Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 -
February 2, 1996), better known as Gene Kelly, was an American dancer, actor, singer,
director, producer, and choreographer. Kelly was known for his energetic and athletic dancing
style, his good looks and the likable characters that he played on screen. He is probably best
known today for his performance in Singin' in the Rain. In 1999, the American Film Institute
named Kelly among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 15.
Upbringing:
Gene was the third son of James Kelly, a phonograph salesman, and Harriet Curran, who were
both children of Irish Roman Catholic immigrants. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and
graduated from Peabody High School in 1929. In 1933 he graduated from the University of
Pittsburgh (Pitt), where he joined the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity and earned a bachelor's
degree in Economics. In 1930, his family started a dance studio on Munhall Road in the
Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In 1932, it was renamed The Gene Kelly Studio of
the Dance. A second location was opened in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1933. While still an
undergraduate student and later as a student at Pitt's School of Law, Gene was a teacher at
the dance studio. Eventually, though, he decided to pursue his entertainment career full-time
and so dropped out of law school and moved to New York City in 1938. Early in his Broadway
career, he appeared in Cole Porter's "Leave It To Me" as an Eskimo who supports Mary Martin
while she sings "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". In 1940, he was given the leading role in
Rodgers and Hart's "Pal Joey", which brought him to national attention. During this period he
also choreographed several hit plays, including the 1941 production of "Best Foot Forward".
Film career:
Kelly's first motion picture was For Me and My Gal (1942) with Judy Garland. He went
on to make a number of classic musicals, including An American in Paris (1951) and
Singin' in the Rain (1952).
His most notable moments on film include:
* Dancing with a group of French schoolchildren to "I Got Rhythm" in An American in Paris.
* The climactic ballet/finale of An American in Paris.
* Singing and dancing in the rain in an iconic scene from the film Singin' in the Rain,
a scene he filmed while sick with a 103-degree (39.4 °C) fever
* Dancing with a squeaky floorboard and a newspaper in Summer Stock (1950)
* Dancing on roller skates in It's Always Fair Weather (1956).
* Dancing with Jerry Mouse in Anchors Aweigh (1945) -- the only nomination Kelly
ever received for an Academy Award, for Best Actor.
* Dancing with his own reflection in Cover Girl (1944)
He was the first American to choreograph and stage a ballet in the Paris Opera.
Kelly was awarded a special 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 in 1951 and reawarded in 1984's Academy Awards due to a fire which
burned down his home in the previous year.
Kelly was awarded the Légion d'honneur by the French government in 1960. He also received the
Life Achievement Award from American Film Institute in 1985. He was awarded the National
Medal of Arts, from President Clinton in 1994, but was too ill to accept it in person.
Kelly died on February 2, 1996, in Beverly Hills, California, after suffering two strokes, at
the age of 83.
Kelly married three times:
* Betsy Blair (1940-1957) (one child, Kerry)
* Jeanne Coyne (1960-1973) (two children, Bridget and Tim)
* Patricia Ward (1990-1996)
Trivia:
* The Gene Kelly Awards, given annually to high school musicals in Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania, are named in his honor.
* In 1994, Kurt Browning performed an ice skating interpretation of "Singin' in the Rain"
on his television special You Must Remember This, complete with a full replica of the set and,
naturally, rain. Browning considers this sequence one of his favorites he's ever performed.
* In 2005, Kelly's widow gave permission for Volkswagen to use his likeness to promote the
Golf GTi car. The advertisement used CGI to mix footage of Gene Kelly, from Singin' in the
Rain, with footage of professional breakdancers (including David Bernal). The music was
remixed by Mint Royale. Despite Mrs. Kelly's urging, the German automaker refused to show the
commercial in the U.S.. The tagline was, "The original, updated."
* In 1993, pop singer Madonna met with Gene Kelly who convinced her to include an homage
to Marlene Dietrich in her Girlie Show Tour, which turned out to be her cabaret version of
"Like a Virgin."
* He was voted the 42nd Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
* Kelly is one of the many stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"[1].
* Paula Abdul stars opposite an animated cat in her "Opposites Attract" video, and did so
as to mirror Gene Kelly with Jerry (of Tom and Jerry) in Anchors Aweigh. Gene Kelly, her
childhood idol, noticed, and wanted to meet her. They met for tea every week until he died.
* Ray Bradbury's novel "Something Wicked This Way Comes" was dedicated to him.
* In 1994, the Three Tenors honored him by singing "Singin' in the Rain" in front of him
during a concert at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. A frail-looking Kelly was helped to his
feet for a brief salute to stand up for the ovation.
* Gene Kelly makes a posthumous performance on the Family Guy episode "Road to Rupert",
where the live footage segments and audio from a musical number in Anchors Aweigh are reused
to show Gene dancing with Stewie Griffin. Stewie's dance moves almost entirely mirrored those
of Jerry, Gene's original partner in the movie.
Quotations:
* "If Fred Astaire is the Cary Grant of dance, I'm the Marlon Brando."
* "Fred Astaire represented the aristocracy, I represented the proletariat."
* "In the 1930s, when I started, Martha Graham was the only dancer doing anything modern,
but she did it all to classical music. I couldn't see myself doing Swan Lake every night,
and I wanted to develop a truly American style. The only dancer in the movies at that time
with any success was Fred Astaire, but he did very small, elegant steps in a top hat, white
tie, and tails."
* "I [was] twenty pounds overweight and as strong as an ox. But if I put on a white tails
and tux like Astaire, I still looked like a truck driver... I looked better in a sweatshirt
and loafers anyway. It wasn't elegant, but it was me."
* "I didn't want to be a dancer... I just did it to work my way through college. But I
was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally."
* "The way I look at a musical, you are commenting on the human condition no matter what
you do. A musical may be light and frivolous, but by its very nature, it makes some kind of
social comment."
* "At 14, I discovered girls. At that time, dancing was the only way you could put your
arm around the girl. Dancing was courtship. Only later did I discover that you dance joy. You
dance love. You dance dreams."
* "I wasn't very nice to Debbie. It's a wonder she still speaks to me."--On his behavior
towards Debbie Reynolds on the set of Singin' in the Rain.
Stage work:
As Actor:
* Leave It to Me (1938)
* One for the Money (1939)
* The Time of Your Life (1939)
* The Time of Your Life (1940) (return engagement) (also choreographer)
* Pal Joey (1940)
As Crew Member:
* Best Foot Forward (1941) (choreographer)
* Flower Drum Song (1958) (director)
* Coquelico (1979) (producer)
Filmography:
As Actor:
* For Me and My Gal (1942)
* Pilot #5 (1943)
* Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)
* Thousands Cheer (1943)
* The Cross of Lorraine (1943)
* Cover Girl (1944)
* Christmas Holiday (1944)
* Anchors Aweigh (1945) (also choreographer)
* Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
* Living in a Big Way (1947)
* The Pirate (1948) (also choreographer)
* The Three Musketeers (1948)
* Words and Music (1948)
* Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) (also choreographer)
* On the Town (1949)
* Black Hand (1950)
* Summer Stock (1950)
* An American in Paris (1951)
* It's a Big Country (1951)
* Council of Europe (1952) (short subject) (narrator)
* Love Is Better Than Ever (1952) (Cameo)
* Singin' in the Rain (1952) (also choreographer)
* The Devil Makes Three (1952)
* Brigadoon (1954) (also choreographer)
* Crest of the Wave (1954)
* Deep in My Heart (1954)
* 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (1955) (short subject)
* It's Always Fair Weather (1955) (also choreographer)
* The Magic Lamp (1956) (short subject) (voice)
* Invitation to the Dance (1956) (also choreographer)
* The Happy Road (1957)
* Les Girls (1957)
* Marjorie Morningstar (1958)
* Inherit the Wind (1960)
* Let's Make Love (1960) (Cameo)
* What a Way to Go! (1964) (also choreographer)
* The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
* 40 Carats (1973)
* Just One More Time (1974) (short subject)
* That's Entertainment! (1974) (narrator)
* The Lion Roars Again (1975) (short subject)
* That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) (narrator)
* Viva Knievel! (1977)
* Xanadu (1980)
* Reporters (1981) (documentary)
* That's Dancing! (1985) (narrator) (also executive producer
* The Young Girls Turn 25 (1993) (documentary)
* That's Entertainment! III (1994) (narrator)
As Director:
* On the Town (1949) (with Stanley Donen)
* An American in Paris (1951) (director of Leslie Caron's intro sequences)
* Singin' in the Rain (1952) (with Stanley Donen)
* It's Always Fair Weather (1955) (with Stanley Donen)
* Invitation to the Dance (1956)
* The Happy Road (1957) (also producer)
* The Tunnel of Love (1958)
* Gigot (1962)
* A Guide for the Married Man (1967)
* Hello, Dolly! (1969)
* The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) (also producer)
* That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) (director of new sequences)
Television work:
* Going My Way (1962-1963)
* Gene Kelly: New York, New York (1966)
* Jack and the Beanstalk (1967) (also director)
* The Funny Side (1971) (canceled after 4 months)
* Gene Kelly: An American in Pasadena (1978)
* North and South (1985) (miniseries)
* Sins (1986) (miniseries)
Awards and Honors:
* 1946 - Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in Anchors Aweigh, 1945
* 1952 - won an 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.
* 1956 - won a Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for
Invitation to the Dance
* 1958 - nominated for a Golden Laurel Award for Best Male Musical Performance in Les
Girls
* 1958 - Gene's Dancing: A Man's Game from the Omnibus television series received Dance
Magazine's annual TV Award. It was also nominated for an Emmy for best choreography.
* 1960 - In France, Gene was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor
* 1962 - the Museum of Modern Art presented a Gene Kelly Dance Film Festival
* 1964 - Won Silver Sail Best Actor 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 - nominated for a Golden Globe, Best Director for Hello Dolly!, 1969
* 1981 - won Cecil B. DeMille Award at Golden Globes
* 1981 - Gene was the subject of a two-week film festival in France
* 1982 - Lifetime Achievement Award in the fifth annual Kennedy Center Honors on 5
December
* 1985 - Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute
* 1989 - Life Achievement Award from Screen Actors Guild
* 1992 - Induction into the Theater Hall of Fame
* 1994 - National Medal of Arts awarded by President Clinton
* 1996 - won an honorary César Award. The César is the main national film award in France.
* 1997 - Gene ranked #26 in Empire (UK) magazine's -The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list.
* 1999 - Gene ranked #15 in the American Film Institute's -Greatest Legends list.
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