American dancer, actor, singer, director and choreographer (1912–1996)
People connected to Gene Kelly
He danced through puddles and up lampposts with an athleticism that made ballet look like something any guy could try. Gene Kelly wanted dance for the common man, and delivered it in films that still define what a musical can be.
Eugene Curran Kelly was born August 23, 1912, and spent the 1940s and '50s remaking the Hollywood musical from the inside. His film debut came in 1942 opposite Judy Garland in For Me and My Gal, but the run that mattered started with Anchors Aweigh in 1945, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In 1949 he and Stanley Donen co-directed On the Town, his first time behind the camera, then followed with Singin' in the Rain in 1952 and several more through the decade as the genre began to fade. An American in Paris won Best Picture in 1951; his solo directing debut, Invitation to the…
Sourced, dated quotes from Gene Kelly
It's all true. It's true I didn't want to be a dancer. What I really wanted to be was a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I really don't know why I clicked. I didn't want to be a dancer, I just did it to work my way through college. But I was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally.
In the 1930s, when I started, Martha Graham was the only dancer doing anything modern, but she did it all to classical music.
Fred Astaire represented the aristocracy, I represented the proletariat.
The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.
Similar profiles worth watching
United States
.jpg?width=1200)
_(cropped).jpg?width=1200)
.jpg?width=1200)