Theatre & dance / Film & TV
Robert Moore
1927–1984 · stage, film and television director, actor
Detroit-born director of the landmark The Boys in the Band (1968), five-time Tony nominee and Neil Simon's frequent collaborator.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
New York City, New York
aged 57- Detroit years
- 1927–1940s
- Field
- Theatre & dance, Film & TV
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Moore was born in Detroit and trained at the drama department of the Catholic University of America in Washington. His 1968 off-Broadway staging of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band, one of the first mainstream plays to portray gay men candidly, won him a Drama Desk Award and made his name. He went on to direct Broadway hits including Promises, Promises, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Deathtrap, They're Playing Our Song and Woman of the Year, earning five Tony nominations, and he made three plays and three films with Neil Simon, among them the detective spoofs Murder by Death and The Cheap Detective. He also directed 26 episodes of Rhoda and acted on screen, including opposite Liza Minnelli in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. He died of AIDS-related pneumonia in New York in 1984.
Highlights
- Directed The Boys in the Band (1968); Drama Desk Award
- Five Tony nominations for direction, including Deathtrap and They're Playing Our Song
- Directed Neil Simon's Murder by Death (1976) and The Cheap Detective (1978)
- Directed 26 episodes of the sitcom Rhoda