Stanley Donen

Stanley Donen
Background information
Born	April 13, 1924 Columbia, South Carolina, U.S
Died	February 21, 2019 (aged 94) New York City, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart failure
Nationality	American
Occupation	Film director, film producer, choreographer, dancer, stage director
Years active	1940–2003
Spouse	Jeanne Coyne ​(m. 1948; div. 1951)​ Marion Marshall ​(m. 1952; div. 1959)​ Adelle O'Connor Beatty ​(m. 1960; div. 1971)​ Yvette Mimieux ​(m. 1972; div. 1985)​ Pamela Braden ​(m. 1990; div. 1994)
Partner	Elaine May (1999–2019; his death)
Children	3, including Joshua Donen

Stanley Donen was an American film director and choreographer best known for his films such as Singin' in the Rain, Funny Face and Charade.

Early life

Stanley Donen was born on April 13, 1924, in Columbia, South Carolina, to Mordecai Moses Donen, a dress-shop manager, and Helen (Cohen), the daughter of a jewelry salesman. His younger sister Carla Donen Davis was born in August 1937. Born to Jewish parents, he became an atheist in his youth. Donen described his childhood as lonely and unhappy as one of the few Jews in Columbia, and he was occasionally bullied by anti-semitic classmates at school. To help cope with his isolation, he spent much of his youth in local movie theaters and was especially fond of Westerns, comedies and thrillers. The film that had the strongest impact on him was the 1933 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical Flying Down to Rio. Donen said that he "must have seen the picture thirty or forty times. I was transported into some sort of fantasy world where everything seemed to be happy, comfortable, easy and supported. A sense of well-being filled me." He shot and screened home movies with an 8 mm camera and projector that his father bought for him.

Inspired by Astaire, Donen took dance lessons in Columbia and performed at the local Town Theater. His family often traveled to New York City during summer vacations where he saw Broadway musicals and took further dance lessons. One of his early instructors in New York was Ned Wayburn, who had taught eleven-year-old Astaire in 1910. After graduating from high school at sixteen, Donen attended the University of South Carolina for one summer semester, studying psychology. Encouraged by his mother, he moved to New York City to pursue dancing on stage in the fall of 1940. After two auditions he was cast as a chorus dancer in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, directed by the legendary George Abbott. The titular Pal Joey was played by the young up-and-comer Gene Kelly, who became a Broadway star in the role.

Abbott cast Donen in the chorus of his next Broadway show Best Foot Forward. He became the show's assistant stage manager, and Kelly asked him to be his assistant choreographer. Eventually Donen was fired from Best Foot Forward, but in 1942 was the stage manager and assistant choreographer for Abbott's next show Beat the Band. In 1946, Donen briefly returned to Broadway to help choreograph dance numbers for Call Me Mister.

Filmography

As a director

• On the Town (1949)
• Singin' in the Rain (1952)
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
• Funny Face (1957)
• Charade (1963)
• Bedazzled (1967)

As a producer

• Charade (1963)
• Bedazzled (1967)

External links

• Stanley Donen on Wikipedia

Wikipedia

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Stanley Donen. The revision history lists the authors. The text on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Wiki and Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA).