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Stanley Donen [biography]
Dates: 1924-
Birth Date: Apr 13, 1924
Place of Birth: Columbia, South Carolina
Stanley Isaac Donen, the imaginative dancer-choreographer and film director who created memorable musicals and lighthearted adventure films, was first inspired to dance when he saw Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio (1933), in what he remembers as being "thirty or forty" times. His parents, seeing his enthusiasm, immediately enrolled him in dance classes. At age sixteen he made his Broadway debut in the chorus of Pal Joey (1940), starring Gene Kelly. He won further stage roles in Best Foot Forward (1941), in which he assisted Danny Daniels. When Best Foot Forward was to be made into a film, he was invited to Hollywood. While Kelly was making Cover Girl (1944) at Columbia, he asked the nineteen-year-old Donen to join him as his assistant. The highly innovative "Alter Ego" dance number in the film used double-exposure film technique to create the effect of Kelly in conflict with himself was a technical tour de force (they worked on it a month and shot it in four days) that set in motion, says Donen biographer Stephen Silverman, "a magical combination of Gene Kelly's charisma and Stanley Donen's chutzpah."
Donen remained at Columbia as a dance director. He signed a seven-year contract with MGM and continued working with Kelly on choreography, musical number staging, filming and direction. After his success co-directing, with Kelly, On the Town (1949), producer Arthur Freed asked Donen to solo direct Royal Wedding (1951), starring Fred Astaire. Donen's film direction credits continued with such successful musicals as Singing in the Rain (with Kelly, 1952), Give a Girl a Break (1953), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Deep in My Heart (1954), It's Always Fair Weather (with Kelly, 1955), Funny Face (1957), and The Pajama Game (1957). Donen's knowledge of tap dance and dance movement added immeasurably in collaboration with choreographers Fred Astaire, Nick Castle, Gower Champion, Bob Fosse, Michael Kidd and Eugene Loring.
Onstage, Donen recreated the dancing numbers for the Broadway production of in Singing in the Rain, directed by John Carrafa. He made his debut as a Broadway director with the stage version of The Red Shoes (1993). He will always be remembered for his imaginative, colorful rhythmic "lies" that gloriously entertained the world.
[Sources: Joseph Andrew Casper, Stanley Donen (1983); Stephen M. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling (1996); Larry Billman, Film Choreographers and Stage Directors: an Illustrated Biographic Encyclopedia, 1893-1995 (1995)]