Kelly, Gene

views updated May 17 2018

KELLY, Gene



Nationality: American. Born: Eugene Curran Kelly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 23 August 1912. Education: Attended Sacred Heart School and Peabody 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: While still in college, had song-and-dance act with his brother Fred; assisted his mother in her dance school, and opened the Gene Kelly School of Dance, 1934; 1938—small parts in Broadway shows Leave It to Me and One for the Money; 1939—dance director for Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe club; 1940—lead role in stage musical Pal Joey; 1942—film debut in For Me and My Gal for Selznick; then contract with MGM; 1950—directed first film (with Stanley Donen), On the Town; later directed pure dance film, Invitation to the Dance, 1956; 1957—left MGM, and became freelance actor and director; 1958—directed Flower Drum Song on Broadway; 1960—choreographed ballet Pas de dieux for Paris Opera; 1962–63—in TV series Going My Way; also host or narrator of several TV works, and in the series The Funny Side, 1971, and the mini-series North and South, 1985. Awards: Honorary Oscar, "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," 1951; Cecil B. DeMille Career Prize,1980. Died: In Beverly Hills, California, 2 February 1996.


Films as Actor:

1942

For Me and My Gal (Berkeley) (as Harry Palmer)

1943

Pilot Number Five (Sidney) (as Alessandro); DuBarry Was a Lady (Del Ruth) (as Alec Howe/Black Arrow); Thousands Cheer (Sidney) (as Eddy Marsh); The Cross 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 in a Big Way (La Cava) (as Leo Gogarty)

1948

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

1949

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

1950

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

1951

An American 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 of 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 Young 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' in the Rain (co-d with Donen, + ro as Don Lockwood)

1956

Invitation to the Dance (+ ro)

1957

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

1958

The Tunnel of Love

1962

Gigot

1967

A Guide for the Married Man

1969

Hello, Dolly!

1970

The Cheyenne Social Club

1976

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



Publications


By KELLY: articles—

Interview by C. L. Hanson, in Cinema (Beverly Hills), December 1966.

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

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

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

"And Now, the Real Kicker. . . ," interview by Graham Fuller, Interview, May 1994.

"Toeing the Lion: Gene Kelly of That's Entertainment! III," interview in Entertainment Weekly, 13 May 1994.


On KELLY: books—

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

Springer, John, All Talking, All Singing, All Dancing, New York, 1966.

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

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

Thomas, Lawrence B., The MGM Years, New Rochelle, New York, 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, Song and Dance Man, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1974; rev. ed., 1991.

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

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

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

Morely, Sheridan, Gene Kelly: A Celebration, London, 1998.

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


On KELLY: articles—

Isaacs, H. R., "Gene Kelly," in Theatre Arts (New York), March 1946.

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

Cutts, John, "Kelly, Dancer, Actor, Director," in Films and Filming (London), August and September 1964.

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

Film Criticism (Edinboro, Pennsylvania), Spring 1984.

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

McCullough, John, "Imagining Mr. Average," in CineAction! (Toronto), no. 17, 1989.

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

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

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

Updike, John, "Gotta Dance," in 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.," in Dance Magazine, April 1996.

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


* * *

Gene Kelly established his reputation as an actor and dancer, but his contribution to the Hollywood musical embraced choreography and direction as well. His experiments with dance and with ways of filming it include combining 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 of It's Always Fair Weather). His first attempts at film choreography relied on the established formulas of the film musical, but subsequently, particularly in the three films he co-directed with Stanley Donen, he developed a flexible system of choreography for the camera that took into account camera setups and movement, and editing.

Kelly consciously integrated dance and filmic elements with his on-screen characterizations, thereby developing a persona (and also a recognizable popular culture figure) that is manifested in the films' plots, songs, and especially dances. Like his dance style, this complex persona draws on a variety of sources. The song-and-dance man of For Me and My Gal is a vaudeville hoofer, and his principal dances are tap routines. The introspective Pierrot of Invitation to the Dance, and the Pierrot-sailor of the "A Day in New York" sequence from On the Town, are derived from commedia dell'arte, and their dances are more balletic. The swashbuckler of the dream dances in Anchors Aweigh and The Pirate is an athletic performer, combining the tours de force of ballet with acrobatic stunts.

Without disparaging his towering achievements as triple threat, it is clear that Kelly's happy-go-lucky Yankee Doodle dancin' boy image seems less resonant in today's pop culture vacuum. Despite superb supporting turns in What a Way to Go! and Forty Carats, it is obvious that Kelly's grinning goodwill ambassador fell out of step with the sixties antiestablishment antiheroes. But Kelly's image does not need a rehabilitation so much as a reshifting "perception-wise," to paraphrase a tune from It's Always Fair Weather. Mesmerized by Gene's athleticized self-approval and tireless cherchez la femme-ing, critics and audiences have overlooked the contradictions in his cocky all-American huckster persona. Debuting as a draft dodger in For Me and My Gal, Kelly used his charisma's sinister edge to limn a mother-fixated killer in Christmas Holiday, camouflaged his rendition of a gigolo in An American in Paris, deftly enacted a womanizing summer schlocker in Marjorie Morningstar, and capped off his musical comedy career as a small-time fight promoter toying with a fix in It's Always Fair Weather.

Even in lighter fare (On the Town, Summer Stock), he often portrayed fellas bent on impressing people to get what they wanted. Reconsidering the Kelly persona from a distance of several decades, one can enjoy his eventual triumphs over shortcomings (including his own robust ego) in Singin' in the Rain, etc. It is a tribute to his unflappable charisma that unsavory character flaws all registered as temporary slippage, indiscretions cured by true love and transformed by joyfully aggressive dance. In his most seductive choreography (The Pirate, Cover Girl), he seemed to be dancing his demons away, and it is time to credit him for a more complex image than previously assumed.

If his solo work reveals a pretentiousness that never darkened Astaire's sunny horizons, no male dancer was ever as sexually potent in tandem on-screen; he can make a soft shoe with Debbie Reynolds an adventure in eros. Betrayed by overreaching with the ill-fated Invitation to the Dance, Kelly minimized his true gifts as entertainer and misjudged his audience's appetite for his brand of high culture. It was barbarous of MGM not to lend him for Guys and Dolls and Pal Joey and to saddle him with the airless Brigadoon and heavy-handed Les Girls. If the last four decades were dotted by the dashing of tantalizing projects and by Kelly's inability to stamp his post-Donen directorial assignments with his own personality, Kelly could take comfort in his singular contribution to the all-but-extinct musical form; time will reveal an icon more complex than the quixotic puddle jumper of Singin' in the Rain. In film after film, this superb actor choked back darker impulses to earn his goodness; he is the all-American operator who plays all the angles, but ultimately seeks the light in a song-and-dance spotlight.

—Jerome Delameter, updated by Robert Pardi

Gene Kelly

views updated May 23 2018

Gene Kelly

Although Gene Kelly (1912-1996) established his reputation as an actor and dancer, his contribution to the Hollywood musical also embraces choreography and direction.

Gene Kelly's experiments with dance and with ways of filming it include combining 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 of It's Always Fair Weather). His first attempts at film choreography relied on the established formulas of the film musical, but subsequently, particularly in the three films he co-directed with Stanley Donen, he developed a flexible system of choreography for the camera that took into account camera setups and movement, and editing.

Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1912, and was the middle son of five children. His father was Canadian-born and loved sports, especially hockey. Every winter Kelly, Sr., would flood the family backyard and make an ice rink for hockey. As quoted in the New Yorker, Kelly remembered how the sport would later influence his dancing: "I played ice hockey as a boy and some of my steps come right out of the game—wide open and close to the ground." At 15 Kelly was playing with a semi-professional ice hockey team. Yet, he was also influenced by his mother's love of the theater. In fact, it was she who sent him to dancing lessons.

In 1929 Kelly left for Pennsylvania State college, but because of the Great Depression, his family lost their money, and Kelly had to move back home and attend the University of Pittsburgh in order to save the cost of room and board. Eventually, all five children would graduate from that school. While at Pitt, Kelly worked at a variety of odd jobs to pay his tuition: ditchdigger, soda jerk, gas pumper. Kelly's mother began to work as a receptionist at a local dance school, and she came up with the idea of the family running its own dance studio. They did and the studio was a big success.

After graduation from the University of Pittsburgh, Kelly attended law school. After only a month, he decided that law was not the career for him. He quit and continued to teach dance for another six years. In 1937 he left for New York, and was confident enough of his talent to believe that he would find work. He was right. He landed a job his first week in New York. Kelly's big break came in 1940 when he was cast as the lead in the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey. He played the part of an Irish nightclub singer who was a good-for-nothing loner.

The show was a hit and Kelly attracted the attention of producer-songwriter Arthur Freed, who convinced his boss, Hollywood studio executive Louis B. Mayer, to see the show. Mayer liked what he saw and told Kelly that he would like to have him under contract for the MGM studio. But it was Mayer's nephew, David O. Selznick, who signed Kelly to a contract in 1942. After six months, Kelly's contract was sold to MGM and he worked for MGM for the next 16 years.

His first Hollywood film was For Me and My Gal (1942), in which he starred opposite Judy Garland. Garland was only 20, but she had begun working in films at the age of 16. It was she who insisted that Kelly have the role, and she tutored him in how to act for the wide screen. "I knew nothing about playing to the camera," Kelly told Architectural Digest. "It was Judy who pulled me through." He learned quickly, however. After a couple of years doing stock musicals, Kelly made a breakthrough with Cover Girl (1944). Of his work in Cover Girl, Kelly told Interview: "[That's] when I began to see that you could make dances for cinema that weren't just photographed stage dancing. That was my big insight into Hollywood, and Hollywood's big insight into me."

Gene Kelly established his reputation as an actor and dancer, but his contribution to the Hollywood musical includes choreography and direction. His experiments with dance and with film technique include combining the two, as demonstrated in such films as Anchors Aweigh (1945) and Invitation to the Dance (1956). He also made use of special effects, as in the "Alter-Ego" number in Cover Girl (1944), where he danced with his reflection, or in the split-screen dance of It's Always Fair Weather (1957). His first attempts at film choreography relied on the established formulas of the film musical, but subsequently he developed a flexible system of choreography for the camera that took into account camera setups, movement, and editing.

Kelly consciously integrated dance into film in order to help the audience gain insight into the types of characters he played. For example, the song-and-dance man of For Me and My Gal is a common, unpretentious character, and his principal dances are tap routines—the kind of dance accessible to the general public of the era. The sailor of the "A Day in New York" sequence from On the Town is introspective and his dance is therefore more lyrical and balletic. The swashbuckler of the dream dances in Anchors Aweigh (1945) and The Pirate (1948) is an athletic performer, combining the forceful turns of ballet with acrobatic stunts.

Kelly often played a guy who feels that the best way to get what he wants is to impress people. He almost always realizes, however, that his brashness offends people, and that he will more easily succeed by being himself. The worldly wise sailor trying to impress Vera-Ellen in On the Town (1949) is really just a boy from Meadowville, Indiana. In The Pirate the actor Serafin pretends he is a treacherous pirate in order to win Judy Garland's heart, but it is the lowly actor that she really wants. In An American in Paris (1951) Kelly plays an aggressive painter, and in It's Always Fair Weather (1955) he portrays a cool and sophisticated New Yorker. Yet, underneath each of these characters' masks are the charming and clever "true" selves, which are expressed wittily through song and dance.

Though Kelly's characters are naturally high-spirited, they also have a somewhat sad aspect and tend to brood about their loneliness at key moments in the films. Kelly expresses the loneliness in dances that are almost meditations on the characters' feelings. After Gaby has lost Miss Turnstiles for the second time in On the Town, he dreams the ballet "A Day in New York." The isolation of his character is emphasized by the anonymity of the other dancers as well as the disappearance of Vera-Ellen. The ballet in An American in Paris serves a similar thematic purpose. The "Alter-Ego" dance in Cover Girl expresses Kelly's anxiety over losing his girlfriend, and the squeaky-board dance number in Summer Stock (1950) is a rumination on his new feeling for Judy Garland's character.

Kelly's performances left the impression that anyone— sailors, soldiers, ball players—could sing and dance. As he matured, his characters took on greater dimension, responding to the anxiety of city living, falling in love, and being lonely by distilling such experiences into dance.

And while most of his audiences were not really aware of Kelly's sophisticated techniques—thus the magic— virtually all found him uniquely appealing as a leading man. Nowhere was he more engaging than in 1952's Singin' in the Rain. One of the all-time great movie musicals, and perhaps the film most associated with Kelly, this comedy illustrates the late-1920s transition from silent pictures to "talkies." Singin' in the Rain showcased the considerable acting, singing, and dancing gifts of Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor, but it is Kelly who dances away with the movie. His rendition of the title song has become an icon of American entertainment; Kelly makes a driving rain his partner, communicating the joy in movement at the heart of all his performances.

Gene Kelly will always be remembered for his incredible contribution—through dance performance, choreography, and photography—to the genre of the movie musical. While he had some success in nonmusical films— Christmas Holiday, Marjorie Morningstar, Inherit the Wind—his legacy lies in dance. Kelly died on February 2, 1996.

Further Reading

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

Springer, John, All Talking, All Singing, All Dancing, New York, 1966.

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

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

Thomas, Lawrence B., The MGM Years, New Rochelle, New York, 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, Song and Dance Man, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1974; rev. ed., 1991.

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

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

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

Cinema, December 1966.

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

Film Comment (New York), November/December 1984.

American Film (Washington, D.C.), March 1985.

Interview, May 1994.

Entertainment Weekly, 13 May 1994. □

Kelly, Gene

views updated May 23 2018

Gene Kelly

Born: August 23, 1912
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Died: February 2, 1996
Beverly Hills, California

American dancer, actor, and choreographer

Although Gene Kelly established his reputation as an actor and a dancer, his contribution to the Hollywood, California, musical also includes choreography (creating dances) and movie direction.

Athletic childhood

Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 23, 1912, the middle son of five children. His father was Canadian-born and loved sports, especially hockey. Every winter Kelly Sr. would flood the family backyard and make an ice rink for hockey.

Kelly Jr. later credited hockey for some of his dance steps, which he described as "wide open and close to the ground." At fifteen Kelly played with a semiprofessional ice hockey team. He also played football, baseball, and participated in gymnastics.

Turns to dancing

Kelly's other major influence was his mother, who loved the theater. She was the one who sent him to dancing lessons. At first Kelly did not want to continue with his dance lessons because the other students made fun of him. But then he discovered that the girls liked a boy who could dance, so he decided to stick with the lessons.

In 1929 Kelly left for Pennsylvania State College, but because of the Great Depression, his family lost their money. The Great Depression (192939) was a time of worldwide economic trouble that led to global unemployment and poverty. Kelly had to move back home and attend the University of Pittsburgh in order to save the cost of room and board. While at the university, Kelly worked at a variety of odd jobs to pay his tuition: he dug ditches, worked at a soda fountain, and pumped gas. Kelly's mother began to work as a receptionist at a local dance school. She came up with the idea of the family running its own dance studio. They did and the studio was a big success.

After Kelly graduated from the University of Pittsburgh he taught dance for another six years. In 1937 he left for New York City. He believed that he was talented enough to find work and he was right. He got a job in theater his first week in New York. Kelly's big break came in 1940, when he was cast as the lead in the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey.

Goes to Hollywood

Producers from Hollywood saw the show in New York and offered Kelly a contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). He worked for MGM for the next sixteen years. His first Hollywood film was For Me and My Gal (1942), in which he starred opposite Judy Garland (19221969). Garland was only twenty, but already a major star. She had seen Kelly's work and insisted that Kelly have the role. She tutored (taught) him how to act for the movies.

Kelly made a breakthrough with Cover Girl (1944). At one point in the film, his character dances with a mirror image of himself. It caught all the critics' attention. Kelly told Interview magazine, "[That is] when I began to see that you could make dances for cinema that weren't just photographed stage dancing. That was my big insight into Hollywood, and Hollywood's big insight into me."

Experiments with film

Kelly's experiments with dance and with film technique included combining the two, as demonstrated in such films as Anchors Aweigh (1945), where he danced with a cartoon mouse, An American in Paris (1951), and Invitation to the Dance (1956). His first attempts at film choreography relied on the established formulas of the film musical. Later he developed a system of choreography made for the camera that took into account camera setups, movement, and editing. Many people believe that he was the major influence in creating a new form of American dance, one that was different from the more formal and ballet styles of European dance. Kelly danced in a more energetic, athletic way.

Kelly often played a guy who felt that the best way to get what he wanted was to impress people. However, he learns that his brashness (self-confidence without politeness) offends people. In the end he succeeds by being himself. Kelly's characters had much of the "average guy" in them and this quality appealed to audiences. His characters seemed so natural that people who saw his films did not always realize how very sophisticated (complex) his dancing and choreography were.

Singin' in the Rain

Nowhere was Kelly more engaging than in 1952's Singin' in the Rain. One of the all-time great movie musicals, and perhaps the film most associated with Kelly, this comedy is about late-1920s Hollywood and the change from silent pictures to "talkies" (movies with sound). Singin' in the Rain showcased the considerable acting, singing, and dancing gifts of Debbie Reynolds (1932) and Donald O'Connor (1925), but it was Kelly who danced away with the movie. His dance to the title song has become an icon (something that is regarded as the ideal) of American entertainment. Kelly made a drenching rainstorm and umbrella his partners, and communicated the joy in movement at the heart of all of his performances.

Gene Kelly died on February 2, 1996, in Beverly Hills, California. He will always be remembered for his incredible contribution to the movie musical through dance performance, choreography, and photography.

For More Information

Hirschhorn, Clive. Gene Kelly: A Biography. Chicago: Regnery, 1975. Reprint, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984.

Kobal, John. Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance. Feltham, New York: Hamlin, 1970.

Springer, John. All Talking, All Singing, All Dancing. New York: Citadel Press, 1966.

Yudkoff, Alvin. Gene Kelly: A Life of Dance and Dreams. New York: Back Stage Books, 1999.

Kelly, Gene

views updated May 17 2018

Kelly, Gene (1912–96) US dancer, choreographer, film actor, and director. His greatest films, co-directed with Stanley Donen, were On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), and the hugely popular Singin' in the Rain (1951).

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