Gene Kelly

Perhaps the greatest song and dance man during the ‘golden age’ of Hollywood, Gene Kelly – born Eugene Kelly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 23, 1912 – is best known for his roles in musicals such as On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), Invitation to the Dance (1956), and his career-defining role in 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain. He began his career on stage, performing in his hometown of Pittsburgh before landing a job in 1938 as a dancer in Cole Porter’s Leave it to Me on Broadway. By the early 1940s, he was playing lead roles on Broadway in shows like Pal Joey, leading to several offers from Hollywood agents, studios, and producers. Within a few years, he had made his mark in films such as For Me and My Gal (1942) and Thousands Cheer (1943), the first film that gave him the opportunity to choreograph his own dance routines. Working with MGM, he began handling the choreography for his films including 1945’s Anchors Aweigh which featured Frank Sinatra and a legendary dance routine with an animated Jerry, the mouse from the popular Tom & Jerry cartoon series. The film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In Ziegfeld Follies (1946), he worked alongside fellow song and dance man, Fred Astaire. Several more films followed before he made a pair of films that solidified his status in Hollywood: An American in Paris (1951) and Singin’ in the Rain (1952) which featured his iconic performance of the title track. Gene Kelly continued his successful career until the Hollywood musical started its slow decline in the 1950s. By the end of the decade, he had left MGM and expanded his resume directing several films and appearing on television. He continued to act in films such as Viva Knievel! (1977) and Xanadu (1980). Throughout the 1980s, he made cameos in films and appeared on numerous variety shows on TV. Over the course of his career, he won many awards including an Honorary Academy Award in 1952 and lifetime achievement awards from the Kennedy Center Honors and the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute. Gene Kelly died on February 2, 1996, at the age of 83.