Gene Kelly

At 83 years old, Gene Kelly has this physical status:

Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912-1996) was an American-Irish dancer, actor on film, stage, and television, film producer, screenwriter, and choreographer.

He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his attractive appearance, and the likable characters he portrayed on film. Anchors Aweigh (1951), An American in Paris (1949), On the Town (1949), and Singin' in the Rain (1952), he appeared in musical films until they fell out of favor in the late 1950s.

He appeared in, choreographed, or co-directed some of the best-regarded musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, including Judy Garland in For Me and My Gal (1942), and It's Always Fair Weather (1955), among other things.

Inherit the Wind (1960) and What a Way to Go: Later, he appeared in two films outside of the musical genre: Inherit the Wind (1960) and What a Way to Go! (1964) Ancestry (1964)

Kelly produced films without a collaborator (in some of which he appeared), including Hello, Dolly! (1969), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, a number of advances in Hollywood influenced the Hollywood musical, and he is credited with almost making the ballet form commercially available to film audiences.

In 1952, Kelly was given an Academy Award for his lifetime, and the same year An American in Paris received six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

He received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors (1982) and the American Film Institute.

The American Film Institute ranked him as the 15th greatest male screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema in 1999.

Early life

Kelly was born in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood. He was James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman, and his partner, Harriet Catherine Curran. His father was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, to an Irish Canadian family. His maternal grandfather, who was from Derry, Ireland, was a German immigrant, and his maternal grandmother was of German descent. Kelly's mother insisted that his brother James and his sister James beenrolled in dance lessons when he was eight years old. Both rebelled when Kelly told her: "We didn't like it so much and were regularly involved in fistfights with the neighborhood boys who called us sissies." "I didn't dance again until I was 15 years old." His childhood dream was to play shortstop for the hometown Pittsburgh Pirates for one week.

By the time he began to dance, he was an accomplished athlete and was able to defend himself. He attended St. Raphael Elementary School in Pittsburgh's Morningside neighborhood and graduated from Peabody High School at age 16. He started attending Pennsylvania State College as a journalist, but after the 1929 disaster, he dropped out of school and found work in order to support his family financially. Fred, his younger brother, competed for prizes in local talent competitions, so he developed dance routines. They have appeared in local nightclubs.

Kelly enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to study economics in 1931, becoming a member of Theta Kappa Phi after merging with Phi Kappa). He became interested in Cap and Gown Club, which staged original musical performances at the university. After graduating in 1933, he continued to be involved with the Cap and Gown Club, serving as the director from 1934 to 1938. Kelly was accepted into the University of Pittsburgh Law School.

In Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, his family owned a dance studio. They renamed it Gene Kelly Studio of the Dance in 1932 and opened a second location in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1933. During his undergraduate and law-student years at Pitt, Kelly worked as a tutor at the studio. He was invited by the Beth Shalom Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 1931 to teach dance and to stage the annual Kermesse. Kelly was a hit in the area, with the company being held for seven years before his departure for New York.

Kelly later decided to work as both a dance instructor and full-time entertainer, so he dropped out of law school after two months. He stayed concentrated on learning, and later said: "With time, I became dissatisfied with teaching because the ratio of girls to boys was more than one." After successfully inherited and developed the family's dance-school company, he moved to New York City in 1937 in search of a choreographer. In 1940, Kelly returned to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to his family's home at 7514 Kensington Street, where he appeared as a dramatic actor.

Personal life

Blair and he held weekly parties at their Beverly Hills home, and they often played an intensely competitive and physical version of charades, dubbed "The Game."

His papers are on display at Boston University's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.

Kelly was granted Irish citizenship under Ireland's Citizenship by Foreign Birth scheme, but it was late in life. Patricia Ward Kelly, his wife, initiated the petition on behalf of his husband.

The actor's Beverly Hills mansion caught fire on December 22, 1983. The tree's wiring was defective, according to the company. His family and pets were able to flee, but he had a burned hand.

Kelly has married three times. In 1941, he married actress Betsy Blair. Kerry (b. ) was their one child. In April 1957, it was divorced (which occurred in 1942) and divorced.

Kelly married Jeanne Coyne, who had previously married Stanley Donen between 1948 and 1951, in 1960. Timothy (b.) Kelly and Coyne had two children. Bridget (b. 1962) and Bridget (b. b.). 1964 (includes 1964). This marriage lasted until Coyne died in 1973.

Kelly married Patricia Ward in 1990 (when he was 77 and she was 30 years old). They married six years ago, but they haven't remarried.

Kelly was a lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party. His period of greatest fame coincided with the McCarthy period in the United States. In 1947, he was a member of the First Amendment Task, the Hollywood delegation of the Hollywood delegation that travelled to Washington to protest the first official hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Betsy Blair, Blair's first wife, was accused of being a communist sympathizer, and United Artists, which had offered Blair a place in Marty (1955), argued against pulling her under pressure from the American Legion, but MGM's influence on Artists was successfully threatened until his wife was returned to the role. On several occasions, he used his position on the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America West to mediate tensions between unions and the Hollywood studios.

He was born as a Roman Catholic and a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California. However, after being dissatisfied by the Roman Catholic Church's support for Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, he formally ended his links with the church in September 1939. This break was triggered in part by a trip to Mexico, where Kelly became convinced that the church had failed to serve the poor in the country. Kelly became an agnostic after being barred from the Catholic Church, as he had previously described himself.

Source

Stage career

Kelly returned to Pittsburgh in April 1938 for his first job as a choreographer with the Charles Gaynor musical revue Hold Your Hats at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Kelly appeared in six of the sketches, one of which, La cumparsita, became the basis for an extended Spanish number in Anchors Aweigh eight years later.

In November 1938, his first Broadway appearance was as a dancer in Cole Porter's Leave It to Me, as the American ambassador's secretary who helps Mary Martin, who sings "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." He had been recruited by Robert Alton, who had staged a show at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, where he was captivated by Kelly's teaching skills. When Alton began to choreograph the musical One for the Money, he recruited Kelly to perform, sing, and dance in eight routines. He was selected for a musical revue, One for the Money, directed by actress Katharine Cornell, who was known for finding and recruiting talented young actors in 1939.

Kelly's first big breakthrough came in The Time of Your Life, the Pulitzer Prize-winning series that opened in 1939, in which he performed to his own choreography for the first time on Broadway. He received his first assignment as a Broadway choreographer for Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe in the same year. Betsy Blair, a cast member, began dating him, and the couple married on October 16, 1941.

He was a lead actor in Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey in 1940, who was later choreographed by Robert Alton. This role launched him to fame. "I don't believe in conformity to any school of dancing," he told reporters during its run. I create what the drama and the music demand. Although I'm a hundred percent committed to ballet, I only use what I can adapt to my own use. "I never let technique get in the way of mood or continuity." His coworkers remarked on his unfavorability of rehearsal and hard work at this time. "I watched him rehearsing, and it seemed to me that there was no room for improvement." Van Johnson, who appeared in Pal Joey, wrote: However, he wasn't completely happy. It was midnight, and we had been rehearsing since 8 a.m. on the morning. I was strolling down the long flight of stairs when I heard staccato steps coming from the stage. I could imagine only a single lamp on fire. A figure was dancing under it, a figure... Generic means "famous."

As Hollywood resumed, Kelly was in no hurry to leave New York. He eventually signed with David O. Selznick, deciding to go to Hollywood at the end of his Pal Joey pledge in October 1941. He also managed to fit in choreographing the stage production of Best Foot Forward prior to his employment.

Film career

Selznick's first motion picture, For Me and My Gal (1942) starring Judy Garland, cost half of Kelly's contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Kelly said he was "appalled" at the sight of myself blown up 20 times. "I had the feeling that I was a complete loser," I had a nagging suspicion. Me and My Gal performed well, and MGM's Arthur Freed picked up the other half of Kelly's deal. Pilot No. 1 was born in a B movie drama. He took the male lead in Cole Porter's Du Barry Was a Lady (1943), a part originally intended for Ann Sothern) and a female (1944) starring Lucille Ball. Thousands Cheer (1943), in which he performed a mock-love dance with a mop, was his first chance to dance to his own choreography. In Pilot No. 1, an unexpected occurrence. Kelly, the fifth generation, was the antagonist.

When MGM lent him to Columbia to work with Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl (1944), a film that foreshadowed the best of his future film, he had a major breakthrough as a dancer on film. He crafted a memorable routine based on his own reflection. Despite this, critic Manny Farber was compelled to celebrate Kelly's "attitude," "clarity," and "feeling" as an actor while concluding, "the two things he does least well — singing and dancing — are what he is taught most often to do."

MGM gave him a free hand to create a variety of dance routines, including duets with co-star Frank Sinatra and Jerry Mouse's opulent animated dance, which was supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in Kelly's forthcoming film Anchors Aweigh (1945). Farber was able to completely change Kelly's assessment of her abilities after that success. "Kelly is the most exciting dancer to appear in Hollywood films," says Farber, who supports the film. Anchors Aweigh became one of 1945's most popular films, and Kelly was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In "The Babbitt and the Bromide" challenge dance routine, Koelly worked with Fred Astaire, who was born in 1944 but later postponed for release — for whom he had the highest admiration.

By the United States, Kelly was barred from the draft in 1940. The Selective Service System was modified to accommodate his employees, but it was not eligible for induction in October 1944, after the head of the Selective Service in New York City appealed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt personally supported the appeal. He was drafted into the armed forces a month later and then sent to the United States Navy at his behest, and at his request, he was transferred to the US Navy. He served in the United States for 18 years. As a lieutenant, junior grade, the Naval Air Service was sent as lieutenant, junior class. He was stationed in Washington, D.C., where he was involved in writing and directing a number of documentaries, and this ignited his interest in filmmaking. In 1946, he was released.

MGM had no planned and used him in a boring, black-and-white film called Life in a Big Way (1947). The film was considered so weak that the studio requested Kelly to produce and implement a sequence of dance routines; they loved his ability to carry out such assignments. This resulted in a lead role in his forthcoming film, as well as director Vincente Minnelli's S.N. film version. The Pirate (1948), by Behrman's Behrman, with Cole Porter's songs as the lead opposite Garland. Kelly's athleticism was given the full rein. In a virtuoso dance routine, Kelly's work with the Nicholas Brothers—the best black dancers of their day. The film, which is now regarded as a masterpiece, was released at a time when it was released, but it fell at the box office.

MGM wanted Kelly to return to safer and more commercial cars, but he refused to have the opportunity to direct his own musical film. In the interim, he capitalized on his swashbuckling appearance as d'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (also 1948) and also appeared with Vera-Ellen in the Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ballet in Words and Music (1948). In Easter Parade (1948), he was supposed to compete against Garland but he broke his ankle playing volleyball. Fred Astaire was forced to return from retirement to replace him, but he pulled him out of the film and begged him to come out of retirement to replace him. In "Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), Kelly's second film with Sinatra, where Kelly paid homage to his Irish roots in "The Hat My Father Wore" on St. Patrick's Day. Arthur Freed was persuaded to make On the Town (also 1949), in which he worked with Frank Sinatra for the third and final time. It has been described as the most "innovative and effervescent musical so far produced in Hollywood," a breakthrough in the musical film genre.

Stanley Donen, who was brought by Kelly to Hollywood to be his assistant choreographer, received co-director credit for On the Town. "You must have expert assistants when doing choreography for film," Kelly says. I needed one to track my appearance and one to work with the cameraman on the timing... but without Stanley, Carol Haney, and Jeanne Coyne, I would never have done these things. When we first saw On the Town, I knew it was time for Stanley to get screen credit because we weren't boss–assistant anymore but co-creators. They brought the film musical out of the studio and into real locations, with Donen and Kelly taking responsibility for the staging and Kelly handling the choreography. Kelly went much further ahead in incorporating modern ballet into his dance sequences, going so far in the "Day in New York" tradition as to bring in four leading ballet experts for Sinatra, Munshin, Garrett, and Miller.

Kelly requested the studio for a straight acting role, and he played the lead in the early mafia melodrama Black Hand (1950). This investigation of organized crime in New York's "Little Italy" during the late 19th century is focused on the Black Hand, a group that extorts money due to a threat of death. The Mafia, not the Black Hand, was based on real-life events on which this film is based. When dealing with big-time violence, filmmakers had to tread gingerly, it was quicker to go after a "dead" prison group than a "live" one. Summer Stock (1950)—Garland's last musical film for MGM, in which Kelly performed the "You Wonderful You" solo routine with a newspaper and a squeaky floorboard, followed a summer stock (1950). Joe Pasternak, the head of another MGM's musical groups, praised Kelly for his patience and willingness to expend as long as necessary to enable the failing Garland to finish her role.

Then was followed by two musicals that established Kelly's fame as a leading figure in the American musical film in a snap. An American in Paris (1951) — perhaps the most admired of all film musicals — Singin' in the Rain (1952). Kelly, as co-director, lead actor, and choreographer, was the primary driving force in both of these films. Johnny Green, MGM's music director at the time, recalled him.

Six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, were given to an American in Paris. Leslie Caron, a 19-year-old ballerina who Kelly had seen in Paris and taken to Hollywood, was also on the film for the debut of the 19-year-old ballerina Leslie Caron, whose Kelly had seen in Paris and brought to Hollywood. Its dream ballet sequence, which lasted for an unprecedented 17 minutes, was the most expensive production number to have ever filmed at that time. "Whoop-de-doo... one of the finest ever put on film," Bosley Crowther described it as, "whoop-de-doo... one of the finest ever put on film." Kelly was also named in 1951 for his contributions to film musicals and the art of choreography.

Kelly's celebrated and much imitated solo dance routine to the title song was included in the Rain's collection in the following year, as well as Donald O'Connor's "Moses Supposes" routine and the "Broadway Melody" finale with Cyd Charisse. Despite the fact that the film did not inspire the same enthusiasm An American in Paris created, it has since surpassed it in critics' estimation.

Kelly made what some see as a mistake in retrospect. In December 1951, he signed a deal with MGM that took him to Europe for 19 months to use MGM funds frozen in Europe to produce three photographs while still profiting from tax exemptions. Only one of these images was a musical, Invitation to the Dance, Kelly's pet effort to bring modern ballet to mainstream movie audiences. When it first came out in 1956, it was plagued with delays and technological difficulties, and it eventually fell apart.

As Kelly returned to Hollywood in 1953, the film musical was beginning to feel the strains of television, and MGM cut the budget for his next film Brigadoon (1954), with Cyd Charisse, causing him to film in studio backlots rather than on location in Scotland. In the "I Love to Go Swimming with Wimmen" routine in Deep in My Heart (1954), this year also saw him act as a guest star alongside his brother Fred. MGM's refusal to loan him out for Guys and Dolls and Pal Joey put the studio's friendship in jeopardy. He negotiated an end to his deal, but it required three more pictures for MGM. It's Always Fair Weather (1955), co-directed with Donen, was a musical satire on television and advertising, and it included his roller-skate dancing routine to I Like Myself, and a dance trio with Michael Kidd and Dan Dailey that Kelly used to experiment with Cinemascope's widescreen possibilities. MGM had lost faith in Kelly's box-office appeal, and as a result, It's Always Fair Weather premiered at 17 drive-in theaters around Los Angeles' urban area. Following Kelly's last musical film for MGM, Les Girls (1957), in which he appeared in a trio of leading ladies, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, and Taina Elg were among a trio of leading ladies. The third film he directed was a co-production between MGM and himself, The Happy Road (1957), shot in his hometown France, his first foray as producer-director-actor. Kelly returned to stage work after leaving MGM.

Kelly curated Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical performance Flower Drum Song in 1958. Kelly, a zealous Francophile and fluent French speaker, was invited by A. M. Julien, the company's general manager, to select his own works and create a modern ballet for the company, the first time an American had been given such a task. Pas de Dieux, based on Greek mythology, was a big success, culminating in his being honoured by the French Government with the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.

Kelly continued to appear in films, including Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind (1960) and as himself in Let's Make Love (also 1960). However, the bulk of his efforts were now focusing on film production and directing. He directed Jackie Gleason in Gigot (1962), but Seven Arts Productions cut the film and flopped in Paris. Another French attempt, Jacques Demy's tribute to MGM's The Young Girls of Rochefort (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, 1967), in which Kelly appeared, was a box-office hit in France and nominated for Academy Awards for Best Music and Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation), but it failed elsewhere.

He was asked to direct The Sound of Music, which had already been rejected by Stanley Donen. Ernest Lehman, the screenwriter, was led out of his house by him, saying, "Go find someone else to direct this piece of shit."

In which he assembled a group of America's best sportsmen, including Mickey Mantle, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Bob Cousy, he reimagined their moves choreographically as part of his lifelong attempt to ban the effeminate image of dance, while still articulating the philosophy behind his dance style. It received an Emmy Award for choreography, and now stands as the main document describing Kelly's modern dance style.

During the 1960s, Kelly appeared on television shows, including Going My Way (1962–63), which was based on the 1944 film of the same name. It was also very popular in Roman Catholic countries outside of the United States. He has appeared in three major television specials: The Julie Andrews Show (1965), New York, New York (1966), and Jack and the Beanstalk (1967)—a show he produced and directed that combined cartoon animation and live dance, earning him the Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program.

Kelly began working with Universal Pictures in 1963 for a two-year contract. He joined twentieth Century Fox in 1965, but had little to do owing in part to his decision to move away from Los Angeles for family reasons. His perseverance paid off, with the major box-office's A Guide to the Married Man (1967), in which he directed Walter Matthau. When Fox—buoyed by the return of The Sound of Music (1965)—was sent by Kelly to direct Hello, Dolly, a major opportunity arose. Matthau and Barbra Strobinford commanded him both in 1969-1969). The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, with three of them winning three.

Kelly starred in an hour-long musical television special for CBS called Gene Kelly in New York, New York. Gene Kelly is the subject of a musical tour around Manhattan, dancing along landmarks such as Rockefeller Center, the Plaza Hotel, and the Museum of Modern Art, which serve as backdrops for the show's burgeoning production figures. Woody Allen, who also appears in Kelly's script, wrote the special. Gower Champion, British musical comedian Tommy Steele, and songstress Damita Jo DeBlanc were among the guest stars on this program.

Gene Kelly and 50 Girls, 1970, was one of the show's most popular television specials, and he was invited to Las Vegas for an eight-week stint on the condition that he receives more than ever earned money. In the comedy Western The Cheyenne Social Club (1970), which did poorly at the box office, he directed veteran actors James Stewart and Henry Fonda. In 1973, he appeared with Frank Sinatra as part of Sinatra's Emmy-nominated television program Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra. In the surprise hit That's Entertainment, he appeared as one of several special narrators. (1974): A history of the United States (1974). In the sequel That's Entertainment, Part II (1976), he directed and co-starred with his friend Fred Astaire. It was a measure of his persuasion that he managed to coax the 77-year-old Astaire, who had pleaded with his suit prohibiting any dancing, into a series of song-and-dance duets, eliciting a strong nostalgia for the golden days of American musical film.

Kelly appeared on "Our Love Is Here to Live," a television special starring Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, in 1975. He appeared in Viva Knievel, a little-known action film! Evel Knievel, a high-profile stuntman, appeared on television in 1977 (1977). Kelly continued to make regular TV appearances. Despite a popular soundtrack that resulted in five Top 20 hits by the Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard, and Kelly's co-star Olivia Newton-John, his last film role was in Xanadu (1980), a surprise flop. "The theory was brilliant, but it didn't come off," Kelly says. He was invited by Francis Ford Coppola to recruit a production staff for American Zoetrope's One from the Heart (1982). Although Coppola's intention was to create a production unit to compete with MGM's Freed Unit, the film's demise brought an end to this fantasy. Kelly served as executive producer and co-host of That's Dancing. (1985), a commemoration of dance in the American musical history. That's Entertainment was Kelly's last on-screen appearance. III (1994). Kelly's last film project was the animated film Cats Don't Dance, which was not released until 1997, for which Kelly served as an uncredited choreographic consultant. It was dedicated to his memory. On November 6, 1983, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II gave her first Royal Variety Performance at the Theatre Royal in London.

Source

Awards and honors

• 1942 – Best Actor award from the National Board of Review for his performance in For Me and My Gal
• 1946 – Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in Anchors Aweigh (1945)
• 1951 – Nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for An American in Paris
• 1952 – Honorary Academy Award "in appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film." This Oscar was lost in a fire in 1983 and replaced at the 1984 Academy Awards.
• 1953 – Nomination from the Directors Guild of America, Best Director for Singin' in the Rain, 1952 (shared with Stanley Donen).
• 1956 – Golden Bear at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival for Invitation to the Dance.
• 1958 – Nomination for Golden Laurel Award for Best Male Musical Performance in Les Girls.
• 1958 – Dance Magazine's annual TV Award for Dancing: A Man's Game from the Omnibus television series. It was also nominated for an Emmy for best singing.
• 1960 – In France, Kelly was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
• 1960 - Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures
• 1962 – Gene Kelly Dance Film Festival staged by the Museum of Modern Art
• 1964 – Best Actor Award for What a Way to Go! (1964) at the Locarno International Film Festival
• 1967 – Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program for Jack and the Beanstalk
• 1970 – Nomination for Golden Globe, Best Director for Hello, Dolly!, 1969
• 1970 – Nomination from the Directors Guild of America, Best Director for Hello, Dolly!, 1969
• 1981 – Cecil B. DeMille Award at Golden Globes
• 1981 – Kelly was the subject of a 2-week film festival in France
• 1982 – Lifetime Achievement Award in the fifth annual Kennedy Center Honors
• 1985 – Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute
• 1989 – Life Achievement Award from Screen Actors Guild
• 1991 – Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera inaugurated the Gene Kelly Awards, given annually to high-school musicals in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
• 1992 – Induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame
• 1994 – National Medal of Arts awarded by United States President Bill Clinton
• 1994 – The Three Tenors performed "Singin' in the Rain" in his presence during a concert at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
• 1996 – Honorary César Award, the César is the main national film award in France.
• 1996 – At the Academy Awards ceremony, director Quincy Jones organized a tribute to the just-deceased Kelly, in which Savion Glover performed the dance to "Singin' in the Rain".
• 1997 – Ranked number 26 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list
• 1999 – Ranked number 15 in the American Film Institute's "Greatest Male Legends" of Classic Hollywood list
• 2013 – "Singin' in the Rain" ranked number one in "The Nation's Favorite Dance Moment".