorial debut: Mann for Marty (1955), Robbins for West Side Story (1961) (which he co-directed with Robert Wise, Redford for Ordinary People (1980), Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983), Costner for Dances with Wolves (1990) and Mendes for American Beauty (1999).
- The only individual to win the Best Director Academy Award for their sole feature film directorial credit.
- He was bisexual; he had a relationship with actor Montgomery Clift, but he never married.
- Ballet choreographer.
- [on Russian-influenced repertory] Why can't we dance about American subjects? Why can't we talk about the way we dance today, and how we are?
- [to Irving Berlin] Give me something to dance about and I'll dance it.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content