Stanley Donen dead at 94 – Singin’ in the Rain director passes away after heart attack, family confirms

STANLEY Donen – director of Singin’ in the Rain – has died at the age of 94, his family has confirmed.

Donen, who often teamed with Gene Kelly but also worked with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire, died on Thursday in New York from heart failure, his sons Joshua and Mark Donen said today.


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.

He told the Associated Press (AP): "You can't get through a movie if you don't think it's good.

"Certainly we thought it was good. More than that? I don't know.

"You don't think about that. You just think about how you can do it."

Both the film and Donen were at first underrated.

Singin' in the Rain was initially seen as high entertainment rather than art and was not even nominated for a best picture or directing Academy Award, says AP.

Donen, overshadowed by Kelly early in his career, never received a competitive Oscar nomination and waited until 1998 for an honorary award, presented to him by Martin Scorsese.

He was more than ready.

When filming starts, you show up and you stay the hell out of the way.

Donen danced cheek-to-cheek with his Oscar statuette, which he called "this cute little fella".

The crowd yelled and applauded as he crooned, "Heaven, I'm in heaven," from Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek".

During his acceptance speech, he explained his formula for a great musical.

Bring in songwriters like Adolph Green and Betty Comden, and performers like Kelly or Astaire or Sinatra.

He added: "And when filming starts, you show up and you stay the hell out of the way."

Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Donen would remember movies, especially those with Astaire and Ginger Rogers, as a needed escape from the tensions of being one of the few Jews in his community.

Donen 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.

"COVER GIRL"

Donen received his first Hollywood break when Kelly got him a job helping choreograph the 1944 Kelly film "Cover Girl".

Over the next few years, he worked on choreography for such films as "The Kissing Bandit," starring Sinatra, and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," starring Sinatra and Kelly, who teamed with Donen on choreography.

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.

GENE KELLY WAS "COLD"

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.

"He could be difficult with me and everyone else," the director told The New York Times in 1996. "It was always a complicated collaboration."

Other Donen films included "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1954), with its superlative athletic choreography.

"Damn Yankees" (1958), was a remake of the Broadway smash about a baseball fan's temptation and "Funny Face," in which Astaire teamed up with Audrey Hepburn to play a fashion photographer and his unlikely muse.

The veteran Hollywood musicals legend directed more than two dozen films, reports Reuters.

Not all were successful – or even good – like his last two films: the sci-fi mess “Saturn 3” (1980) with Farrah Fawcett, and the creepy sex romp “Blame It on Rio” (1984) with Michael Caine.

Donen had three sons; the oldest, Peter, died in 2003 of a heart attack at age 50.

The filmmaker was married five times. His first wife, Jeannie Coyne, married Kelly after divorcing Donen.

Another of his wives was actress Yvette Mimieux.

He later had a long-term relationship with screenwriter and director Elaine May.

Steven Spielberg was among many in the film industry paying tribute to him today.

He hailed Donen as a "friend and an early mentor" who "made compelling movies in multiple genres.

"When visiting New York, I will miss not bumping into him on his daily walks and hear him talking about life and film, which for Stanley were inseparable."












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