"I never wanted to be a dancer. It's true! I wanted to be a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates."
American dancer and
actor (1912-1996). Born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he loved
dancing even as a child, but he studied
economics at
Penn State and the
University of Pittsburgh. Upon
graduation, he had to work
menial jobs for a while -- the country was in the middle of the
Depression, and jobs for
economists were hard to come by. He'd once been a dancing teacher and was now able to get some jobs with the
chorus of various
Broadway productions.
Kelly
choreographed a number of
hit plays and finally had his big
break in 1940 when he was cast as the lead in
Rodgers and Hart's "
Pal Joey."
Hollywood soon came calling, and Kelly was cast opposite
Judy Garland in "
For Me and my Gal" in 1942. He was a
sailor during
World War II, serving at the
US Naval Photographic Center -- in other words, he was making
movies for the
Navy, which allowed him enough
leave time to make movies for
MGM and other studios.
After WWII, Kelly's career continued to soar, thanks both to his dancing prowess (his
athletic style of dancing helped set him apart from more
elegant dancers like
Fred Astaire) and to a number of high-profile films like "
Christmas Holiday," "
Cover Girl" (in which a
double exposure technique was used to allow Kelly to perform a
dance number with himself), and "
Anchors Aweigh," where one of his partners was
Jerry, the cartoon
mouse from the "
Tom and Jerry" cartoons. "Anchors Aweigh" also earned Kelly a
Best Actor nomination and gave him the opportunity to teach co-star
Frank Sinatra how to dance.
Other pictures Kelly appeared in during the 1940s included "
Ziegfeld Follies" (he had a dance number with Astaire), "
Words and Music," "
The Pirate," the 1948 version of "
The Three Musketeers" (the film was a straightforward
swashbuckler, not a musical), "
Take Me Out to the Ball Game," in which Kelly and his longtime
collaborator Stanley Donen received screen credit for contributing to the film's story, and "
On the Town," with Kelly and Donen credited as
directors.
Two of Kelly's biggest pictures came in the early 1950s. "
An American in Paris," directed by
Vincente Minnelli in 1951, was wildly
popular (and deservedly so) and earned him a special
Academy Award for his dancing and particularly for his lengthy Gershwin
ballet. Only a year later, he starred in what is probably the best
musical ever, "
Singin' in the Rain," which he and Donen again co-directed. Kelly's
exuberant performance of the title song has taken its place among the biggest moments in
film history and has, to some degree,
overshadowed the rest of the movie, which is
funny and
engrossing and
fun in ways that the stereotypical movie musical can't match. Kelly's performance, both as a dancer, an
actor, and a
choreographer, is top-notch.
Not long afterwards, however, the
Hollywood musical began to die off. The most notable musicals Kelly appeared in after 1952 included "
Brigadoon," "
Invitation to the Dance," "
Les Girls," and, decades later, "
Xanadu."
Kelly is less noted for his non-musical
acting, though he's had several
prominent roles that didn't require singing and dancing, including the aforementioned "Three Musketeers," "
Black Hand," "
Marjorie Morningstar," and "
Inherit the Wind." He also directed quite a few movies, including "
The Happy Road," "
The Tunnel of Love," "
Gigot," "
Woman of the Year," "
A Guide for the Married Man," "
Hello, Dolly!", and "
The Cheyenne Social Club."
He died in Beverly Hills on Groundhog Day, 1996 after suffering a pair of
strokes.
Research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)