- Stanley Donen
Infobox Actor
name = Stanley Donen
birthdate = birth date and age|1924|4|13
location =Columbia, South Carolina
spouse =Jeanne Coyne (1948-1949)
Marion Marshall (1952-1959)
Adelle Beatty (1960-1971)
Yvette Mimieux (1972-1985)
Pamela Braden (1990-1994)
children =Peter Donen (1953-2003)
Joshua Donen
Mark Donen
occupation = director, producer, choreographer
yearsactive = 1949 - 2003
academyawards =Academy Honorary Award
1998 Lifetime Achievement
awards = Career Golden Lion
2004 Lifetime AchievementStanley Donen (born
April 13 ,1924 ) is an American film director andchoreographer hailed by David Quinlan as "the King of the Hollywood musicals". His most famous work is "Singin' in the Rain", which he co-directed withGene Kelly .Early life
Born in
Columbia, South Carolina to Mordecai Moses Donen and Helen Cohen, both of whom wereJewish . Donen himself became an atheist in his youth [http://www.adherents.com/people/pd/Stanley_Donen.html] . He attended theUniversity of South Carolina . He went toNew York City as a teenager and at age sixteen was a dancer in the original production of Rodgers and Hart's "Pal Joey", which starred Kelly.Film career
Donen started at
Metro Goldwyn Mayer as a choreographer and dancer in "Best Foot Forward " (1943) withLucille Ball . Donen appeared with Kelly in "Cover Girl" (1944) forColumbia Pictures , for which Donen also directed a sequence of Kelly dancing with his double on a darkened Manhattan street. His first chance to direct an entire movie was an adaptation of the Comden and Green musical about sailors on leave inNew York City , "On the Town" (1949), with music byLeonard Bernstein , which Donen co-directed withGene Kelly . This was the first movie musical to be filmed on location.With Kelly again, Donen co-directed "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) and by himself directed such classics as "
Royal Wedding " (1951), where Donen directedFred Astaire dancing on a ceiling; "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers " (1954) withJane Powell andHoward Keel ; "Funny Face " (1957) a musical romantic comedy withFred Astaire andAudrey Hepburn ; "Pajama Game " (1957) withDoris Day ; "Indiscreet" (1958) withCary Grant andIngrid Bergman ; "Damn Yankees" (1958) a musical comedy withTab Hunter ,Gwen Verdon , andRay Walston ; the comedy thriller "Charade " (1963) with Hepburn, Grant, andWalter Matthau ; "Bedazzled" (1967) a satirical updating of theFaust legend starring and written by British comediansPeter Cook andDudley Moore ; and "Two for the Road " (1967) a drama with Hepburn andAlbert Finney . He also directed the out-of-characterscience fiction film "Saturn 3 " (1980) when the film's original director resigned. His last theatrical film to date was the May-December romance "Blame It on Rio " (1984) withMichael Caine andDemi Moore , though he would go on to do additional work for television, including directing a musical sequence for the TV series "Moonlighting",Lionel Richie 's music video for "Dancing on the Ceiling ", and a made-for-TV movie on ABC entitled "Love Letters" (1999).Donen was nominated for five
Directors Guild of America Awards , but never nominated for a single Oscar. (He did produce the 58thAcademy Awards ceremony in 1986.) In 1998, Donen was granted an honorary Academy Award "in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation." In his acceptance speech, he danced with his Oscar statue while singingIrving Berlin 's "Cheek to Cheek " and declared one of the secrets to being a great director is "You show up--and stay the hell out of the way. But you gotta show up or else you can't take the credit and win one of these guys."Filmography
: *:Now in
public domain As Director:
* "On the Town" (1949) (w/ Gene Kelly)
* "Royal Wedding *" (1951)
* "Love Is Better Than Ever" (1952)
* "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) (w/ Gene Kelly) (also choreographer)
* "Fearless Fagan" (1952)
* "Give a Girl a Break " (1953) (also choreographer)
* "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers " (1954)
* "Deep in My Heart " (1954)
* "It's Always Fair Weather " (1955) (w/ Gene Kelly) (also choreographer)
* "Kismet" (1955) (uncredited)
* "Funny Face " (1957)
* "The Pajama Game" (1957)
* "Kiss Them for Me" (1957)
* "Indiscreet" (1958)
* "Damn Yankees!" (1958)
* "Once More, with Feeling!" (1960)
* "Surprise Package" (1960)
* "The Grass Is Greener " (1960)
* "Charade *" (1963)
* "Arabesque" (1966)
* "Two for the Road" (1967)
* "Bedazzled" (1967)
* " Staircase" (1969)
* "The Little Prince" (1974)
* "Lucky Lady" (1975)
* "Movie Movie " (1978)
* "Saturn 3 " (1980)
* "Blame It on Rio " (1984)As Choreographer:
* "Best Foot Forward" (1943)
* "Cover Girl" (1944)
* "Hey, Rookie" (1944)
* "Holiday in Mexico" (1946)
* "No Leave, No Love" (1946)
* "Living in a Big Way" (1947)
* "This Time for Keeps" (1947)
* "Killer McCoy" (1947)
* "Big City" (1948)
* "A Date with Judy " (1948)
* "The Kissing Bandit" (1948)
* "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1949)References
* Stephen M. Silverman. "Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies," Knopf, New York, 1996
External links
*
*
* [http://www.adherents.com/people/pd/Stanley_Donen.html Extracts from Silverman's biography on Donen]
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