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Gene Kelly
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For people of the same or similar name, see Eugene Kelly (disambiguation) and Jean Kelly (disambiguation).
Gene Kelly
Kelly in 1943
Born
Eugene Curran Kelly
(1912-08-23)August 23, 1912
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died
February 2, 1996(1996-02-02) (aged 83)
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Citizenship
American (Irish citizenship granted late in life)[1]
Education
Peabody High School
Alma mater
University of Pittsburgh
Occupation
Dancer, choreographer, director, actor, singer, producer
Years active
1938–1994
Known for
Singin' in the Rain
An American in Paris
On the Town
Invitation to the Dance
Political party
Democratic
Spouse(s)
Betsy Blair (m. 1941; div. 1957)
Jeanne Coyne (m. 1960; d. 1973)
Patricia Ward (m. 1990)
Children
3
Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor of film, stage and television, singer, film director, producer, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks, and the likeable characters that he played on screen.
Best known today for his performances in films such as An American in Paris (1951), Anchors Aweigh (1945), and Singin' in the Rain (1952), he starred in musical films until they fell out of fashion in the late 1950s. He starred in many musical films throughout the 1940s, including For Me and My Gal (1942), Du Barry Was a Lady (1943), Thousands Cheer (1943), and On the Town (1949). He starred as the lead in the film It's Always Fair Weather (1955) which has gained a cult following among musical enthusiasts and his fans. In his later career, he starred in two films outside the musical genre: Inherit the Wind (1960) and What a Way to Go! (1964).[2] Throughout his career, he also directed films (some of which he starred in), most notably the 1969 film Hello, Dolly!,[3][4][5] which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.[6][7]
His many innovations transformed the Hollywood musical and he is credited with almost single-handedly making the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences.[8]
Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements. 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 numbered him 15th in their Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood cinema list.
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
2 Stage career
3 Film career
3.1 1941–1945: Becoming established in Hollywood
3.2 1946–1952: MGM
3.3 1953–57: The decline of the Hollywood musical
3.4 1958–1996: After MGM
4 Working methods and influence on filmed dance
5 Personal life
5.1 Marriages
5.2 Political and religious views
6 Illness and death
7 Awards and honors
7.1 Documentaries
7.2 Musical films
7.3 Stage
7.4 Television
8 Radio appearances
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
Early life[edit]
Kelly's senior picture from the 1933 yearbook of the University of Pittsburgh
Kelly was born in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He was the third son of James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman, and his wife Harriet Catherine Curran.[9] His father was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, to an Irish-Canadian family. His maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Derry, Ireland (now Northern Ireland), and his maternal grandmother was of German ancestry.[10] When he was eight, Kelly's mother enrolled him and his brother James in dance classes. As Kelly recalled, they both rebelled: "We didn't like it much and were continually involved in fistfights with the neighborhood boys who called us sissies ... I didn't dance again until I was fifteen." [11] At one time his childhood dream was to play shortstop for the hometown Pittsburgh Pirates.[12] By the time he decided to dance, he was an accomplished sportsman and able to defend himself. He attended St. Raphael Elementary School[13] in the Morningside neighborhood of Pittsburgh and graduated from Peabody High School at age sixteen. He entered Pennsylvania State College as a journalism major, but the 1929 crash forced him to work to help his family. He created dance routines with his younger brother Fred to earn prize money in local talent contests. They also performed in local nightclubs.[11]
In 1931, Kelly enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to study economics, joining the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity.[14] He became involved in the university's Cap and Gown Club, which staged original musical productions.[15] After graduating in 1933, he continued to be active with the Cap and Gown Club, serving as the director from 1934 to 1938. Kelly was admitted to the University of Pittsburgh Law School.[16]
His family opened a dance studio in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In 1932, they renamed it The Gene Kelly Studio of the Dance and opened a second location in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1933. Kelly served as a teacher at the studio during his undergraduate and law student years at Pitt. In 1931 he was approached by the Beth Shalom Synagogue in Pittsburgh to teach dance, and to stage the annual Kermesse. The venture proved a success, Kelly being retained for seven years until his departure for New York.[17]
Kelly eventually decided to pursue a career as a dance teacher and full-time entertainer, so he dropped out of law school after two months. He increased his focus on performing, and later claimed: "With time I became disenchanted with teaching because the ratio of girls to boys was more than ten to one, and once the girls reached sixteen the dropout rate was very high."[11] In 1937, having successfully managed and developed the family's dance school business, he finally did move to New York City in search of work as a choreographer.[11] Kelly returned to Pittsburgh, to his family home at 7514 Kensington Street by 1940, and worked as a theatrical actor.[18]
Stage career[edit]
After a fruitless search for work in New York, Kelly returned to Pittsburgh to his first position as a choreographer with the Charles Gaynor musical revue Hold Your Hats at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in April 1938. Kelly appeared in six of the sketches, one of which, La cumparsita, became the basis of an extended Spanish number in the film Anchors Aweigh eight years later.
His first Broadway assignment, in November 1938, was as a dancer in Cole Porter's Leave It to Me!—as the American ambassador's secretary who supports Mary Martin while she sings My Heart Belongs to Daddy. He had been hired by Robert Alton, who had staged a show at the Pittsburgh Playhouse where he was impressed by Kelly's teaching skills. When Alton moved on to choreograph One for the Money he hired Kelly to act, sing, and dance in eight routines. In 1939, he was selected for a musical revue, One for the Money, produced by the actress Katharine Cornell, who was known for finding and hiring talented young actors.
Kelly's first big breakthrough was in the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Time of Your Life, which opened on October 25, 1939—in which, for the first time on Broadway, he danced to his own choreography. In the same year, he received his first assignment as a Broadway choreographer, for Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe. He began dating a cast member, Betsy Blair, and they got married on October 16, 1941.
In 1940 he got the lead role in Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, again choreographed by Robert Alton. This role propelled him to stardom. During its run he told reporters: "I don't believe in conformity to any school of dancing. I create what the drama and the music demand. While I am a hundred percent for ballet technique, I use only what I can adapt to my own use. I never let technique get in the way of mood or continuity."[11] His colleagues at this time noticed his great commitment to rehearsal and hard work. Van Johnson—who also appeared in Pal Joey—recalled: "I watched him rehearsing, and it seemed to me that there was no possible room for improvement. Yet he wasn't satisfied. It was midnight and we had been rehearsing since eight in the morning. I was making my way sleepily down the long flight of stairs when I heard staccato steps coming from the stage...I could see just a single lamp burning. Under it, a figure was dancing...Gene."[11]
Offers from Hollywood began to arrive, but Kelly was in no hurry to leave New York. Eventually, he signed with David O. Selznick, agreeing to go to Hollywood at the end of his commitment to Pal Joey, in October 1941. Prior to his contract, he also managed to fit in choreographing the stage production of Best Foot Forward.
Film career[edit]
1941–1945: Becoming established in Hollywood[edit]
Gene Kelly dances with Jerry of Tom and Jerry in Anchors Aweigh (1945), an iconic performance which changed at least one critic's opinion of Kelly's skills.
Selznick sold half of Kelly's contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for his first motion picture: For Me and My Gal (1942) starring box-office champion Judy Garland. Kelly claimed to be "appalled at the sight of myself blown up twenty times. I had an awful feeling that I was a tremendous flop." For Me and My Gal performed very well and, in the face of much internal resistance, Arthur Freed of MGM picked up the other half of Kelly's contract.[11] After appearing in a cheap B-movie drama, Pilot No. 5 (1943) and in Christmas Holiday (1944), he took the male lead in Cole Porter's Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) opposite Lucille Ball (in a part originally intended for Ann Sothern). His first opportunity to dance to his own choreography came in his next picture, Thousands Cheer (1943), where he performed a mock-love dance with a mop.
He achieved a significant breakthrough as a dancer on film when MGM loaned him to Columbia to work with Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl (1944), a film that foreshadowed the best of his future work.[19] He created a memorable routine dancing to his own reflection. Despite this, noted critic Manny Farber was moved to praise Kelly's "attitude", "clarity", and "feeling" as an actor while inauspiciously concluding, "The two things he does least well – singing and dancing – are what he is given most consistently to do."[20] At the end of 1944, Kelly enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Service and was commissioned as lieutenant junior grade. He was stationed in the Photographic Section, Washington D.C., where he was involved in writing and directing a range of documentaries, and this stimulated his interest in the production side of filmmaking.[14][21]
In Kelly's next film, Anchors Aweigh (1945), MGM gave him a free hand to devise a range of dance routines, including his duets with co-star Frank Sinatra and the celebrated animated dance with Jerry Mouse – the animation for which was supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. That iconic performance was enough for Farber to completely reverse his previous assessment of Kelly's skills. Reviewing the film, Farber enthused, "Kelly is the most exciting dancer to appear in Hollywood movies."[22] Anchors Aweigh became one of the most successful films of 1945 and it garnered Kelly his first and only Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In Ziegfeld Follies (1946) – which was produced in 1944 but not released until 1946 – Kelly collaborated with Fred Astaire, for whom he had the greatest admiration, in the famous "The Babbitt and the Bromide" challenge dance routine.
1946–1952: MGM[edit]
After Kelly returned to Hollywood in 1946, MGM had nothing planned and used him in a routine, black-and-white movie: Living in a Big Way. The film was considered so weak that the studio asked Kelly to design and insert a series of dance routines, and they noticed his ability to carry out such assignments. This led to a lead part in his next picture, with Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli— a musical film version of S.N. Behrman's play, The Pirate, with songs by Cole Porter, in which Kelly plays the lead. The Pirate gave full rein to Kelly's athleticism. It is also notable for Kelly's work with The Nicholas Brothers – the leading black dancers of their day – in a virtuoso dance routine. Now regarded as a classic, the film was ahead of its time but flopped at the box-office.
Leslie Caron and Kelly in the trailer for An American in Paris (1951)
MGM wanted Kelly to return to safer and more commercial vehicles, but he ceaselessly fought for an opportunity to direct his own musical film. In the interim, he capitalized on his swashbuckling image as d'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers—and also appeared with Vera-Ellen in the Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ballet in Words and Music (1948). He was due to play the male lead opposite Garland in Easter Parade (1948), but broke his ankle playing volleyball. He withdrew from the film and convinced Fred Astaire to come out of retirement to replace him.[23] There followed Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), his second film with Sinatra, where Kelly paid tribute to his Irish heritage in The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day routine. This musical film persuaded Arthur Freed to have Kelly make On the Town, in which he partnered with Frank Sinatra for the third and final time. A breakthrough in the musical film genre, it has been described as "the most inventive and effervescent musical thus far produced in Hollywood."[11]
Stanley Donen, brought to Hollywood by Kelly to be his assistant choreographer, received co-director credit for On the Town. According to Kelly: "...when you are involved in doing choreography for film you must have expert assistants. I needed one to watch my performance, and one to work with the cameraman on the timing..without such people as Stanley, Carol Haney and Jeanne Coyne I could never have done these things. When we came to do On the Town, I knew it was time for Stanley to get screen credit because we weren't boss-assistant anymore but co-creators."[11][24] Together, they opened up the musical form, taking the film musical out of the studio and into real locations, with Donen taking responsibility for the staging and Kelly handling the choreography. Kelly went much further than before in introducing modern ballet into his dance sequences, going so far in the "Day in New York" routine as to substitute four leading ballet specialists for Sinatra, Munshin, Garrett and Miller.[14]
Kelly asked the studio for a straight acting role and he took the lead role in the early mafia melodrama: Black Hand (1950). This exposé of organized crime is set in New York's "Little Italy" during late 19th century, and focuses on the Black Hand, a group which extorts money upon threat of death. In real-life incidents upon which this film is based, it was the Mafia, not the Black Hand, who functioned as the villain. Even in 1950, however, Hollywood had to tread gingerly whenever dealing with big-time crime, it being safer to go after a "dead" criminal organization than a "live" one. There followed Summer Stock (1950) – Garland's last musical film for MGM – in which Kelly performed the celebrated "You, You Wonderful You" solo routine with a newspaper and a squeaky floorboard. In his book "Easy the Hard Way", Joe Pasternak, head of one of the other musical units within MGM, singled out Kelly for his patience and willingness to spend as much time as necessary to enable the ailing Garland to complete her part.[11]
Singin' in the Rain trailer: Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds and Kelly (1952)
There followed in quick succession two musicals which have secured Kelly's reputation as a major figure in the American musical film, An American in Paris (1951) and – probably the most popular and admired of all film musicals – Singin' in the Rain (1952). As co-director, lead star and choreographer, Kelly was the central driving force. Johnny Green, head of music at MGM at the time, said of him:
Gene is easygoing as long as you know exactly what you are doing when you're working with him. He's a hard taskmaster and he loves hard work. If you want to play on his team you'd better like hard work, too. He isn't cruel but he is tough, and if Gene believed in something he didn't care who he was talking to, whether it was Louis B. Mayer or the gatekeeper. He wasn't awed by anybody, and he had a good record of getting what he wanted.[11]
An American in Paris won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and, in the same year, Kelly received an honorary Academy Award for his contribution to film musicals and the art of choreography. The film also marked the debut of Leslie Caron, who Kelly had spotted in Paris and brought to Hollywood. Its dream ballet sequence, lasting an unprecedented seventeen minutes, was the most expensive production number ever filmed at that time. Bosley Crowther described it as, "...whoop-de-doo ... one of the finest ever put on the screen."[14]
Singin' in the Rain featured Kelly's celebrated and much imitated solo dance routine to the title song, along with the "Moses Supposes" routine with Donald O'Connor and the "Broadway Melody" finale with Cyd Charisse. Though the film did not initially generate the same enthusiasm as An American in Paris, it subsequently overtook the earlier film to occupy its current pre-eminent place among critics and filmgoers alike.[25]
1953–57: The decline of the Hollywood musical[edit]
At the peak of his creative powers, Kelly made what in retrospect some see as a mistake.[14] In December 1951, he signed a contract with MGM that sent him to Europe for nineteen months to use MGM funds frozen in Europe to make three pictures while personally benefiting from tax exemptions. Only one of these pictures was a musical, Invitation to the Dance, a pet project of Kelly's to bring modern ballet to mainstream film audiences. It was beset with delays and technical problems, and flopped when finally released in 1956.
Michael Kidd, Kelly, and Dan Dailey in It's Always Fair Weather (1955), directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, their last collaboration
When Kelly returned to Hollywood in 1953, the film musical was already beginning to feel the pressures from television, and MGM cut the budget for his next picture Brigadoon (1954), with Cyd Charisse, forcing him to make the film on studio back lots instead of on location in Scotland. This year also saw him appear as guest star with his brother Fred in the celebrated I Love to Go Swimmin' with Wimmen routine in Deep in My Heart. MGM's refusal to loan him out for Guys and Dolls and Pal Joey put further strains on his relationship with the studio. He negotiated an exit to his contract which involved making three further pictures for MGM. The first of these, It's Always Fair Weather (1956) co-directed with Donen, was a musical satire on television and advertising, and includes his famous roller skate dance routine to I Like Myself, and a dance trio with Michael Kidd and Dan Dailey that Kelly used to experiment with the widescreen possibilities of Cinemascope. MGM had lost faith in Kelly's box-office appeal, and as a result It's Always Fair Weather "premiered" at seventeen drive-in theatres around the Los Angeles metroplex. Next followed Kelly's last musical film for MGM, Les Girls (1957), in which he partnered a trio of leading ladies, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, and Taina Elg. It too sold few movie tickets. The third picture he completed was a co-production between MGM and himself, a cheapie B-film, The Happy Road, set in his beloved France, his first foray in a new role as producer-director-actor. After leaving MGM, Kelly returned to stage work.
1958–1996: After MGM[edit]
In 1958, Kelly directed Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play Flower Drum Song.[26] Early in 1960, Kelly, an ardent Francophile and fluent French speaker, was invited by A. M. Julien, the general administrator of the Paris Opéra and Opéra-Comique,[11] to select his own material and create a modern ballet for the company, the first time an American had received such an assignment. The result was Pas de Dieux, based on Greek mythology, combined with the music of George Gershwin's Concerto in F. It was a major success, and led to his being honored with the Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur by the French Government.
Kelly as Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind
Kelly continued to make some film appearances, such as Hornbeck in the 1960 Hollywood production of Inherit the Wind. However, most of his efforts were now concentrated on film production and directing. In 1962 he directed Jackie Gleason in Gigot in Paris, but the film was drastically re-cut by Seven Arts Productions and flopped.[14] Another French effort, Jacques Demy's homage to the MGM musical, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), in which Kelly appeared, was popular in France and nominated for Academy Awards for Best Music and Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation), but performed poorly elsewhere. He appeared as himself in George Cukor's Let's Make Love (1960).
He was asked to direct the film version of The Sound of Music, which had been previously turned down by Stanley Donen. He escorted Ernest Lehman out of his house saying "Go find someone else to direct this piece of shit."[27]
His first foray into television was a documentary for NBC's Omnibus, Dancing is a Man's Game (1958), where he assembled a group of America's greatest sportsmen – including Mickey Mantle, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Bob Cousy – and re-interpreted their moves choreographically, as part of his lifelong quest to remove the effeminate stereotype of the art of dance, while articulating the philosophy behind his dance style.[14] It gained an Emmy nomination for choreography and now stands as the key document explaining Kelly's approach to modern dance.
Kelly appeared frequently on television shows during the 1960s, including Going My Way, which was based on the 1944 film of the same name. It enjoyed great popularity in Roman Catholic countries outside the U.S.[14] He also appeared in three major TV specials: The Julie Andrews Show (1965), New York, New York (1966), and Jack and the Beanstalk (1967)—a show he produced and directed that again combined cartoon animation and live dance, winning him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program.
In 1963, Kelly joined Universal Pictures for a two-year stint. He joined 20th Century Fox in 1965 but had little to do—partly due to his decision to decline assignments away from Los Angeles for family reasons. His perseverance finally paid off, with the major box-office hit A Guide for the Married Man (1967) where he directed Walter Matthau. Then, a major opportunity arose when Fox – buoyed by the returns from The Sound of Music (1965) – commissioned Kelly to direct Hello, Dolly! (1969), again directing Matthau along with Barbra Streisand. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won three.
In 1970, he made another TV special: Gene Kelly and 50 Girls and was invited to bring the show to Las Vegas, Nevada—which he did for an eight-week stint on the condition he be paid more than any artist had ever been paid there.[14] He directed veteran actors James Stewart and Henry Fonda in the comedy western The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) which performed poorly at the box-office. In 1973, he worked again with Frank Sinatra as part of Sinatra's Emmy nominated TV special, Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra. Then, in 1974, he appeared as one of many special narrators in the surprise hit of the year That's Entertainment!. He subsequently directed and co-starred with his friend Fred Astaire in the sequel That's Entertainment, Part II (1976). It was a measure of his powers of persuasion that he managed to coax the 77-year-old Astaire – who had insisted that his contract rule out any dancing, having long since retired—into performing a series of song and dance duets, evoking a powerful nostalgia for the glory days of the American musical film.
In 1977, Kelly starred in the poorly received action film Viva Knievel!, with the popular stuntman, Evel Knievel. Kelly continued to make frequent TV appearances and, in 1980, appeared in an acting and dancing role with Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu (1980)—an expensive theatrical flop that has since attained a cult following.[14] In Kelly's opinion, "The concept was marvelous but it just didn't come off."[11] In the same year, he was invited by Francis Ford Coppola to recruit a production staff for American Zoetrope's One from the Heart (1982). Although Coppola's ambition was for him to establish a production unit to rival the Freed Unit at MGM, the film's failure put an end to this idea.[14] In 1985 Kelly served as executive producer and co-host of That's Dancing! – a celebration of the history of dance in the American musical. Kelly's final on-screen appearance was to introduce That's Entertainment! III. His final film project was in 1994 for the animated film Cats Don't Dance, released in 1997 and dedicated to him, on which Kelly acted as an uncredited choreographic consultant.
Working methods and influence on filmed dance[edit]
When he began his collaborative film work, he was influenced by Robert Alton and John Murray Anderson, striving to create moods and character insight with his dances. He choreographed his own movement, along with that of the ensemble, with the assistance of Jeanne Coyne, Stanley Donen, Carol Haney and Alex Romero.[8] He experimented with lighting, camera techniques and special effects in order to achieve true integration of dance with film, and was one of the first to use split screens, double images, live action with animation and is credited as the person who made the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences.[8]
There was a clear progression in his development, from an early concentration on tap and musical comedy style to greater complexity using ballet and modern dance forms.[28] Kelly himself refused to categorize his style: "I don't have a name for my style of dancing...It's certainly hybrid...I've borrowed from the modern dance, from the classical, and certainly from the American folk dance – tap-dancing, jitterbugging...But I have tried to develop a style which is indigenous to the environment in which I was reared."[28] He especially acknowledged the influence of George M. Cohan: "I have a lot of Cohan in me. It's an Irish quality, a jaw-jutting, up-on-the-toes cockiness – which is a good quality for a male dancer to have."[11] He was also heavily influenced by an African-American dancer, Dancing Dotson, whom he saw perform at Loew's Penn Theatre around 1929. He was briefly taught by Frank Harrington, an African-American tap specialist from New York.[29] However, his main interest was in ballet, which he studied under Kotchetovsky in the early Thirties. As biographer Clive Hirschhorn explains: "As a child he used to run for miles through parks and streets and woods – anywhere, just as long as he could feel the wind against his body and through his hair. Ballet gave him the same feeling of exhilaration, and in 1933 he was convinced it was the most satisfying form of self-expression."[14] He also studied Spanish dancing under Angel Cansino, Rita Hayworth's uncle.[14] Generally speaking, he tended to use tap and other popular dance idioms to express joy and exuberance – as in the title song from Singin' in the Rain or "I Got Rhythm" from An American in Paris, whereas pensive or romantic feelings were more often expressed via ballet or modern dance, as in "Heather on the Hill" from Brigadoon or "Our Love Is Here to Stay" from An American in Paris.[28]
Kelly in rehearsal with Sugar Ray Robinson and assistant Jeanne Coyne in the NBC Omnibus television special Dancing is a Man's Game (1958)
According to Delamater, Kelly's work "seems to represent the fulfillment of dance-film integration in the 1940s and 1950s". While Fred Astaire had revolutionized the filming of dance in the 1930s by insisting on full-figure photography of dancers while allowing only a modest degree of camera movement, Kelly freed up the camera, making greater use of space, camera movement, camera angles and editing, creating a partnership between dance movement and camera movement without sacrificing full-figure framing. Kelly's reasoning behind this was that he felt the kinetic force of live dance often evaporated when brought to film, and he sought to partially overcome this by involving the camera in movement and giving the dancer a greater number of directions in which to move. Examples of this abound in Kelly's work and are well illustrated in the "Prehistoric Man" sequence from On the Town and "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day" from Take Me Out to the Ball Game.[28] In 1951, he summed up his vision as follows: "If the camera is to make a contribution at all to dance, this must be the focal point of its contribution; the fluid background, giving each spectator an undistorted and altogether similar view of dancer and background. To accomplish this, the camera is made fluid, moving with the dancer, so that the lens becomes the eye of the spectator, your eye".[8]
Kelly's athleticism gave his moves a distinctive broad, muscular quality,[28] and this was a very deliberate choice on his part, as he explained: "There's a strong link between sports and dancing, and my own dancing springs from my early days as an athlete...I think dancing is a man's game and if he does it well he does it better than a woman."[11] He railed against what he saw as the widespread effeminacy in male dancing which, in his opinion, "tragically" stigmatized the genre, alienating boys from entering the field: "Dancing does attract effeminate young men. I don't object to that as long as they don't dance effeminately. I just say that if a man dances effeminately he dances badly — just as if a woman comes out on stage and starts to sing bass. Unfortunately, people confuse gracefulness with softness. John Wayne is a graceful man and so are some of the great ball players...but, of course, they don't run the risk of being called sissies."[11] In his view, "one of our problems is that so much dancing is taught by women. You can spot many male dancers who have this tuition by their arm movements — they are soft, limp and feminine."[11] He acknowledged that, in spite of his efforts — in TV programs such as Dancing: A Man's Game (1958) for example — the situation changed little over the years.[11]
He also sought to break from the class-conscious conventions of the 1930s and early 40s, when top hat and tails or tuxedos were the norm, by dancing in casual or everyday work clothes, so as to make his dancing more relevant to the cinema-going public. As his first wife, actress and dancer Betsy Blair explained: "A sailor suit or his white socks and loafers, or the T-shirts on his muscular torso, gave everyone the feeling that he was a regular guy, and perhaps they too could express love and joy by dancing in the street or stomping through puddles...he democratized the dance in movies."[30] In particular, he wanted to create a completely different image from that associated with Fred Astaire, not least because he believed his physique didn't suit such refined elegance: "I used to envy his cool aristocratic style, so intimate and contained. Fred wears top hat and tails to the Manor born — I put them on and look like a truck driver."[11]
Personal life[edit]
Marriages[edit]
Kelly, photographed by Allan Warren, in 1986
Kelly married three times. His first marriage was to the actress Betsy Blair in 1941. They had one child, Kerry (b. 1942), and divorced in April 1957.[31]
In 1960 Kelly married his choreographic assistant Jeanne Coyne, who had previously been married to Stanley Donen between 1948 and 1951. Kelly and Coyne had two children, Timothy (b. 1962) and Bridget (b. 1964), and were married until Coyne's death in 1973.
Kelly's third marriage was to Patricia Ward in 1990, and ended with Kelly's death in 1996.[32]
Political and religious views[edit]
Kelly was a lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party. His period of greatest prominence coincided with the McCarthy era in the U.S. In 1947, he was part of the Committee for the First Amendment, the Hollywood delegation that flew to Washington to protest at the first official hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His first wife, Betsy Blair, was suspected of being a Communist sympathizer and when United Artists, who had offered Blair a part in Marty (1955), were considering withdrawing her under pressure from the American Legion, Kelly successfully threatened MGM's influence on United Artists with a pullout from It's Always Fair Weather unless his wife was restored to the part.[14][33] He used his position on the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America, West on a number of occasions to mediate disputes between unions and the Hollywood studios.
He was raised as a Roman Catholic, and he was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.[34] However, after becoming disenchanted by the Roman Catholic Church's support for Francisco Franco against the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War,[35] he officially severed his ties with the church in September 1939. This separation was prompted, in part, by a trip Kelly made to Mexico in which he became convinced of the Church’s failure in helping the poor.[35] After his departure from the Catholic Church, Kelly became an agnostic and had previously described himself as such.[36]
He retained a lifelong passion for sports and relished competition. He was known as a big fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Yankees. From the mid-1940s through the early 1950s, he and Blair organized weekly parties at their Beverly Hills home, and they often played an intensely competitive and physical version of charades, known as "The Game".[33]
His papers are currently housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.
Gene Kelly was a fluent French speaker : http://www.ina.fr/video/I00019694
Late in life, Gene Kelly was awarded Irish citizenship under Ireland's Citizenship by Foreign Birth program. The application was initiated on his behalf by his wife Patricia Ward Kelly.[37]
Illness and death[edit]
Kelly's health declined steadily in the late 1980s. A stroke in July 1994 resulted in a seven-week hospital stay and another stroke in early 1995 left Kelly mostly bedridden in his Beverly Hills home. He died in his sleep at 8:15 a.m. on February 2, 1996, and was cremated, without funeral or memorial services.[38]
Awards and honors[edit]
Plaque honoring Gene Kelly at his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh
1942 – Best Actor award from the National Board of Review for his performance in For Me and My Gal
1946 – Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in Anchors Aweigh (1945)
1951 – Nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for An American in Paris
1952 – 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.
1953 – Nomination from the Directors Guild of America, Best Director for Singin' in the Rain, 1952 (shared with Stanley Donen).[39]
1956 – Golden Bear at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival for Invitation to the Dance.[40]
1958 – Nomination for Golden Laurel Award for Best Male Musical Performance in Les Girls.
1958 – Dance Magazine's annual TV Award for Dancing: A Man's Game from the Omnibus television series. It was also nominated for an Emmy for best singing.
1960 – In France, Kelly was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
1962 – Gene Kelly Dance Film Festival staged by the Museum of Modern Art.
1964 – Best Actor Award 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 – Nomination for Golden Globe, Best Director for Hello, Dolly!, 1969.
1970 – Nomination from the Directors Guild of America, Best Director for Hello, Dolly!, 1969.
1981 – Cecil B. DeMille Award at Golden Globes.
1981 – Kelly was the subject of a two-week film festival in France.
1982 – Lifetime Achievement Award in the fifth annual Kennedy Center Honors.
1985 – Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute.
1989 – Life Achievement Award from Screen Actors Guild.
1991 – Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera inaugurates The Gene Kelly Awards, given annually to high-school musicals in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
1992 – Induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame.[41]
1994 – National Medal of Arts awarded by United States President Bill Clinton.[42]
1994 – The Three Tenors performed "Singin' in the Rain" in his presence during a concert at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
1996 – Honorary César Award, The César is the main national film award in France.
1996 – At the Academy Awards ceremony, director Quincy Jones organized a tribute to the just-deceased Kelly, in which Savion Glover performed the dance to "Singin' in the Rain".
1997 – Ranked number 26 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.
1999 – Ranked number 15 in the American Film Institute's "Greatest Male Legends" of Classic Hollywood list.
2013 - "Singin' in the Rain" ranked number 1 in "The Nation's Favorite Dance Moment".
Documentaries[edit]
1999 – Anatomy of a dancer, directed by Robert Trachtenberg, PBS, 2002.
2013 – Gene Kelly, to live and dance, by Bertrand Tessier, France 5, 2017.
Musical films[edit]
Kelly appeared as actor and dancer in the following musical films. He always choreographed his own dance routines and often the dance routines of others and used assistants. As was the practice at the time, he was rarely formally credited in the film titles:[8]
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1942 For Me and My Gal Harry Palmer
1943 DuBarry Was a Lady Alec Howe/Black Arrow
1943 Thousands Cheer Private Eddie Marsh
1944 Cover Girl Danny McGuire
1945 Anchors Aweigh Joseph Brady Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
1945 Ziegfeld Follies Gentleman in 'The Babbit and the Bromide'
1947 Living in a Big Way Leo Gogarty
1948 The Pirate Serafin
1948 The Three Musketeers D'Artagnan
1948 Words and Music Himself
1949 Take Me Out to the Ball Game Eddie O'Brien
1949 On the Town Gabey
1950 Summer Stock Joe D. Ross
1951 An American in Paris Jerry Mulligan Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1952 Singin' in the Rain Don Lockwood
1954 Brigadoon Tommy Albright
1954 Deep in My Heart Specialty in 'Dancing Around'
1955 It's Always Fair Weather Ted Riley
1956 Invitation to the Dance Host/Pierrot/The Marine/Sinbad
1957 Les Girls Barry Nichols
1958 Marjorie Morningstar Noel Airman
1960 Let's Make Love Himself
1964 What a Way to Go! Pinky Benson
1966 Les Demoiselles de Rochefort Andy Miller
1974 That's Entertainment! Himself Also archive footage
1976 That's Entertainment, Part II Himself Also archive footage
1980 Xanadu Danny McGuire
1994 That's Entertainment, Part III Himself Also archive footage
Stage[edit]
Date
Production
Role
Notes
November 9, 1938 – July 15, 1939 Leave It to Me! Secretary to Mr. Goodhue Was also a chorus boy in this production, backing Mary Martin in her famous number "My Heart Belongs To Daddy"
February 4, 1939 – May 27, 1939 One for the Money various roles
October 25, 1939 – April 6, 1940 The Time of Your Life Harry
September 23, 1940 – October 19, 1940 The Time of Your Life Harry
December 25, 1940 – November 29, 1941 Pal Joey Joey Evans
October 1, 1941 – July 4, 1942 Best Foot Forward Choreography
December 1, 1958 – May 7, 1960 Flower Drum Song Director
February 22, 1979 – April 1, 1979 Coquelico Producer
July 2, 1985 – May 18, 1986 Singin' in the Rain Original film choreography
Nominated — Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography
Television[edit]
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1958 Omnibus Himself Episode: "Dancing: A Man's Game"
1962–1963 Going My Way Father Chuck O'Malley 30 episodes
1965 Gene Kelly: New York, New York Himself
1965 The Julie Andrews Show Himself
1967 Jack and the Beanstalk Jeremy Keen, Proprietor (Peddler) Emmy Award for Best Children's Program
1971 The Funny Side Himself Series host
1973 Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra Himself
1977 Yabba Dabba Doo! The Happy World of Hanna-Barbera Himself Documentary Host
1978 Gene Kelly: An American in Pasadena Himself
1979 The Mary Tyler Moore Hour Himself Guest Star
1980 The Muppet Show Himself
1985 North and South Senator Charles Edwards Miniseries
1986 Sins Eric Hovland Miniseries
2007 Family Guy Joseph Brady (Road to Rupert) Archive footage, uncredited
Radio appearances[edit]
Year
Program
Episode/source
1946 Hollywood Players The Glass Key[43]
1949 Suspense Mystery Radio Play To Find Help[44]
See also[edit]
Dance portal
Film portal
Television portal
Biography portal
References[edit]
Notes
Jump up ^ RTE Publishing. "Gene Kelly was proud of Irish roots - RTÉ Ten". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2014-07-29. Retrieved 2014-10-27.
Jump up ^ DiLeo, John (2002). 100 Great Film Performances You Should Remember, But Probably Don't. Limelight Editions. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-87910-972-1.
Jump up ^ "100 Greatest Film Musicals". Retrieved 2016-04-08.
Jump up ^ "The Best Movie Musicals of All Time". Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
Jump up ^ "The Top 100 Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time". Retrieved 2016-04-08.
Jump up ^ "The 42nd Academy Awards (1970) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
Jump up ^ "Hello, Dolly!". The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2016. [dead link]
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Billman, Larry (1997). Film Choreographers and Dance Directors. North Carolina: McFarland and Company. pp. 374–376. ISBN 0-89950-868-5.
Jump up ^ "Heritage Gazette Vol.12 no.1: Entertainment and Recreation (May 2007)". content.yudu.com. Retrieved 2014-10-27.
Jump up ^ Hirschhorn, C. (1975). Gene Kelly: A Biography. Regnery. ISBN 9780809282609. Retrieved 2014-10-27.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Thomas, Tony (1991). The Films of Gene Kelly – Song and Dance Man. New York, NY: Carol Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8065-0543-5.
Jump up ^ "On Stage: Kate Hepburn, Richard Rauh and old Nixon". old.post-gazette.com. Retrieved 2014-10-27.
Jump up ^ "St Raphael Elementary School". straphaelelementaryschool.net. Retrieved 2014-10-27.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hirschhorn, Clive (1984). Gene Kelly – a Biography. London: W.H. Allen. ISBN 0-491-03182-3.
Jump up ^ The Owl. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh. 1933. p. 158. Archived from the original on 2012-09-22. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
Jump up ^ The Owl. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh. 1938. p. 198. Archived from the original on 2012-09-22. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
Jump up ^ cf. Hirschhorn, p.33.
Jump up ^ 1940 US Census via Ancestry.com
Jump up ^ Hess, Earl J.; Dabholkar, Pratibha A. (2009). Singin’ in the Rain: The Making of an American Masterpiece. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-7006-1656-5.
Jump up ^ Farber, Manny, The New Republic, May 15, 1944, as reprinted in 'Farber on Film,' Library of America, 2009, pg. 163
Jump up ^ According to Blair, p.111, he directed Jocelyn Brando in a semi-documentary about war-wounded veterans.
Jump up ^ Farber, Manny (April 27, 1945) The New Republic, republished in Farber on Film (2009) Library of America. p. 255
Jump up ^ Astaire, Fred (1959). Steps in Time. London: Heinemann. p. 291. ISBN 0-241-11749-6.
Jump up ^ Blair, p.104: "Gene was the central creative force in this initial collaboration, but he was always generous about Stanley's contribution...Unfortunately, and mysteriously for me, Stanley, over the years, had been less than gracious about Gene"
Jump up ^ In 1994, Kurt Browning, offered an ice skating interpretation of Singin' in the Rain on his television special You Must Remember This. In 2005, Kelly's widow gave permission for Volkswagen to use his likeness to promote the Golf GTi car. The advertisement, shown only outside the US, used CGI to mix footage of Gene Kelly, from Singin' in the Rain, with footage of professional breakdancer David Elsewhere.
Jump up ^ In an episode foreshadowing his later conflicts with the studio, Elia Kazan in the late 1940s offered Kelly the role of Biff in Death of a Salesman on Broadway, but MGM refused to release him. cf. Blair, p.112
Jump up ^ "Book Review: ‘The Sound of Music Story’ by Tom Santopietro - WSJ". wsj.com. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Delamater, Jerome (2004). "Gene Kelly". International Encyclopedia of Dance. vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 38–40.
Jump up ^ cf. Hirschhorn, p.25,26: "What impressed Gene was the originality of the man's [Dotson's] dancing, as it was quite unlike anything he'd seen before. The tricks Dotson was doing were absolutely fresh. He went back to see that act a couple of times, and admitted pinching several steps for his own use...Just as he had done with Dotson, Gene made up his mind to 'steal' as much as he could from numerous touring shows...both he and Fred were absolutely shameless when it came to pilfering, and very good at it."
Jump up ^ Blair, p.176
Jump up ^ "Marriage Ends For Gene Kelly, Actress Wife". The Palm Beach Post. 1957-04-04. p. 10. Archived from the original on 2013-01-25. Retrieved 2012-12-07.
Jump up ^ Krebs, Albin (1996-02-03). "Gene Kelly, Dancer of Vigor and Grace, Dies". nytimes.com. p. 5. Retrieved 2012-12-07.
^ Jump up to: a b Blair, Betsy (2004). The Memory of All That. London: Elliott & Thompson. ISBN 1-904027-30-X.
Jump up ^ "Our History | Church of the Good Shepherd". goodshepherdbh.org. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
^ Jump up to: a b "Gene Kelly: cultural icon". Catholic New Times. 2005. Archived from the original on 2012-01-19.
Jump up ^ Yudkoff, Alvin Gene Kelly: A Life of Dance and Dreams, Watson-Guptill Publications: New York, NY (1999) pp. 42, 59
Jump up ^ Kelly, Patricia Ward (April 21, 2013). "My Genealogy". The Irish Independent. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
Jump up ^ cf. Blair, p. 8
Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045152/awards?ref_=tt_awd
Jump up ^ "6th Berlin International Film Festival: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2009-12-26.
Jump up ^ "Gene Kelly Trivia". www.imdb.com.
Jump up ^ "National Medal of Arts". www.nea.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-05-23. 1994-Gene Kelly – dancer, singer, actor. One website, Movie Treasures, refers to this award as the "National Medal of Freedom" causing some people to mistake the award for the entirely unrelated "Presidential Medal of Freedom." The award Gene Kelly received was the National Medal of the Arts. Kelly's name does not appear on the list of Presidential Medal of Freedom Winners.
Jump up ^ "Gene Kelly Joins Hollywood Players in "Glass Key"". Harrisburg Telegraph. November 23, 1946. p. 19. Retrieved September 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
Jump up ^ "Suspense - To Find Help" Escape and Suspense. To Find Help starring Gene Kelly, Ethel Barrymore and William Conrad, aired on January 6, 1949. It was adapted from Mel Dinelli's stage play The Man and from the film Beware, My Lovely (1952) starring Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan.
Further reading
Wise, James. Stars in Blue: Movie Actors in America's Sea Services. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997. ISBN 1557509379 OCLC 36824724
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gene Kelly.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly on IMDb
Gene Kelly at the TCM Movie Database
Gene Kelly at the Internet Broadway Database
The Gene Kelly Awards – University of Pittsburgh
Naval Intelligence File on Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly – An American Life – PBS
Gene Kelly – Pittsburgh Music History
"Gene Kelly". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
Le Site Français Gene Kelly
[show]
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Films directed by Gene Kelly
On the Town (1949)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
It's Always Fair Weather (1955)
Invitation to the Dance (1956)
The Happy Road (1957)
The Tunnel of Love (1958)
Gigot (1962)
A Guide for the Married Man (1967)
Hello, Dolly! (1969)
The Cheyenne Social Club (1970)
That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)
[show]
Awards for Gene Kelly
[show]
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Academy Honorary Award
1928–1950
Warner Bros. / Charlie Chaplin (1928)
Walt Disney (1932)
Shirley Temple (1934)
D. W. Griffith (1935)
The March of Time / W. Howard Greene and Harold Rosson (1936)
Edgar Bergen / W. Howard Greene / Museum of Modern Art Film Library / Mack Sennett (1937)
J. Arthur Ball / Walt Disney / Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney / Gordon Jennings, Jan Domela, Devereaux Jennings, Irmin Roberts, Art Smith, Farciot Edouart, Loyal Griggs, Loren L. Ryder, Harry D. Mills, Louis Mesenkop, Walter Oberst / Oliver T. Marsh and Allen Davey / Harry Warner (1938)
Douglas Fairbanks / Judy Garland / William Cameron Menzies / Motion Picture Relief Fund (Jean Hersholt, Ralph Morgan, Ralph Block, Conrad Nagel)/ Technicolor Company (1939)
Bob Hope / Nathan Levinson (1940)
Walt Disney, William Garity, John N. A. Hawkins, and the RCA Manufacturing Company / Leopold Stokowski and his associates / Rey Scott / British Ministry of Information (1941)
Charles Boyer / Noël Coward / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1942)
George Pal (1943)
Bob Hope / Margaret O'Brien (1944)
Republic Studio, Daniel J. Bloomberg, and the Republic Studio Sound Department / Walter Wanger / The House I Live In / Peggy Ann Garner (1945)
Harold Russell / Laurence Olivier / Ernst Lubitsch / Claude Jarman Jr. (1946)
James Baskett / Thomas Armat, William Nicholas Selig, Albert E. Smith, and George Kirke Spoor / Bill and Coo / Shoeshine (1947)
Walter Wanger / Monsieur Vincent / Sid Grauman / Adolph Zukor (1948)
Jean Hersholt / Fred Astaire / Cecil B. DeMille / The Bicycle Thief (1949)
Louis B. Mayer / George Murphy / The Walls of Malapaga (1950)
1951–1975
Gene Kelly / Rashomon (1951)
Merian C. Cooper / Bob Hope / Harold Lloyd / George Mitchell / Joseph M. Schenck / Forbidden Games (1952)
20th Century-Fox Film Corporation / Bell & Howell Company / Joseph Breen / Pete Smith (1953)
Bausch & Lomb Optical Company / Danny Kaye / Kemp Niver / Greta Garbo / Jon Whiteley / Vincent Winter / Gate of Hell (1954)
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1955)
Eddie Cantor (1956)
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers / Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson / Charles Brackett / B. B. Kahane (1957)
Maurice Chevalier (1958)
Buster Keaton / Lee de Forest (1959)
Gary Cooper / Stan Laurel / Hayley Mills (1960)
William L. Hendricks / Fred L. Metzler / Jerome Robbins (1961)
William J. Tuttle (1964)
Bob Hope (1965)
Yakima Canutt / Y. Frank Freeman (1966)
Arthur Freed (1967)
John Chambers / Onna White (1968)
Cary Grant (1969)
Lillian Gish / Orson Welles (1970)
Charlie Chaplin (1971)
Charles S. Boren / Edward G. Robinson (1972)
Henri Langlois / Groucho Marx (1973)
Howard Hawks / Jean Renoir (1974)
Mary Pickford (1975)
1976–2000
Margaret Booth (1977)
Walter Lantz / Laurence Olivier / King Vidor / Museum of Modern Art Department of Film (1978)
Hal Elias / Alec Guinness (1979)
Henry Fonda (1980)
Barbara Stanwyck (1981)
Mickey Rooney (1982)
Hal Roach (1983)
James Stewart / National Endowment for the Arts (1984)
Paul Newman / Alex North (1985)
Ralph Bellamy (1986)
Eastman Kodak Company / National Film Board of Canada (1988)
Akira Kurosawa (1989)
Sophia Loren / Myrna Loy (1990)
Satyajit Ray (1991)
Federico Fellini (1992)
Deborah Kerr (1993)
Michelangelo Antonioni (1994)
Kirk Douglas / Chuck Jones (1995)
Michael Kidd (1996)
Stanley Donen (1997)
Elia Kazan (1998)
Andrzej Wajda (1999)
Jack Cardiff / Ernest Lehman (2000)
2001–present
Sidney Poitier / Robert Redford (2001)
Peter O'Toole (2002)
Blake Edwards (2003)
Sidney Lumet (2004)
Robert Altman (2005)
Ennio Morricone (2006)
Robert F. Boyle (2007)
Lauren Bacall / Roger Corman / Gordon Willis (2009)
Kevin Brownlow / Jean-Luc Godard / Eli Wallach (2010)
James Earl Jones / Dick Smith (2011)
D. A. Pennebaker / Hal Needham / George Stevens Jr. (2012)
Angela Lansbury / Steve Martin / Piero Tosi (2013)
Jean-Claude Carrière / Hayao Miyazaki / Maureen O'Hara (2014)
Spike Lee / Gena Rowlands (2015)
Jackie Chan / Lynn Stalmaster / Anne V. Coates / Frederick Wiseman (2016)
Charles Burnett / Owen Roizman / Donald Sutherland / Agnès Varda (2017)
[show]
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Kennedy Center Honorees (1980s)
1980
Leonard Bernstein
James Cagney
Agnes de Mille
Lynn Fontanne
Leontyne Price
1981
Count Basie
Cary Grant
Helen Hayes
Jerome Robbins
Rudolf Serkin
1982
George Abbott
Lillian Gish
Benny Goodman
Gene Kelly
Eugene Ormandy
1983
Katherine Dunham
Elia Kazan
Frank Sinatra
James Stewart
Virgil Thomson
1984
Lena Horne
Danny Kaye
Gian Carlo Menotti
Arthur Miller
Isaac Stern
1985
Merce Cunningham
Irene Dunne
Bob Hope
Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe
Beverly Sills
1986
Lucille Ball
Hume Cronyn & Jessica Tandy
Yehudi Menuhin
Antony Tudor
Ray Charles
1987
Perry Como
Bette Davis
Sammy Davis Jr.
Nathan Milstein
Alwin Nikolais
1988
Alvin Ailey
George Burns
Myrna Loy
Alexander Schneider
Roger L. Stevens
1989
Harry Belafonte
Claudette Colbert
Alexandra Danilova
Mary Martin
William Schuman
Complete list
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
[show]
v
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AFI Life Achievement Award
John Ford (1973)
James Cagney (1974)
Orson Welles (1975)
William Wyler (1976)
Bette Davis (1977)
Henry Fonda (1978)
Alfred Hitchcock (1979)
James Stewart (1980)
Fred Astaire (1981)
Frank Capra (1982)
John Huston (1983)
Lillian Gish (1984)
Gene Kelly (1985)
Billy Wilder (1986)
Barbara Stanwyck (1987)
Jack Lemmon (1988)
Gregory Peck (1989)
David Lean (1990)
Kirk Douglas (1991)
Sidney Poitier (1992)
Elizabeth Taylor (1993)
Jack Nicholson (1994)
Steven Spielberg (1995)
Clint Eastwood (1996)
Martin Scorsese (1997)
Robert Wise (1998)
Dustin Hoffman (1999)
Harrison Ford (2000)
Barbra Streisand (2001)
Tom Hanks (2002)
Robert De Niro (2003)
Meryl Streep (2004)
George Lucas (2005)
Sean Connery (2006)
Al Pacino (2007)
Warren Beatty (2008)
Michael Douglas (2009)
Mike Nichols (2010)
Morgan Freeman (2011)
Shirley MacLaine (2012)
Mel Brooks (2013)
Jane Fonda (2014)
Steve Martin (2015)
John Williams (2016)
Diane Keaton (2017)
George Clooney (2018)
[show]
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Cecil B. DeMille Award
Cecil B. DeMille (1952)
Walt Disney (1953)
Darryl F. Zanuck (1954)
Jean Hersholt (1955)
Jack L. Warner (1956)
Mervyn LeRoy (1957)
Buddy Adler (1958)
Maurice Chevalier (1959)
Bing Crosby (1960)
Fred Astaire (1961)
Judy Garland (1962)
Bob Hope (1963)
Joseph E. Levine (1964)
James Stewart (1965)
John Wayne (1966)
Charlton Heston (1967)
Kirk Douglas (1968)
Gregory Peck (1969)
Joan Crawford (1970)
Frank Sinatra (1971)
Alfred Hitchcock (1972)
Samuel Goldwyn (1973)
Bette Davis (1974)
Hal B. Wallis (1975)
Walter Mirisch (1977)
Red Skelton (1978)
Lucille Ball (1979)
Henry Fonda (1980)
Gene Kelly (1981)
Sidney Poitier (1982)
Laurence Olivier (1983)
Paul Newman (1984)
Elizabeth Taylor (1985)
Barbara Stanwyck (1986)
Anthony Quinn (1987)
Clint Eastwood (1988)
Doris Day (1989)
Audrey Hepburn (1990)
Jack Lemmon (1991)
Robert Mitchum (1992)
Lauren Bacall (1993)
Robert Redford (1994)
Sophia Loren (1995)
Sean Connery (1996)
Dustin Hoffman (1997)
Shirley MacLaine (1998)
Jack Nicholson (1999)
Barbra Streisand (2000)
Al Pacino (2001)
Harrison Ford (2002)
Gene Hackman (2003)
Michael Douglas (2004)
Robin Williams (2005)
Anthony Hopkins (2006)
Warren Beatty (2007)
Steven Spielberg (2009)
Martin Scorsese (2010)
Robert De Niro (2011)
Morgan Freeman (2012)
Jodie Foster (2013)
Woody Allen (2014)
George Clooney (2015)
Denzel Washington (2016)
Meryl Streep (2017)
[show]
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Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
1962: Eddie Cantor
1963: Stan Laurel
1965: Bob Hope
1966: Barbara Stanwyck
1967: William Gargan
1968: James Stewart
1969: Edward G. Robinson
1970: Gregory Peck
1971: Charlton Heston
1972: Frank Sinatra
1973: Martha Raye
1974: Walter Pidgeon
1975: Rosalind Russell
1976: Pearl Bailey
1977: James Cagney
1978: Edgar Bergen
1979: Katharine Hepburn
1980: Leon Ames
1982: Danny Kaye
1983: Ralph Bellamy
1984: Iggie Wolfington
1985: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
1986: Nanette Fabray
1987: Red Skelton
1988: Gene Kelly
1989: Jack Lemmon
1990: Brock Peters
1991: Burt Lancaster
1992: Audrey Hepburn
1993: Ricardo Montalbán
1994: George Burns
1995: Robert Redford
1996: Angela Lansbury
1997: Elizabeth Taylor
1998: Kirk Douglas
1999: Sidney Poitier
2000: Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee
2001: Ed Asner
2002: Clint Eastwood
2003: Karl Malden
2004: James Garner
2005: Shirley Temple
2006: Julie Andrews
2007: Charles Durning
2008: James Earl Jones
2009: Betty White
2010: Ernest Borgnine
2011: Mary Tyler Moore
2012: Dick Van Dyke
2013: Rita Moreno
2014: Debbie Reynolds
2015: Carol Burnett
2016: Lily Tomlin
2017: Morgan Freeman
[show]
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Hosts of the Academy Awards ceremonies
1929–50
Douglas Fairbanks / William C. deMille (1929)
William C. deMille (1930)
Conrad Nagel (1930)
Lawrence Grant (1931)
Lionel Barrymore / Conrad Nagel (1932)
Will Rogers (1934)
Irvin S. Cobb (1935)
Frank Capra (1936)
George Jessel (1937)
Bob Burns (1938)
None (1939)
Bob Hope (1940)
Bob Hope (1941)
None (1942)
Bob Hope (1943)
Jack Benny (1944)
Bob Hope / John Cromwell (1945)
Bob Hope / James Stewart (1946)
Jack Benny (1947)
Dick Powell / Agnes Moorehead (1948)
Robert Montgomery (1949)
Paul Douglas (1950)
1951–75
Fred Astaire (1951)
Danny Kaye (1952)
Bob Hope / Conrad Nagel (1953)
Donald O'Connor / Fredric March (1954)
Bob Hope / Thelma Ritter (1955)
Jerry Lewis / Claudette Colbert / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1956)
Jerry Lewis / Celeste Holm (1957)
Bob Hope / David Niven / Donald Duck / James Stewart / Jack Lemmon / Rosalind Russell (1958)
Bob Hope / David Niven / Tony Randall / Mort Sahl / Laurence Olivier / Jerry Lewis (1959)
Bob Hope (1960)
Bob Hope (1961)
Bob Hope (1962)
Frank Sinatra (1963)
Jack Lemmon (1964)
Bob Hope (1965)
Bob Hope (1966)
Bob Hope (1967)
Bob Hope (1968)
None (1969)
None (1970)
None (1971)
Helen Hayes / Alan King / Sammy Davis Jr. / Jack Lemmon (1972)
Carol Burnett / Michael Caine / Charlton Heston / Rock Hudson (1973)
John Huston / Burt Reynolds / David Niven / Diana Ross (1974)
Sammy Davis Jr. / Bob Hope / Shirley MacLaine / Frank Sinatra (1975)
1976–2000
Goldie Hawn / Gene Kelly / Walter Matthau / George Segal / Robert Shaw (1976)
Warren Beatty / Ellen Burstyn / Jane Fonda / Richard Pryor (1977)
Bob Hope (1978)
Johnny Carson (1979)
Johnny Carson (1980)
Johnny Carson (1981)
Johnny Carson (1982)
Liza Minnelli / Dudley Moore / Richard Pryor / Walter Matthau (1983)
Johnny Carson (1984)
Jack Lemmon (1985)
Alan Alda / Jane Fonda / Robin Williams (1986)
Chevy Chase / Goldie Hawn / Paul Hogan (1987)
Chevy Chase (1988)
None (1989)
Billy Crystal (1990)
Billy Crystal (1991)
Billy Crystal (1992)
Billy Crystal (1993)
Whoopi Goldberg (1994)
David Letterman (1995)
Whoopi Goldberg (1996)
Billy Crystal (1997)
Billy Crystal (1998)
Whoopi Goldberg (1999)
Billy Crystal (2000)
2001–present
Steve Martin (2001)
Whoopi Goldberg (2002)
Steve Martin (2003)
Billy Crystal (2004)
Chris Rock (2005)
Jon Stewart (2006)
Ellen DeGeneres (2007)
Jon Stewart (2008)
Hugh Jackman (2009)
Alec Baldwin / Steve Martin (2010)
James Franco / Anne Hathaway (2011)
Billy Crystal (2012)
Seth MacFarlane (2013)
Ellen DeGeneres (2014)
Neil Patrick Harris (2015)
Chris Rock (2016)
Jimmy Kimmel (2017)
Jimmy Kimmel (2018)
[show]
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Presidents of the César Awards ceremonies
1976–1989
Jean Gabin (1976)
Lino Ventura (1977)
Jeanne Moreau (1978)
Charles Vanel (1979)
Jean Marais (1980)
Yves Montand (1981)
Orson Welles (1982)
Catherine Deneuve (1983)
Gene Kelly (1984)
Simone Signoret (1985)
Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault (1986)
Sean Connery (1987)
Miloš Forman (1988)
Peter Ustinov (1989)
1990–2009
Kirk Douglas (1990)
Sophia Loren (1991)
Michèle Morgan (1992)
Marcello Mastroianni (1993)
Gérard Depardieu (1994)
Alain Delon (1995)
Philippe Noiret (1996)
Annie Girardot (1997)
Juliette Binoche (1998)
Isabelle Huppert (1999)
Alain Delon (2000)
Daniel Auteuil (2001)
Nathalie Baye (2002)
— (2003)
Fanny Ardant (2004)
Isabelle Adjani (2005)
Carole Bouquet (2006)
Claude Brasseur (2007)
Jean Rochefort (2008)
Charlotte Gainsbourg (2009)
2010–2029
Marion Cotillard (2010)
Jodie Foster (2011)
Guillaume Canet (2012)
Jamel Debbouze (2013)
François Cluzet (2014)
Dany Boon (2015)
Claude Lelouch (2016)
– (2017)
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 112718182
LCCN: n50048145
ISNI: 0000 0001 2148 1139
GND: 120381001
SUDOC: 034283706
BNF: cb125054160 (data)
MusicBrainz: aaff7c7e-5793-4fa7-9a7c-9af3b45e8132
NLA: 35807961
NKC: xx0037990
ICCU: IT\ICCU\RAVV\088477
BNE: XX876703
IATH: w6jh3nwm
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gene_Kelly&oldid=804276093"
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