Happy Birthday, Stuart Rosenberg! Born today in 1927, this American film and television director's early television success led him to a thriving career in feature films.
He was famous for straight dramas and, especially, crime films. However, he is most noted for his work with Paul Newman.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rosenberg. years later, studied Irish literature at New York University in Manhattan. While there, he began working as an apprentice film editor while in graduate school.
After advancing to film editor, Rosenberg began directing with episodes of a syndicated television series. This was the groundbreaking American black and white crime drama television series Decoy (1957–1959).
Starring American actress Beverly Garland as an undercover police woman, it was the first police series on American television built around a female protagonist.
Over the next two years, Rosenberg directed fifteen episodes of the ABC's American black and white police drama crime series Naked City (1958–1963). The program, like Decoy, was shot in New York City, New York.
Meanwhile, Rosenberg was then hired to direct his first film. This was the 1960 American black and white gangster drama/crime film 'Murder, Inc.', starring Peter Falk.
However, a strike by both the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild resulted in his leaving the film and being replaced by its producer. This was American film producer and director Burt Balaban.
Afterwards, Rosenberg returned to television. His most notable shows that he had worked on included Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1965), Rawhide (1959 –1965), and The Untouchables (1959–1963), of which Rosenberg directed fifteen episodes.
In the late 1960s, Rosenberg made his major-studio debut in directing the film of which he is best known. This was the 1967 American Technicolor drama/crime film 'Cool Hand Luke'.
The following year, 'Cool Hand Luke' received one Oscar win. This was for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for George Kennedy as Dragline, the leader of the inmates. This occurred at the 40th Academy Awards in mid-April 1968.
The film has been cited by Roger Ebert as an anti-establishment film which was shot during the time of emerging popular opposition to the Vietnam War.
Like two of his legendary contemporaries from the same generation, Sidney Lumet and Sydney Pollack, the gifted Rosenberg cut his chops exhaustively in television in the late 1950s and early to mid-1960s. This was prior to embarking on big-screen assignments.
The parallels end, however, when one realizes that the individual titles filmed by Rosenberg far superseded his own recognition as an "above the marquee name."
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.
Most notably, these included Darren Aronofsky, Mark Waters, Todd Field, Scott Silver, Doug Ellin, and Rob Schmidt.
In 2005, the United States Library of Congress selected 'Cool Hand Luke' for the National Film Registry, considering it to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The quotation used by the prison warden Captain (Strother Martin) in the film, which begins with "What we've got here is failure to communicate", was ranked in at #11 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Quotes list.
Among his credits, Rosenberg is also known for directing 'Voyage of the Damned' (1978), 'The Amityville Horror' (1979), and 'The Pope of Greenwich Village' (1984).
Such is merely a reflection on Rosenberg's aptitude as a competent and efficient cinematic craftsperson and his ability to lose himself in individual assignments -- an approach that typically met with great critical success.
At the same time, however, during his career, Rosenberg had turned out a handful of embarrassing turkeys, films far, far beneath his talents, that -- despite meeting everything from financial calamity to number-one box office triumph -- probably would have been far better for his long-term image if buried by the studios and forgotten.
Rosenberg had been active from 1949–1991.
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