American choreographer Jerome Robbins was BOTD in 1918. Born in New York to Russian-Jewish immigrants, he studied music and dance as a child, abandoning a chemistry degree at New York University to pursue a career as a dancer. In 1940, he became a soloist for the Ballet Theater, notably starring in a revival of Petrouchka, a role originated by his hero Vaslav Nijinsky. In 1944, he choreographed his first major work, the ballet Fancy Free, a dance-drama about three soldiers on shore leave in New York City, with a score by Leonard Bernstein. He and Bernstein later developed the piece into the successful Broadway musical On the Town, earning praise for his fusion of classical ballet with contemporary dance. In 1948, he joined the New York City Ballet, becoming the company’s associate artistic director under George Balanchine and creating the ballets The Cage, Afternoon of a Faun and The Concert. He dominated 1950s Broadway as the choreographer for hit musicals Billion Dollar Baby, High Button Shoes, Call Me Madam, The King and I, The Pajama Game and a musical version of Peter Pan. Stratospheric success followed in 1957 as the director and choreographer of West Side Story, a contemporary inter-racial version of Shakespeare‘s Romeo & Juliet with music by Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Arthur Laurents. Broadway audiences were dazzled by Robbins’ tense, sexualised and athletic choreography, which won him a Tony Award. A successful film version followed in 1961, winning 10 Oscars including Best Picture, best director for Robbins (shared with Robert Wise) and a special award for Robbins’ choreography. He went on to direct and choreograph Gypsy, a blackly comic portrait of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her domineering stage mother, and the Jewish historical musical Fiddler on the Roof. He also took over the direction of flailing Broadway shows A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Funny Girl, turning both productions into hits. After the success of Fiddler, he returned to ballet, founding his own touring dance company, returning to the New York City Ballet in 1972, which he led until his retirement in 1990. A lifelong bachelor, he had a number of affairs with men and women, including actors Montgomery Clift and Buzz Miller, though remained closeted (and ambivalent) about his bisexuality throughout his life. Hailed as one of the 20th century’s leading choreographers, he received a Kennedy Center Honor, the National Medal of Arts, a Commander of the Order of Arts, a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Honorary Membership of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He died in 1998, aged 79. After Robbins’ death, biographers revealed that he had been investigated by the House American Activities Committee for three years, who threatened to expose his homosexuality and destroy his career unless he named Communist sympathisers. He eventually named 10 colleagues, who were subsequently blacklisted.