Back Gene Kelly Afrikaans Gene Kelly AN جين كيلي Arabic جين كيلى ARZ Gene Kelly AST Cin Kelli Azerbaijani جین کلی AZB Джин Келли Bashkir Джын Келі Byelorussian Джын Келі BE-X-OLD

Gene Kelly

For the American sportscaster, see Gene Kelly (broadcaster). For the Scottish musician, see Eugene Kelly. For other people with similar names, see Jean Kelly (disambiguation).

Gene Kelly
Kelly in 1943
Born
Eugene Curran Kelly

(1912-08-23)August 23, 1912
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedFebruary 2, 1996(1996-02-02) (aged 83)
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
CitizenshipAmerican (Irish citizenship granted late in life)[1]
EducationUniversity of Pittsburgh
Occupations
  • Dancer
  • actor
  • singer
  • director
  • choreographer
Years active1931–1994
Known for
Political partyDemocratic
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1941; div. 1957)​
​
​
(m. 1960; died 1973)​
Patricia Ward
​
(m. 1990)​
Children3

Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor, singer, director and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessible to the general public, which he called "dance for the common man".[2][3] He starred in, choreographed, and, with Stanley Donen, co-directed some of the most well-regarded musical films of the 1940s and 1950s.

Kelly is known for his performances in An American in Paris (1951), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Singin' in the Rain (1952), which he and Donen directed and choreographed, and other musical films of that era such as Cover Girl (1944) and Anchors Aweigh (1945), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. On the Town (1949), which he co-directed with Donen, was his directorial debut. Later in the 1950s, as musicals waned in popularity, he starred in Brigadoon (1954) and It's Always Fair Weather (1955), the last film he directed with Donen. His solo directorial debut was Invitation to the Dance (1956), one of the last MGM musicals, which was a commercial failure.

Kelly made his film debut in For Me and My Gal (1942) with Judy Garland, with whom he also appeared in The Pirate (1948) and Summer Stock (1950). He also appeared in the dramas Black Hand (1950) and Inherit the Wind (1960),[4] for which he received critical praise.

He continued as a director in the 1960s, with his credits including A Guide for the Married Man (1967) and Hello, Dolly! (1969),[5][6][7] which received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.[8][9] He co-hosted and appeared in Ziegfeld Follies (1946), That's Entertainment! (1974), That's Entertainment, Part II (1976), That's Dancing! (1985), and That's Entertainment, Part III (1994).

His innovations transformed the Hollywood musical, and he is credited with almost single-handedly making the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences.[10] According to dance and art historian Beth Genné, working with his co-director Donen in Singin' in the Rain and in films with director Vincente Minnelli, "Kelly ... fundamentally affected the way movies are made and the way we look at them. And he did it with a dancer's eye and from a dancer's perspective."[2] Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements; the same year, An American in Paris won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He later received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors (1982) and from the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute. In 1999, the American Film Institute also ranked him as the 15th greatest male screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

  1. ^ RTÉ Publishing. "Gene Kelly was proud of Irish roots – RTÉ Ten". RTÉ.ie. Archived from the original on July 29, 2014. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  2. ^ a b Genné, Beth (2013). "Dancin' in the Rain: Gene Kelly's Musical Films". In Mitoma, Judy; Elizabeth, Zimmer (eds.). Envisioning Dance on Film and Video. Routledge. pp. 71–77. ISBN 9781135376444. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  3. ^ Genné, Beth (2017). "'Dancin' in the street': Street dancing on film and video from Fred Astaire to Michael Jackson". In Nicholas, Larraine; Morris, Geraldine (eds.). Rethinking Dance History: Issues and Methodologies. Taylor & Francis. pp. 186–196. ISBN 9781134827633. Archived from the original on April 9, 2023. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  4. ^ DiLeo, John (2002). 100 Great Film Performances You Should Remember, But Probably Don't. Limelight Editions. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-87910-972-1. Archived from the original on April 14, 2023. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  5. ^ "100 Greatest Film Musicals". Archived from the original on October 17, 2012. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  6. ^ "The Best Movie Musicals of All Time". Archived from the original on February 21, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  7. ^ "The Top 100 Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time". Archived from the original on February 6, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  8. ^ "The 42nd Academy Awards (1970) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. October 4, 2014. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  9. ^ "Hello, Dolly!". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2016.[dead link]
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Billman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Developed by StudentB