Gene Kelly

Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the third son of Harriet Catherine (Curran) and James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman. His father was of Irish descent and his mother was of Irish and German ancestry.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the largest and most powerful studio in
Hollywood when Gene Kelly arrived in town in 1941. He came direct from
the hit 1940 original Broadway production of “Pal Joey” and planned to
return to the Broadway stage after making the one film required by his
contract. His first picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was
For Me and My Gal (1942) with
Judy Garland. What kept Kelly in Hollywood
were “the kindred creative spirits” he found behind the scenes at
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The talent pool was especially large during World
War II, when Hollywood was a refuge for many musicians and others in
the performing arts of Europe who were forced to flee the Nazis. After
the war, a new generation was coming of age. Those who saw
An American in Paris (1951)
would try to make real life as romantic as the reel life they saw
portrayed in that musical, and the first time they saw Paris, they were
seeing again in memory the seventeen-minute ballet sequence set to the
title song written by George Gershwin
and choreographed by Kelly. The sequence cost a half million dollars
(U.S.) to make in 1951 dollars. Another Kelly musical of the era,
Singin’ in the Rain (1952),
was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for
its National Film Registry. Kelly was in the same league as
Fred Astaire, but instead of a top hat and
tails Kelly wore work clothes that went with his masculine, athletic
dance style.Gene Kelly died at age 83 of complications from two
strokes on February 2, 1996 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dale O’Connor