Director and producer Ulu Grosbard was born on January 9, 1929 in Antwerp, Belgium, and came to the U.S. via Cuba in 1948. After receiving a BA in 1950 and an MA in 1952 from the University of Chicago, he attended the School of Drama at Yale University for a year and studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. He has been a member of the Directors Unit of the Actors Studio since 1961. From 1953 to 1955, Grosbard served as a Private First Class with the U.S. Army Intelligence, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1954.
During the summers of 1957-1958, he directed at the Gateway Theatre in Bellport, Long Island, N.Y., and co-produced and directed The Days and Nights of Beebee Fenstermaker (Sheridan Square Playhouse, NYC, 1962, Sept. 17). His first Broadway assignment was directing Frank Gilroy's play The Subject Was Roses (Royale, 1964, May 25), which won the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Circle Award. He also directed the 1968 film version produced by MGM. In 1965 he directed an off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, for which he won a Vernon Rice Award and an Obie. The Investigation, the Peter Weiss documentary-play about a trial of personnel at World War II's Auschwitz concentration camp, was directed on Broadway by Grosbard in 1966 at the Ambassador, and he also directed the NBC-TV production shown on April 14 and 16, 1967. In 1967 he directed the play That Summer That Fall.
Since 1959, Grosbard has also worked in television, first as the production manager for the Deadline series, 1959-1960. In 1966 he produced Far Rockaway, and in 1968 directed The Price.
His work in films includes credit as assistant director for N.Y. locations for Splendor in the Grass (WB, 1961), West Side Story (UA, 1961), The Hustler (Fox, 1961), and The Miracle Worker (UA, 1962). He was unit manager for The Pawnbroker (Landau, 1964).
Grosbard married Rose Gregorio on February 24, 1965. She had been leading lady in the revival of Miller's A View from the Bridge.
