Stuart Rosenberg
1927 - 2007Rosenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Sara (née Kaminsky) and David Rosenberg. He studied Irish literature at New York University in Manhattan, and began working as an apprentice film editor while in graduate school.
After advancing to film editor, he then transitioned into directing with episodes of the syndicated TV series Decoy (1957–59). It was the first police series on American television built around a female protagonist. Over the next two years, Rosenberg directed 15 episodes of the ABC police-detective series Naked City, also shot in New York City. Fifteen episodes of The Untouchables followed, eight of the anthology series Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, five of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and three of The Twilight Zone, along with episodes of Adventures in Paradise, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Ben Casey, Rawhide with Clint Eastwood, and Falk's The Trials of O'Brien, among other shows. He won a 1963 Emmy Award for directing "The Madman", one of his 19 episodes of the courtroom drama The Defenders.
Following the Lutheran-financed U.S.-German co-production Question 7 (1961), filmed in West Berlin, Germany, Rosenberg shot the 1965 TV-movie, Memorandum for a Spy and the 1966 telefilm Fame Is the Name of the Game before making his major-studio debut with the Paul Newman hit Cool Hand Luke (1967). Rosenberg had come across Donn Pearce's chain gang novel and developed the film with actor Jack Lemmon's production company, Jalem. Years later, Rosenberg would replace Bob Rafelson on another prison movie, Brubaker (1980) starring Robert Redford.
Other Rosenberg films include The April Fools (1969), with French actress Catherine Deneuve in her American debut opposite Jack Lemmon; the Newman movies WUSA (1970), Pocket Money (1972) and The Drowning Pool (1975); the Walter Matthau police-detective thriller The Laughing Policeman (1973); the Charles Bronson action picture Love and Bullets (1979); and another action movie Let's Get Harry (1986), for which Rosenberg used the Directors Guild of America pseudonym Alan Smithee. He was famous for straight dramas and, especially, crime films. The most acclaimed movie he did after 'Cool Hand Luke' was The Pope of Greenwich Village with Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, and Daryl Hannah.
He made his last film, the independent drama My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, in 1991.
In 1993, Rosenberg became a teacher at the American Film Institute. Among his students were those who would go on to make names for themselves: Todd Field, Darren Aronofsky, Mark Waters, Scott Silver, Doug Ellin and Rob Schmidt.
Rosenberg died in 2007 of a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was survived by his wife, Margot Pohoryles, whom he had met at NYU; son Benjamin Rosenberg, a first assistant director; as well as four grandchildren.
His students' films The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Alphabet Killer, and The Wrestler that were released in 2008 were dedicated in memory of him.
Cool Hand Luke
Stuart Rosenberg
Paul Newman, George Kennedy
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.
Cool Hand Luke
A Small Rebellion
Stuart Rosenberg
Simone Signoret, George Maharis
An angry young man of the theatre, who has written a play that could be a hit, if actress Sara Lescaut agrees to play the lead. Kolinos, however, is determined not to alter one word of his script to make it a more commercial vehicle.
A Small Rebellion
The Pope of Greenwich Village
Stuart Rosenberg
Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke
Charlie and his troublesome cousin Paulie decide to steal $150000 in order to back a "sure thing" race horse that Paulie has inside information on. The aftermath of the robbery gets them into serious trouble with the local Mafia boss and the corrupt New York City police department.
The Pope of Greenwich Village
The Drowning Pool
Stuart Rosenberg
Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward
Harper is brought to Louisiana to investigate an attempted blackmail scheme. He soon finds out that it involves an old flame of his and her daughter. He eventually finds himself caught in a power struggle between the matriarch of the family and a greedy oil baron, who wants their property. Poor Harper! Things are not as straight-forward as they initially appeared.
The Drowning Pool
The Laughing Policeman
Stuart Rosenberg
Walter Matthau, Bruce Dern
When a gunman opens fire on a crowded city bus in San Francisco, Detective Dave Evans is killed, along with the man he'd been following in relation to a murder. Evans' partner, Sgt. Jake Martin, becomes obsessed with solving the case.
The Laughing Policeman
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Stuart Rosenberg
Scott Glenn, Kate Capshaw
H.D. Dalton is a champion rodeo rider whose career is ruined after being gored by a bull. He returns home to discover things have drastically changed -- the family farm has been abandoned, his old girlfriend Jolie is a now a widowed mother, and his sister Cheryl has put his father in a nursing home.
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
The Amityville Horror
Stuart Rosenberg
James Brolin, Margot Kidder
George Lutz and his wife Kathleen move into their Long Island dream house with their children only for their lives to be turned into a hellish nightmare. The legacy of a murder committed in the house gradually affects the family and a priest is brought in to try and exorcise the demonic presence from their home.
The Amityville Horror
The April Fools
Stuart Rosenberg
Jack Lemmon, Catherine Deneuve
Newly-promoted if none too happily married Howard Brubaker leaves a rowdy company party early with the stunning Catherine, whom it turns out is herself unhappily married — to the boss. They spend an innocent night in New York becoming more and more attracted to each other, so that when Catherine announces she intends to leave her husband and return to Paris Howard asks to go along too.
The April Fools
Love and Bullets
Stuart Rosenberg
Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland
Jackie Pruit is the girlfriend of notorious gangster Joe Bomposa. When it looks as if Bomposa's goons are threatening Jackie's life, the FBI moves in to protect her, hoping that she'll have incriminating evidence. Veteran agent Charlie Congers is assigned to watch over Jackie, and while it soon becomes apparent that she knows almost nothing about Bomposa that would be of any use to the FBI, he falls in love with her. Bomposa decides it would be more convenient to have Jackie out of the way, ordering her to be executed. Bomposa's henchmen slip through FBI security and murder her, but now they have to answer the angry and vengeful Congers.
Love and Bullets
WUSA
Stuart Rosenberg
Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward
Rheinhardt, a cynical drifter, gets a job as an announcer for right-wing radio station WUSA in New Orleans. Rheinhardt is content to parrot WUSA's reactionary editorial stance on the air, even if he doesn't agree with it. Rheinhardt finds his cynical detachment challenged by a lady friend, Geraldine, and by Rainey, a neighbour and troubled idealist who becomes aware of WUSA's sinister, hidden purpose. And when events start spinning out of control, even Rheinhardt finds he must take a stand.
WUSA