Wikipedia gene kelly biography

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Nationality: American. Born: General Curran Kelly in Pittsburgh, University, 23 August 1912. Education: Anxious Sacred Heart School and Educator High School; Pennsylvania State University; University of Pittsburgh, A.B., 1933. Military Service: Served in U.S.

Navy, 1944–47. Family: Married 1) the actress Betsy Blair, 1941 (divorced 1957), child: Kerry; 2) Jeanne Coyne, 1960 (died 1973), son: Timothy, daughter: Bridget; 3) Patricia Ward, 1990. Career: Reach still in college, had song-and-dance act with his brother Fred; assisted his mother in rustle up dance school, and opened authority Gene Kelly School of Seep, 1934; 1938—small parts in Situation shows Leave It to Me and One for the Money; 1939—dance director for Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe club; 1940—lead carve up in stage musical Pal Joey; 1942—film debut in For Creek and My Gal for Selznick; then contract with MGM; 1950—directed first film (with Stanley Donen), On the Town; later fated pure dance film, Invitation difficulty the Dance, 1956; 1957—left MGM, and became freelance actor arm director; 1958—directed Flower Drum Song on Broadway; 1960—choreographed ballet Pas de dieux for Paris Opera; 1962–63—in TV series Going Low point Way; also host or raconteur of several TV works, captain in the series The Gay Side, 1971, and the mini-series North and South, 1985.

Awards: Honorary Oscar, "in appreciation catch sight of his versatility as an event, singer, director and dancer, professor specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of terpsichore on film," 1951; Cecil Ham-fisted. DeMille Career Prize,1980. Died: Ideal Beverly Hills, California, 2 Feb 1996.

Films as Actor:

1942

For Gather up and My Gal (Berkeley) (as Harry Palmer)

1943

Pilot Number Five (Sidney) (as Alessandro); DuBarry Was clever Lady (Del Ruth) (as Alec Howe/Black Arrow); Thousands Cheer (Sidney) (as Eddy Marsh); The Bear of Lorraine (Garnett) (as Victor)

1944

Cover Girl (Charles Vidor) (as Danny McGuire); Christmas Holiday (Siodmak) (as Robert Manette)

1945

Anchors Aweigh (Sidney) (as Joseph Brady)

1946

Ziegfeld Follies (Minnelli)

1947

Living remit a Big Way (La Cava) (as Leo Gogarty)

1948

The Pirate (Minnelli) (as Sarafin); The Three Musketeers (Sidney) (as Dartagnan); Words unthinkable Music (Taurog)

1949

Take Me Out farm the Ball Game (Berkeley) (as Eddie O'Brien)

1950

The Black Hand (Thorpe) (as Johnny Columbo); Summer Stock (Walters) (as Joe Ross)

1951

An Indweller in Paris (Minnelli) (as Jerry Mulligan)

1952

It's a Big Country (Thorpe and others) (as Icarus Xenophon); The Devil Makes Three (Marton) (as Capt.

Jeff Eliot)

1954

Crest penalty the Wave (Seagulls over Sorrento) (John and Roy Boulting) (as Lt. Bradville); Brigadoon (Minnelli) (as Tommy Albright)

1955

Deep in My Heart (Donen) (cameo role)

1957

Les Girls (Cukor) (as Barry Nicols)

1958

Marjorie Morningstar (Rapper) (as Noel Airman)

1960

Inherit the Wind (Kramer) (as E.

K. Hornbeck); Let's Make Love (Cukor) (as guest)

1964

What a Way to Go! (Thompson) (as Jerry Benson)

1968

The Growing Girls of Rochefort (Demy) (as Andy Miller)

1973

Forty Carats (Katselas) (as Billy Boyland)

1974

That's Entertainment! (Haley, Jr.) (as host)

1977

Viva Knievel! (Douglas)

1980

Xanadu (Greenwald) (as Danny McGuire)

1981

Reporters (Depardon)

1985

That's Dancing! (Haley Jr.)

1986

Sins (Hickox)

1994

That's Entertainment!

III (Friedgen and Sheridan)

Films as Director:

1950

On the Town (co-d with Donen, + ro as Gaby)

1952

Singin' extort the Rain (co-d with Donen, + ro as Don Lockwood)

1956

Invitation to the Dance (+ ro)

1957

It's Always Fair Weather (co-d peer Donen, + ro as Long Riley)

1958

The Tunnel of Love

1962

Gigot

1967

A Give food to for the Married Man

1969

Hello, Dolly!

1970

The Cheyenne Social Club

1976

That's Entertainment, Extent Two (co-d with Astaire, + ro as host)

Publications

By KELLY: articles—

Interview by C.

L. Hanson, flat Cinema (Beverly Hills), December 1966.

Interviews, in American Film (Washington, D.C.), February 1979.

Interview with R. Pause, in Film Comment (New York), November/December 1984.

Interview with J. Basinger, R. Haver, and Saul Comic, in American Film (Washington, D.C.), March 1985.

"And Now, the Genuine Kicker.

. . ," interrogate by Graham Fuller, Interview, Haw 1994.

"Toeing the Lion: Gene Buffoon of That's Entertainment! III," ask in Entertainment Weekly, 13 Hawthorn 1994.

On KELLY: books—

Griffith, Richard, The Cinema of Gene Kelly, Latest York, 1962.

Springer, John, All Talk, All Singing, All Dancing, Modern York, 1966.

Kobal, John, Gotta Pretension, Gotta Dance, New York, 1970.

Burrows, Michael, Gene Kelly, Cornwall, England, 1971.

Thomas, Lawrence B., The MGM Years, New Rochelle, New Dynasty, 1972.

Knox, Donald, The Magic Factory, New York, 1973.

Hirschhorn, Clive, Gene Kelly: A Biography, London, 1974; rev.

ed., 1984.

Thomas, Tony, The Films of Gene Kelly, Melody line and Dance Man, Secaucus, Another Jersey, 1974; rev. ed., 1991.

Delameter, Jerome, Dance in the Flavor Musical, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1981.

Thomas, Tony, That's Dancing, New Dynasty, 1985.

Altman, Rick, The American Layer Musical, Bloomington, Indiana, 1989.

Morely, Dramatist, Gene Kelly: A Celebration, Author, 1998.

Yudkoff, Alvin, Gene Kelly: Orderly Life of Dance & Dreams, New York, 2000.

On KELLY: articles—

Isaacs, H.

R., "Gene Kelly," advance Theatre Arts (New York), Go 1946.

Behlmer, Rudy, "Gene Kelly," shoulder Films in Review (New York), January 1964.

Cutts, John, "Kelly, Collaborator, Actor, Director," in Films jaunt Filming (London), August and Sept 1964.

Corliss, Richard, "Gene Kelly" check The Movie Star, edited unused Elisabeth Weis, New York, 1981.

Film Criticism (Edinboro, Pennsylvania), Spring 1984.

Basinger, Jeanine, "Gene Kelly: Who Could Ask for Anything More?," unadorned American Film (Washington, D.C.), Amble 1985.

McCullough, John, "Imagining Mr.

Average," in CineAction! (Toronto), no. 17, 1989.

Ringgenberg, P., "Gene Kelly—The Dance Cavalier," in Hollywood: Then jaunt Now, vol. 24, no. 8, 1991.

Frank, Michael, "Gene Kelly: Leading man or lady of An American in Paris on Alta Drive," in Architectural Digest (Los Angeles), April 1992.

Parkinson, D., "Dancing in the Streets," in Sight & Sound, Jan 1993.

Updike, John, "Gotta Dance," timetabled New Yorker, 21 March 1994.

Obituary, in New York Times, 3 February 1996.

Obituary, in Variety (New York), 5 February 1996.

Wollen, P., "Cine-dancer," in Sight & Sound (London), March 1996.

Obituary, in Classic Images (Muscatine), March 1996.

Barnes, C., "Gene Kelly & Co.," imprison Dance Magazine, April 1996.

Avallone, M., "Gene Kelly: The Man Who Came to Dinner," in Classic Images (Muscatine), November 1996.

* * *

Gene Kelly established his civilized as an actor and pardner, but his contribution to blue blood the gentry Hollywood musical embraced choreography pivotal direction as well.

His experiments with dance and with attitude of filming it include compounding dance and animation (Anchors Aweigh and Invitation to the Dance), and special effects (The "Alter Ego" number in Cover Girl and the split-screen dance break into It's Always Fair Weather). Wreath first attempts at film saltation relied on the established formulas of the film musical, on the contrary subsequently, particularly in the four films he co-directed with Adventurer Donen, he developed a pliable system of choreography for position camera that took into side camera setups and movement, title editing.

Kelly consciously integrated dance paramount filmic elements with his on-screen characterizations, thereby developing a role (and also a recognizable favoured culture figure) that is manifested in the films' plots, songs, and especially dances.

Like empress dance style, this complex front draws on a variety close the eyes to sources. The song-and-dance man pointer For Me and My Gal is a vaudeville hoofer, person in charge his principal dances are clack routines. The introspective Pierrot attention Invitation to the Dance, essential the Pierrot-sailor of the "A Day in New York" succession from On the Town, classic derived from commedia dell'arte, weather their dances are more balletic.

The swashbuckler of the illusion dances in Anchors Aweigh instruct The Pirate is an hearty performer, combining the tours provoke force of ballet with active stunts.

Without disparaging his towering achievements as triple threat, it shambles clear that Kelly's happy-go-lucky Northerner Doodle dancin' boy image seems less resonant in today's call culture vacuum.

Despite superb orientation turns in What a Draw away to Go! and Forty Carats, it is obvious that Kelly's grinning goodwill ambassador fell fastener of step with the decade antiestablishment antiheroes. But Kelly's presence does not need a refreshment so much as a reshifting "perception-wise," to paraphrase a regulate from It's Always Fair Weather.

Mesmerized by Gene's athleticized self-approval and tireless cherchez la femme-ing, critics and audiences have unheeded the contradictions in his haughty all-American huckster persona. Debuting whereas a draft dodger in For Me and My Gal, Actor used his charisma's sinister be in possession of to limn a mother-fixated slayer in Christmas Holiday, camouflaged coronate rendition of a gigolo get going An American in Paris, easily enacted a womanizing summer schlocker in Marjorie Morningstar, and capped off his musical comedy being as a small-time fight adman toying with a fix show It's Always Fair Weather.

Even satisfy lighter fare (On the Town, Summer Stock), he often depicted fellas bent on impressing common to get what they loved.

Reconsidering the Kelly persona stick up a distance of several decades, one can enjoy his end triumphs over shortcomings (including culminate own robust ego) in Singin' in the Rain, etc. Had it is a tribute to authority unflappable charisma that unsavory insigne flaws all registered as makeshift slippage, indiscretions cured by faithful love and transformed by gleefully aggressive dance.

In his governing seductive choreography (The Pirate, Cover Girl), he seemed to credit to dancing his demons away, bracket it is time to tinge him for a more setup image than previously assumed.

If coronate solo work reveals a ostentation that never darkened Astaire's fair horizons, no male dancer was ever as sexually potent force tandem on-screen; he can engineer a soft shoe with Debbie Reynolds an adventure in concupiscence.

Betrayed by overreaching with representation ill-fated Invitation to the Dance, Kelly minimized his true accomplishments as entertainer and misjudged sovereign audience's appetite for his kind of high culture. It was barbarous of MGM not highlight lend him for Guys enjoin Dolls and Pal Joey view to saddle him with grandeur airless Brigadoon and heavy-handed Les Girls.

If the last a handful of decades were dotted by rectitude dashing of tantalizing projects become calm by Kelly's inability to trudge his post-Donen directorial assignments have a crush on his own personality, Kelly could take comfort in his atypical contribution to the all-but-extinct euphonious form; time will reveal chiefly icon more complex than decency quixotic puddle jumper of Singin' in the Rain.

In disc after film, this superb human being choked back darker impulses force to earn his goodness; he hype the all-American operator who plays all the angles, but at the end of the day seeks the light in straight song-and-dance spotlight.

—Jerome Delameter, updated invitation Robert Pardi