LOS ANGELES—Filmmaker Stanley Donen, a giant of the Hollywood musical who through such classics as “Singin’ in the Rain” and “Funny Face” helped give us some of the most joyous sounds and images in movie history, has died. He was 94.
Donen died on Thursday, Feb. 21, in New York from heart failure, his sons Joshua and Mark Donen confirmed Saturday.
He was behind unforgettable scenes as Kelly dancing with an animated Jerry the mouse in “Anchors Aweigh,” Astaire’s gravity-defying spin across the ceiling in “Royal Wedding,” and, the all-time triumph, Kelly ecstatically splashing about as he performs the title number in “Singin’ in the Rain.”
Gene Kelly performing “Singin’ in the Rain” in SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) dir. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly [1/2] #RIPStanleyDonen pic.twitter.com/2I4ZvV366Q
— Dancer on Film (@DancerOnFilm) February 23, 2019
Steven Spielberg recalled Donen as a “friend and early mentor” for whom life and film were inseparable.
“His generosity in giving over so many of his weekends in the late 60′s to film students like me to learn about telling stories and placing lenses and directing actors is a time I will never forget,” Spielberg said on Saturday.
The filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said, “Before Stanley Donen actors sang, actors danced. He made the camera dance and the colors sing.”
Before Stanley Donen actors sang, actors danced. He made the camera dance and the colors sing. pic.twitter.com/fm7xbF6KeW
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) February 23, 2019
A 2007 American Film Institute survey of the top 100 American movies ranked “Singin’ in the Rain,” with its inventive take on Hollywood’s transition from silent to talking pictures in the 1920s and Kelly’s famous dance in a downpour, at No. 5.
Donen was asked in 2002 whether the filmmakers knew that “Singin’ in the Rain,” released in 1952 and also starring Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor, would be revered decades later.
Make ‘Em Laugh was added late in the filming of Singin’ In The Rain. Director #StanleyDonen realized that phenom Donald O’Conner did not have his own number and so the one take wonder was created. O’Conner was a four pack a day smoker and flubbed the first ending. This is take 2. pic.twitter.com/bfzqv2cH9Z
— Reconsidering Cinema (@coenesqued) February 24, 2019
Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Donen would remember movies—especially those with Astaire and Ginger Roger—as a needed escape from the tensions of being one of the few Jews in his community.
He took tap dancing lessons in his teens and began his show business career as a performer, dancing in the original Broadway production of “Pal Joey” at age 16. The title role was played by Kelly, and the show’s success propelled Kelly into the movies.
Donen received his first Hollywood break when Kelly got him a job helping choreograph the 1944 Kelly film “Cover Girl.”
“Singin’ in the Rain” was one of three films credited to Kelly and Donen as co-directors; the others were “On the Town,” the 1949 Kelly-Sinatra musical about sailors on leave in New York City, and the darker “It’s Always Fair Weather,” in which three soldier friends reunite a decade later.
My favourite photo of Stanley Donen, with Donald O’Connor and Gene Kelly and parasols. So sorry he’s gone. All Oscar winners should tap dance their acceptance speeches in his honour. pic.twitter.com/Eo0bFMmPcc
— Polly Rose (@theflyingeditor) February 23, 2019
The co-director credits—rare in films—came out of a tense relationship between Donen and the star, who had played such an important role in advancing Donen’s career. Donen would later speak resentfully of Kelly, who died in 1996, as being cold and condescending and not fully appreciative of his contributions. They parted for good after “It’s Always Fair Weather,” which came out in 1955.
Donen worked in various genres. “Indiscreet” (1958) was a light farce starring Grant and Ingrid Bergman, and “Two for the Road” (1967), with Hepburn and Albert Finney (who passed away recently), was an unusually acerbic and tense marital comedy for its time, far removed from the carefree spirit of his musicals.
One Donen film, the chic mystery “Charade” (1963), reminded viewers of a Hitchcock thriller. “Charade” starred Hepburn as a precocious socialite whose husband has been murdered, and Grant—who appeared in four Hitchcock films—as a mysterious man who may or may not be helping her.
Donen steadfastly denied any Hitchcock influence, while adding that the master of suspense “doesn’t own the genre.”
Donen had three sons; the oldest, Peter, died in 2003 of a heart attack at age 50. His first wife, dancer Jeanne Coyne, later married Kelly. His fourth wife was the screen star Yvette Mimieux. Over the past two decades, his companion was the filmmaker-comedian Elaine May.
None of his more recent films approached the heights of his most famous work. The nadir may have been 1984′s “Blame It on Rio,” a comedy about a man, Michael Caine, who has an affair with his friend’s young daughter. Roger Ebert slammed the film as “clearly intended to appeal to the prurient interests of dirty old men of all ages.”
Other credits include a musical segment for the 1980s TV comedy “Moonlighting” and a stage production of “The Red Shoes.” In 1999, he directed the ABC television movie “Love Letters,” which starred Steven Weber and Laura Linney.
“There are limits to TV,” Donen told The Associated Press in 1999. “And that’s what was fun: to try to find a way to be surprising within limits. I’m always looking for limits, because then you have to be inventive.”
By Jake Coyle
