BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 2 -- Legendary dancer and actor Gene Kelly, one of the best-loved stars of Hollywood's big musicals who was known for his twinkling eyes and his athletic dance style, died Friday at his home. He was 83. Kelly's longtime friend and publicist, Warren Cowan, said Kelly died 'peacefully in his sleep with his wife, Patricia, at his bedside.' Kelly suffered two strokes since 1994, and Cowan said he had been ill for about nine months. Cowan called him 'a very special person' and 'one of the last of the legends.' 'He really is going to be terribly missed,' he said, calling Kelly's death a loss 'for the whole world.' Of Hollywood's two most acclaimed male dancers -- the other being the late Fred Astaire -- Kelly was the muscular one, the one who tended more to stunt-like maneuvers than waltzes in white tie and tails. Although Kelly admired Astaire, and once described them as a 'fraternity of two,' he said their styles were as different as those of Marlon Brando and Cary Grant. 'My style is strong, wide open, bravura,' Kelly told an interviewer. 'His is intimate, cool, easy. Mine is a plebeian style, his is an aristocratic one.' While Astaire routinely appeared in polished attire, Kelly was more likely to be seen dancing in a T-shirt and loafers, looking, as he once said, like 'a walking slum.' Kelly's career spanned musical and straight dramatic roles, the Broadway stage and television. In the heyday of Hollywood's Technicolor musicals, he starred in and choreographed 'An American in Paris' -- one of only a handful of musicals to win a Best Picture Oscar -- and had lead roles in 'Brigadoon,' 'Anchors Aweigh' and 'On the Town,' on which he shared the directing credit.
Kelly probably is best remembered for the 1952 musical he co-directed with Stanley Donen, 'Singin' in the Rain' with Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. In the title song, Kelly as the lovestruck hero frolics playfully through puddles, reveling in his happiness by swinging on a lightpole and using his umbrella as a toy rather than a shield against the downpour. It was one of the movies' classic scenes. On Friday, O'Connor recalled Kelly was 'always very, very nice but preoccupied' during the making of the movie. 'We were so very, very close. We were all such a part of that project and such a part of each other's lives for eight or nine months. 'He was such a joy. There was no one else like him,' O'Connor added. Kelly's contribution was noted in an array of awards. He was given a special Oscar in 1951 for his contribution to the American musical and his 'extreme versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer...and brilliant achievements in the the art of choreography on film.' The original statuette and numerous other mementos from Kelly's career were destroyed in 1983 when his Beverly Hills house was destroyed by a fire sparked by faulty Christmas tree lights. The motion picture academy later replaced the Oscar. In 1982 he was honored by the Kennedy Center for achievement in the arts. In 1985, he received the UCLA Charles Chaplin Award as well as the American Film Institute's coveted Lifetime Achievement Award. He made 27 films for MGM and narrated the studio's retrospectives on the big musical era, 'That's Entertainment,' in 1974 and its sequels in 1976 and 1994, his final movie assignment. Among his straight dramatic projects were 'Marjorie Morningstar' and 'Inherit The Wind,' in which he played a newspaper reporter based on H.L. Mencken. Long after Hollywood quit churning out big-budget musicals, Kelly was doing his part to keep musical comedy alive in theater. In one 1974 touring production, he displayed the kind of stamina at age 62 that many younger hoofers lack, performing several big dance numbers, including one that had him doing push-ups across the breadth of the stage night after night. Kelly spoke French fluently and was a charming, well-liked man. But he avoided Hollywood night life, preferring to spend his nights playing volleyball and chess at his Beverly Hills home, the oldest in the area. Married three times, he was devoted to his family. Four years after his second wife, Jeanne Coyne, died of leukemia in 1972, he turned down the leading role opposite Liza Minnelli in 'Cabaret' because he would have had to spend too much time away from their children, Timothy and Bridget, and Kerry, his daughter by first wife, actress Betsy Blair. At age 77, he married his third wife, writer Patricia Ward, in July 1990. Born in Pittsburgh on Aug. 23, 1912, Eugene Curran Kelly was one of five children. His father, James Patrick Joseph Kelly, was a sales executive with Columbia Gramophone Co. His mother, Harriet Curran Kelly, pushed reticent young Gene and older brother James into dance lessons on the theory that all nice young men should learn to dance. After two years of misery and several black eyes fighting schoolmates who thought dancing was for sissies, Gene persuaded his mother to let him quit. He began again on his own as a teenager and danced his way through several high school productions. While studying journalism at the University of Pittsburgh, Kelly made the rounds of local vaudeville theaters, studying and watching in what he later said was the greatest training of his life -- 'a first-class education.' He also directed the school's Cap and Gown musicals for three years. To help put himself through college, Kelly and his brother Fred got up an act and danced at local clubs. Kelly also gave dance lessons, and worked as a gas station attendant and a ditch digger. Kelly started on Broadway in 1938 in the chorus of Cole Porter's 'Leave It to Me,' and went on to choreograph Billy Rose's 'Diamond Horseshoe Review' in 1940. After 'Pal Joey' on Broadway in 1941, film offers started pouring in and Kelly made his screen debut with Judy Garland in 'Me and My Gal' in 1942. As he grew older, he turned more often to dramatic roles. 'Dancing is a young man's game, you have to be an athlete and train as hard as a boxer,' said Kelly, a superior baseball and hockey player in high school. 'Creating a dance is a joy, but performing the dance itself is a chore.' Of all his intricate routines, the tapping, the leaps and the spins, Kelly said his personal favorite dance remained the waltz. Kelly was coaxed out of his self-imposed retirement to co-star with pop singer Olivia Newton-John in the 1980 musical 'Xanadu.' After the movie's release he expressed amazement at the thousands of romantic letters he received from girls born years after he stopped taking dancing roles. The night he received the AFI achievement award, Kelly said despite his success on stage and film, performing was not his first choice of careers. 'I never wanted to be a dancer,' he said. 'It was always my dream to play shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates.' But Kelly said if his work brought some happiness into the world, he guessed he'd made the right choice in becoming a dancer instead of a shortstop. Mort Viner, Kelly's agent, said he was mourning 'the loss of a great friend and great artist.' Viner said at Kelly's request there will be no funeral service. His family has asked that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund in Woodland Hills, Calif.
beverly hills, california x x x achievement award. He made 27 films for MGM and narrated the studio's retrospectives on the big musical era, 'That's Entertainment,' in 1974 and its sequels in 1976 and 1994, his final movie assignment. Among his straight dramatic projects were 'Marjorie Morningstar' and 'Inherit The Wind,' in which he played a newspaper reporter based on H.L. Mencken. Long after Hollywood quit churning out big-budget musicals, Kelly was doing his part to keep musical comedy alive in theater. In one 1974 touring production, he displayed the kind of stamina at age 62 that many younger hoofers lack. He performed several big dance numbers, including one that had him doing push-ups across the breadth of the stage night after night. Kelly spoke French fluently and was a charming, well-liked man. But he avoided Hollywood night life, preferring to spend his nights playing volleyball and chess at his Beverly Hills home, the oldest in the area. Married three times, he was devoted to his family. Four years after his second wife, Jeanne Coyne, died of leukemia in 1972, he turned down the leading role opposite Liza Minnelli in 'Cabaret' because he would have had to spend too much time away from their children, Timothy and Bridget, and Kerry, his daughter by first wife, actress Betsy Blair. At age 77, he married his third wife, writer Patricia Ward, in July 1990. Born in Pittsburgh on Aug. 23, 1912, Eugene Curran Kelly was one of five children. His father, James Patrick Joseph Kelly, was a sales executive with Columbia Gramophone Co. His mother Harriet Curran Kelly pushed reticent young Gene and older brother James into dance lessons on the theory that all nice young men should learn to dance. After two years of misery and several black eyes fighting schoolmates who thought dancing was for sissies, Gene persuaded his mother to let him quit. He began again on his own as a teenager and danced his way through several high school productions. While studying journalism at the University of Pittsburgh, Kelly made the rounds of local vaudeville theaters, studying and watching in what he later said was the greatest training of his life -- 'a first-class education.' He also directed the school's Cap and Gown musicals for three years. To help put himself through college, Kelly and his brother Fred got up an act and danced at local clubs. Kelly also gave dance lessons, and worked as a gas station attendant and a ditch digger. Kelly started on Broadway in 1938 in the chorus of Cole Porter's 'Leave It to Me,' and went on to choreograph Billy Rose's 'Diamond Horseshoe Review' in 1940. Film offers started pouring in after 'Pal Joey' opened on Broadway in 1941, and Kelly made his screen debut with Judy Garland in 'Me and My Gal' in 1942. As he grew older, he turned more often to dramatic roles. 'Dancing is a young man's game, you have to be an athlete and train as hard as a boxer,' said Kelly, a superior baseball and hockey player in high school. 'Creating a dance is a joy, but performing the dance itself is a chore.' Of all his intricate routines, the tapping, the leaps and the spins, Kelly said his personal favorite dance remained the waltz. Kelly was coaxed out of his self-imposed retirement to co-star with pop singer Olivia Newton-John in the 1980 musical 'Xanadu.' He expressed amazement after the movie's release at the thousands of romantic letters he received from girls born years after he stopped taking dancing roles. The night he received the AFI achievement award, Kelly said despite his success on stage and film, performing was not his first choice of careers. 'I never wanted to be a dancer,' he said. 'It was always my dream to play shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates.' But Kelly said if his work brought some happiness into the world, he guessed he'd made the right choice in becoming a dancer instead of a baseball player. Mort Viner, Kelly's agent, said he was mourning 'the loss of a great friend and great artist.' Viner said at Kelly's request there will be no funeral service. His family has asked that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund in Woodland Hills, California.
