Israel "Ulu" Grosbard (January 9, 1929 – March 19, 2012) was a Belgian-born, naturalized American theater and film director and film producer. Born in Antwerp, Grosbard emigrated to Havana with his family in 1942. In 1948, they moved to the United States, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Chicago. He studied then at the Yale School of Drama for one year before joining the United States Army, and he became a naturalized citizen in 1954. Grosbard gravitated towards theatre when he relocated to New York City in the early 1960s. After directing The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker off-Broadway, he earned his first Broadway credit with The Subject Was Roses, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 1964. That same year he won the Obie Award for Best Direction and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play for an off-Broadway revival of the Arthur Miller play A View from the Bridge, for which Dustin Hoffman served as stage manager and assistant director. Grosbard's additional Broadway credits include Miller's The Price; David Mamet's American Buffalo, which earned him Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations; Woody Allen's The Floating Light Bulb; and a revival of Paddy Chayefsky's The Tenth Man. In Hollywood, Grosbard worked as an assistant director on Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story, The Hustler, The Miracle Worker, and The Pawnbroker before helming the screen adaptation of The Subject Was Roses on his own. Additional screen credits include Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? and Straight Time, both with Dustin Hoffman; True Confessions and Falling in Love, both with Robert De Niro; Georgia for which he won the Grand Prix des Amériques at the Montréal World Film Festival; and The Deep End of the Ocean. Grosbard has been married to actress Rose Gregorio since 1965. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ulu Grosbard, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Read moreShow less
Biography from TMDB.
- January 9, 1929
- March 19, 2012 (aged 83)
- Antwerp, Belgium
- Director and producer
- 10 on MovieCove
What are Ulu Grosbard's films like?
Across their 7 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Bonds and Self.
Genres
Their MovieCove films by primary genre. The badge is the typical Midcredits score of the genre's films, the median percentile; an up arrow marks a genre at or above their average across these genres.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 7
Light 1 · Serious 1 · Dark 5
Grounded 6 · Stylized 1 · Heightened 0
Gentle 0 · Charged 4 · Intense 3
Steady 3 · Shifting 4 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 6 · Some laughs 1 · Funny 0
Slow burn 6 · Even-paced 1 · Relentless 0
Casual 3 · Engaged 4 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 0 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 6
Resolved 3 · Open-ended 3 · Ambiguous 1
Moods and endings
- Bittersweet5
- Tragic1
- Ambiguous1
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Ulu Grosbard's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 3 of their 10 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.
Subscription and free streaming for Ulu Grosbard's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
10 credits, 10 with a MovieCove page; 3 appearances as themselves are hidden until asked for.
Midcredits score: 55th percentile of all films
Georgia(1995)
Midcredits score: 60th percentile of all films
Falling in Love(1984)
Midcredits score: 61st percentile of all films
True Confessions(1981)
Midcredits score: 51st percentile of all films
Straight Time(1978)
Midcredits score: 92nd percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 29th percentile of all films
The Subject Was Roses(1968)
Midcredits score: 80th percentile of all films
The Pawnbroker(1964)
Midcredits score: 94th percentile of all films
The Miracle Worker(1962)
Midcredits score: 98th percentile of all films
Splendor in the Grass(1961)
Midcredits score: 95th percentile of all films
Career shape
A full career of 10 titles from 1961 to 1999.
Biggest box office
The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
Highest rated
Straight Time (1978)
Most popular right now
The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do Ulu Grosbard's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 71st percentile, the median of all 10; across their 7 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 62nd percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up5
- 50th to 74th4
- 25th to 49th1
Shape of the crowd
6 of their 10 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Universally Loved3
- Crowd Pleaser6
- Mixed1
Reviewers score the atmosphere 73/100 and the pacing 34/100 in their films, across 7 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Is Ulu Grosbard's work okay for kids?
Across a limited sample of up to 4 MovieCove titles with content scores.
Severity 0–100 from the Content Guide. Categories with under 10 votes on a title are not counted.
Who does Ulu Grosbard work with?
People who share at least 2 of Ulu Grosbard's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Robert De Niro shares the most, 2.
Actors
- Robert De NiroShared titles: Falling in Love (1984), True Confessions (1981)See all 2 shared titles with Robert De Niro
- Rose GregorioShared titles: True Confessions (1981), Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971)See all 2 shared titles with Rose Gregorio
- Dustin HoffmanShared titles: Straight Time (1978), Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971)See all 2 shared titles with Dustin Hoffman
Cinematographers
- Owen RoizmanShared titles: True Confessions (1981), Straight Time (1978)See all 2 shared titles with Owen Roizman
