Gene Kelly

Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2014.

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 309-312. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

A stage version of "Singin' in the Rain" was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2001 for Outstanding Musical Production, with choreography by Kelly.

In October 1997 he was ranked #26 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.

Awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

Was dance consultant for Madonna's 1993 "Girlie Show" tour.

In a video interview in the late 1990s, Jules Dassin recalled that, after he had been blacklisted in Hollywood and escaped to Europe to continue his film directing and writing career, Kelly was the only American who was willing to be seen in public with him when they ran into each other at a Cannes Film Festival in the 1950s. Dassin recalled (but did not identify) another American celebrity who actually hid under a table to avoid being seen with him.

His last movie musical was Xanadu (1980) co-starring Olivia Newton-John.

Bob Fosse originally wanted him for a lead role in a musical film adaptation of the Maurine Dallas Watkins play "Chicago" around the early 1970s. He eventually gave up the choice, and Fosse opted to do a stage musical instead.

His first two wives were dancers. Betsy Blair met him while she was a performer and he a choreographer in the show "Diamond Horseshoe". Second wife Jeanne Coyne was Gene's dancing assistant for many years before they married in 1960. A major talent in her own right, her dazzling footwork can be seen in the "From This Moment On" number alongside partner Bobby Van, Ann Miller, Tommy Rall, Carol Haney and Bob Fosse in Kiss Me Kate (1953) (1953). She died of leukemia in 1973.

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959

Another Kelly musical of the era, Singin' in the Rain (1952), was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry. Kelly was in the same league as Fred Astaire, but instead of a top hat and tails Kelly wore work clothes that went with his masculine, athletic dance style.

Those who saw An American in Paris (1951) would try to make real life as romantic as the reel life they saw portrayed in that musical, and the first time they saw Paris, they were seeing again in memory the seventeen-minute ballet sequence set to the title song written by George Gershwin and choreographed by Kelly. The sequence cost a half million dollars (U. S.

) to make in 1951 dollars.

Was originally set to star as Don Hewes alongside Judy Garland in Easter Parade (1948). However, before filming began he broke his leg, resulting in Fred Astaire coming out of retirement to replace him.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 510-515. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

In order to secure the film rights to the hit musical "Best Foot Forward," MGM loaned Kelly's to Columbia for one picture. Although it was assumed the studio would mount an adaptation of Kelly's stage hit "Pal Joey," for which it owned the screen rights, Columbia instead co-starred him with its top star, Rita Hayworth, in Cover Girl (1944). Ironically, when they did finally film the property over a decade later with Frank Sinatra, Hayworth again co-starred.

In early 1943 MGM announced he was to appear in the forthcoming production The Human Comedy (1943). The film was eventually made, but he wasn't in it.

His first picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was For Me and My Gal (1942) with Judy Garland. What kept Kelly in Hollywood were "the kindred creative spirits" he found behind the scenes at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The talent pool was especially large during World War II, when Hollywood was a refuge for many musicians and others in the performing arts of Europe who were forced to flee the Nazis. After the war, a new generation was coming of age.

Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the third son of Harriet Catherine (Curran) and James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman. His father was of Irish descent and his mother was of Irish and German ancestry. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the largest and most powerful studio in Hollywood when Gene Kelly arrived in town in 1941.

He came direct from the hit 1940 original Broadway production of "Pal Joey" and planned to return to the Broadway stage after making the one film required by his contract.

He and his younger brother Fred Kelly appeared together in a dancing vaudeville act. When Gene got his big break as Harry the hoofer in the dramatic Broadway production of "The Time of Your Life" in 1939, he was eventually replaced by brother Fred, who took it on the road and won a Donaldson award for his efforts.

He lost his Catholic faith in the late 1930s, mainly as a result of the Church's support for Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and what he perceived as the Church's indifference to the extreme poverty he witnessed in Mexico.

Kelly's father was Al Jolson's road manager in the 1920s.