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Gene Kelly

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Gene Kelly
Image:Gene Kelly.gif
Gene Kelly.

<tr><td style="text-align:left;">Birth name</td><td>Eugene Curran Kelly</td></tr>

Born August 23, 1912
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Died February 2, 1996
Beverly Hills, California, USA

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 for his performance in Singin' in the Rain.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] Film career

Singin' in the Rain (1952) 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:

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:

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.

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, the widow of Gene gave permission for Volkswagen to use Gene Kelly's 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.

He's one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"<ref>http://imdb.com/name/nm0000037/bio</ref>.

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 singing "Singin' in the Rain" in front of him during a concert at the LA Dodgers Stadium. A frail-looking Gene Kelly was helped to his feet for a brief salute to stand up for the ovation.

[edit] Quotations

  • "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.

[edit] Stage work

Image:GeneKellyJumpin.jpg As Actor:

As Crew Member:

[edit] Filmography

Image:Singinrain25.jpg As Actor:

As Director: Image:Gene & Fred.jpg

[edit] Television work

Image:1kelly1.gif

[edit] 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.

[edit] External links

[edit] Reference

<references />

Preceded by:
Sammy Davis, Jr., Bob Hope, Shirley MacLaine, and Frank Sinatra
47th Academy Awards 		"Oscars" host
48th Academy Awards (with Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau, George Segal, and Robert Shaw) 		Succeeded by:
Warren Beatty, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, and Richard Pryor
49th Academy Awards
Great American Songbook
Songwriters

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Singers

Armstrong | Astaire | Bennett | Brice | Bublé | Carter | Como | Crosby | Dearie | Eckstine | Feinstein | Fitzgerald | Garland | Holiday | Horn | Horne | Keel | Kelly | Krall | Lee | Martin | McRae | Midler | Mitchell | Rogers | Simone | Sinatra | Stewart | Streisand | Tormé | Vaughan | Washington | Williams

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