Donald O'Connor

At 78 years old, Donald O'Connor has this physical status:

Donald David Dixon (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American actor, dancer, and singer.

He came to prominence in a string of films in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. In the film Singin' in the Rain (1952), for which O'Connor was given a Golden Globe, he was one of his best-known roles.

He has also received a Primetime Emmy Award from four nominations and has received two other actors on the Hollywood Walk of Fame throughout his career.

Early years

Despite the fact that Danville, Illinois, was his hometown, O'Connor was the 200th child born in Chicago's St. Elizabeth Hospital. Both of his parents had trouble determining where and when O'Connor was born, due to the family's frequent travel as a Valiant team. Effie Irene (née Crane) and John Edward "Chuck" O'Connor, his parents, were vaudeville entertainers; she was a bareback rider and acrobat, and he was a circus strongman and acrobat. His father was from Ireland.

"I was about 13 months old," O'Connor told me when I first started dancing, they'd hold me up by the back of my neck, and they'd start the music, and I'd dance. You could do that with any child, but I got paid for it."

When O'Connor was only two years old, he and his seven-year-old sister, Arlene, were struck by a car while crossing the street outside a theater in Hartford, Connecticut; Donald survived, but his sister did not; Arlene was killed. His father died of a heart attack while dancing on stage in Brockton, Massachusetts, just a few weeks later. Billy died a decade later from scarlet fever, and his eldest sibling Jack died from alcoholism in 1959. During childbirth, his three other siblings died. "I loved my childhood, and it's now haunting," O'Connor said.

Due to these tragedies, O'Connor's mother was extremely concerned with her youngest son, who was still not allowed to cross the street on his own until he turned 13. Effie also stopped O'Connor from learning dangerous dance techniques and made sure she knew where he was when he wasn't performing. She was a common stage mother, with her husband often hitting him.

"She wanted me to be as good as she possibly could be," O'Connor later said of Effie. She did her best."

Personal life

O'Connor was married twice and had four children. When he was 18 and she was 20, he married Gwendolyn Carter in 1944. They married in Tijuana. Donna and Joe had one child together, and they had one child. In 1954, the couple divorced. Carter abused O'Connor emotionally during her nine-year marriage, frustrated because she didn't have an acting career. Carter received possession of their house and custody of their daughter in the divorce. According to reports at the time the couple split, O'Connor was left with just the dog and sought the assistance of several psychiatrists. Carter remarried in 1955 to actor Dan Dailey. In 1956, O'Connor married actress Gloria Noble, and they were married together until his death in 2003. They had three children, and their son Donald Frederick Frederick, daughter Alicia, and son Kevin. Noble died in 2013.

Donald was honoured with a retrospective at Lincoln Center in New York and an honorary degree from Boston University. He preferred to keep much of his philanthropy work private. Several of the tasks included work with the US Army and Red Cross. He founded the Donald O'Connor Alcoholism Counseling Scholarship.

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Career

O'Connor and his mother and elder brother Jack were both cast members of a dance group. They were billed as the O'Connor Family, the Royal Family of Vaudeville. They toured the country, performing, dancing, comedy, and acting. "Our entire family was involved in an act," he says. "We didn't have the right to choose," says the performer; if you were in the family, you were in the act. I loved vaping. The live audiences gave rise to a certain spontaneity."

When they weren't touring, they stayed with O'Connor's Uncle Bill in Danville, Illinois. O'Connor did not go to school.

"I learned two dance routines," he later said. I looked like the world's best dancer. I did triple wings and everything else. However, I had never had formal instruction. So, when I first stepped into film and started to work with all those talented dancers, I had a rough time. Since I didn't have no formal education, I couldn't remember any routines. I was 15 years old at the age of 15, and from 15 to 22, I had to learn to dance. And that's a long time for someone to start dancing seriously, professionally."

O'Connor started appearing in theaters in 1937, making his debut in Melody for Two as his family's guest. He appeared on Columbia's It Can't Last Forever (1937).

O'Connor has signed a O'Connor has also signed a O'Connor has been working in Paraguay. Fred MacMurray's character as a boy was seen in Men with Wings (1938), directed by William Wellman. He was billed fifth in Sing You Sinners (1938) as Bing Crosby's and MacMurray's younger brother.

He was in Sons of the Legion (1938), and took the lead in a B-picture, Tom Sawyer, Detective (1938), playing Huckleberry Finn opposite Billy Cook's Tom Sawyer. In both Boy Trouble (1939) and Unmarried (1939), O'Connor third appeared as a young boy in the latter case.

With Betty Grable, O'Connor was billed fourth in Million Dollar Legs (1939). In Beau Geste (1939), directed by Wellman, Gary Cooper as a young boy.

Night Work (1939) was a sequel to Boy Trouble, and O'Connor was in Death of a Champion (1939).

In On Your Toes (1939), Eddie Albert appeared in Warner Bros as a youth. He then returned to his family's role in vain deville for two years.

O'Connor began with Universal Pictures for $200 a week in 1941, where he began with What's Cookin'? (1942), A low-budget musical starring Gloria Jean and Peggy Ryan of The Andrews Sisters, Gloria Jean and Peggy Ryan. The film was well-known, and Universal began to produce O'Connor and Ryan as their own interpretation of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.

He, Ryan, and the Andrews Sisters were in Private Buckaroo (1942) and Give Out, Sisters (1942), before he appeared in four films: Get It! Love (1943), which showed O'Connor to such good advantage that he became the film's focal point. (1943). Universal boosted the "B" film to "A" status, earning it a $50,000 budget.

With Susanna Foster (1943), O'Connor and Ryan were in Top Man (1943), and Chip Off the Old Block (1944) with Ann Blyth. In Universal's all-star Follow the Boys (1944), O'Connor and Ryan had cameos.

O'Connor was drafted into the United States Army during World War II, on his 18th birthday in August 1943. Universal already had four O'Connor films completed before he announced for induction on February 6, 1944. By that time, they had rushed production to a halt; The Merry Monahans (1944), with Blyth and Jack Oakie; Bowery to Broadway (1945), another all-star effort in which O'Connor appeared; Patrick the Great (1945).

O'Connor's screen presence remained steady throughout the two years he was overseas with Special Services in the United States Army Air Forces, despite a backlog of seven features and delayed openings.

Universal didn't know what to do with their teen star turned young adult for one year. O'Connor was almost broke. Universal-International, a 1946 merger, had reorganized the studio. In Something in the Wind (1947), the studio paired O'Connor against Deanna Durbin, the studio's best female actress.

He starred in Are You with It?

"I wasn't really a dancer or a good dancer until I got older," he said later. "I could do those wings and stuff, and I looked really good, but it was really difficult for me to decide on — pick up steps." It was just oh — so laborious for me. I didn't have a short cut like the other dancers.

O'Connor was the leading role in Francis, the story of a soldier who was befriended by a talking mule in 1949. Arthur Lubin's film was a huge success. As a result, his musical career was continually interrupted by the production of one Francis film per year until 1955. Later, O'Connor said that the films were "really fun to make." Well, they were actually quite challenging. In order to convince the audience that the mule could talk, I had to play straight."

O'Connor followed the first Francis with comedies: Curtain Call at Cactus Creek (1950), The Milkman (1950), and Double Crossbones (1951).

He was a big hit at the Races in 1949. He signed a new Universal Film A year for four years in February 1951, allowing him to work outside of the studio.

In the Rain (1952) at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, O'Connor was given the opportunity to perform Cosmo the piano player in Singin'. He has been given the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. The film featured his well-known version of "Make 'Em Laugh" which he choreographed with support from the assistant dancers and his brother.

"All hoofers dance from the waist down," O'Connor said. And I had to learn to dance from the waist up. "I became what's known as a total dancer" later in life.

Due to injuries and exhaustion, he was forced to go to the hospital during the manufacture of Singin' in the Rain.

"I thought I'd really have to kill myself," O'Connor said.

O'Connor made a three-picture contract with In 1952, the two companies were partners in a three-picture agreement.

He returned to Universal for Francis Goes to West Point (1952) before returning to MGM for I Love Melvin (1953), a musical with Debbie Reynolds.

He started appearing on television regularly. According to one review published in 1952, he was dubbed "1952's new star." He has the flexibility of a Jimmy Durante and the youthful effervescence of youth, which is reflected in the movie bred. He can dance, he can sing, he can perform, and he can act, but not with the finesse of a veteran."

In Call Me Madam (1953) at 20th Century Fox, he praised Ethel Merman, who later said that the film featured his best dancing.

After Francis Covers the Big Town (1953), Universal put O'Connor in a musical in colour, Walking My Baby Back Home (1953) with Janet Leigh.

He appeared in Francis Joins the WACS (1954), Tim Donahue, 19th century Fox all-star musical That's No Business Like Show Business (1954), which also starred Irving Berlin's music and starred with Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe (O'Connor's on screen love interest), Dan Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor, and Johnnie Ray.

In White Christmas (1954), he was supposed to be Bing Crosby's partner. O'Connor was unemployed due to an illness passed by the mule and was replaced in the film by Danny Kaye.

He emceed the 1954 Oscars.

He appeared on The Donald O'Connor Show (1954–55) for one season. O'Connor appeared on NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour as a regular host.

O'Connor was reluctant to continue making Francis films but decided to Francis in the Navy (1955). Arthur Lubin, the series's producer, later discovered that O'Connor "got very difficult" to work with after a while. "He'd sit in his dressing room and gaze into space, and I suspect he had issues at home."

After 13 years with Universal, Francis in the Navy was Donald O'Connor's last film. The studio owners gave him a camera and 14 rolls of film at a farewell luncheon. After all the millions of dollars he had earned for the studio, O'Connor was stunned at the insignificance of the gift, and in later life, he wondered, "What can I say about these people?"

At Anything Goes (1956) at O'Connor and Bing Crosby united on Anything Goes (1956) at In 2005, O'Connor played Buster Keaton, a sequel to The Buster Keaton Story (1957), in which O'Connor had the title role.

In 1956, the Brussels Symphony Orchestra performed some of his composition, and in 1956 he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a premiere of his first symphony, Reflections d'Un Comique.

In 1957, he hosted a color television special on NBC, one of the first color television programs to be preserved on a color kinescope; an excerpt of the telecast was included in NBC's 50th anniversary special in 1976.

He began acting on programs such as Playhouse 90, The DuPont Show of the Month, and The Red Skelton Hour in the late 1950s. However, his attention shifted to touring live shows.

In Cry for Happiness (1961) for Columbia, O'Connor joined Glenn Ford in Cry for Happiness (1961) for MGM, where he appeared in The Wonders of Aladdin (1961) for MGM.

He subsequently concentrated on theatre work and his nightclub act, performing in Las Vegas. For the first time in ten years, he appeared in Universal to make the Sandra Dee comedy That Funny Feeling (1965).

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Vacation Playhouse, ABC Stage 67, and The Jackie Gleason Exhibition were among his programs. He has appeared in several Little Me productions as well.

In 1968, O'Connor hosted The Donald O'Connor Show, a syndicated talk show. The programme was postponed due to the dancer's "too political," and O'Connor's return to the studio had to be reprimanded.

He began using nitroglycerin pills prior to shows in order to ensure he had the stamina to finish them. In 1971, he had a heart attack, prompting him to stop taking the medication.

He appeared on stage, especially in Las Vegas, when he appeared in a television production of Li'l Abner (1971) and went on to perform on stage.

He appeared on episodes of The Girl with Something More, Ellery Queen, The Bionic Woman, and Hunter.

After being hospitalized for three months after collapsing in 1978, O'Connor seemed to have recovered his depression. He wrote letters to his family and relatives describing how his life had "completely changed." The dancer was ill from the waist down but regenerated by physical therapy. The letters chronicle the lives of other patients, notably a 30-year-old man who was completely immobilized.

In each letter, it was said, "I won't take anything I have for granted again."

O'Connor praised the patients he encountered and thanked God for his help.

His career was boosted when he hosted the Academy Awards, earning him two Primetime Emmy nominations.

In 1981 film Ragtime, he appeared as a gaslight-era entertainer, with similar encore appearances by James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. It was his first feature film role in 16 years.

In 1981, O'Connor appeared in the short-lived Bring Back Birdie on Broadway. He was in I Ought to Be in Photographs in Los Angeles the previous year.

Cap'n Andy was a part of the showboat revival in 1988 (1983), and he continued to tour in a variety of shows and performances.

In 1985, he said, "I've been on the road forever," he said, "I'd like another film or a television series, but I won't play an old man." Art Carney is about my age and he's making a living out of being old. I'm still singing and dancing. I'm not old."

O'Connor was in the films Pandemonium (1982), A Mouse, a Mystery (1988), and A Time to Remember (1988).

He bought a theatre, the Donald O'Connor Theatre, and with his children, he would perform in it. In a 1989 interview, he said, "There's an element out there that wants to be entertained" and "they can't find this sort of thing." Well, I'd say I wear well. I sing, I dance, and I do comedy. I'm not threatening. The more you learn in a circus family, the more money you earn. I can do straight comedy without the song and dance; I can do all sorts of combinations. Whatever's on hand, I'll fit into it."

He had heart disease and underwent successful quadruple-bypass surgery in 1990.

O'Connor made film and television appearances into the 1990s, including the Robin Williams film Toys (1992) as the president of a toy-making firm. He performed live.

He appeared in Murder, She Wrote, Tales from the Crypt, The Nanny, and Frasier (1994), and Father Frost (1996).

"I never set out to be a celebrity," he said in 1992. Since actors wear out, I'm working on being a quasar. Quasars have existed for as long as human history has existed. I'm looking forward to the scenes where I die and they talk about me for the remainder of the film.

On the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars, he was awarded a Golden Palm Star in 1998.

Out to Sea, O'Connor's last film film, was the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy in which he appeared as a dance host on a cruise ship. Well into 2003, O'Connor was still making public appearances. "About 32 weeks a year," he said, going on the road "about 32 weeks a year." I do my show work and I work in night clubs and stuff like that. So I don't dance anymore, but I do enough to remind people that my legs can still be moved."

The most notable feature of O'Connor's dancing style was its athleticism, for which he had few rivals. Audiences found the most engaging, but it was also his boyish charm that maintained his appeal throughout his career. O'Connor closely resembled Mickey Rooney's clever alec, fast-talking character in his early Universal films. MGM cultivated a much more sympathetic sidekick persona for Singin' in the Rain, but O'Connor retained O'Connor's signature image.

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