ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602050070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: JEFF WILSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
note: above
THE ACROBATIC DANCER eschewed the top hat and tails of Fred Astaire, preferring instead to roll up his sleeves and dance in sweat shirts and jeans.
Gene Kelly, the dancer who brought his athletic grace and Irish charm to ``Singin' in the Rain,'' ``On the Town'' and other great musicals of the 1940s and '50s, died Friday. He was 83.
Warren Cowan, Kelly's longtime publicist, said the entertainer died in his sleep at his Beverly Hills home, with his wife, Patricia, at his bedside. Kelly suffered strokes in 1994 and 1995, and Cowan said he never really recovered from them.
Kelly reigned at MGM in the postwar era, when the studio was known for turning out the best musicals. He also had serious acting roles and directed ``Hello, Dolly!'' and other films.
His most memorable dance was the title number of ``Singin' in the Rain,'' in which he splashed joyously through puddles on a near-deserted street, his love for Debbie Reynolds rendering him oblivious to the wet.
Kelly was co-director as well as choreographer and actor in the 1952 film, a lighthearted look at the early days of talking pictures. In 1989, ``Singin' in the Rain'' was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry of significant movies.
``He was part of my family, part of all of our heritage ... an American treasure, a friend, an original,'' Liza Minnelli said on hearing of Kelly's death. ``I know one thing: For the rest of my life, whenever it rains ... I will think of him and smile.''
Kelly's acrobatic dance style contrasted with the more elegant style of Fred Astaire, who began his film career a decade earlier.
``People would compare us, but we didn't dance alike at all!'' Kelly said in a 1994 Los Angeles Times interview. ``Fred danced in tails - everybody wore them before I came out here - but I took off my coat, rolled up my sleeves and danced in sweat shirts and jeans and khakis.''
The pair danced together only twice: as two casual friends spouting cliches in ``Ziegfeld Follies'' (1946), and at the end of their dancing careers in a light-footed duet for ``That's Entertainment Part II.''
Kelly had more unusual dance partners in the 1945 film ``Anchors Aweigh,'' sharing the screen with cartoon characters such as Tom and Jerry. The film, which also co-starred Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson, won him a 1945 Oscar nomination as best actor.
Kelly choreographed many of his films and began taking more control by co-directing ``On the Town'' with Stanley Donen in 1949. He said it was his favorite film ``because it was my first directing job and I loved it for the ground it broke.'' The story of sailors on leave in New York broke the mold by being shot on location.
Kelly's most bravura performance came with ``An American in Paris.'' He created the dances, climaxed by the 17-minute ballet with Leslie Caron to George Gershwin's music. The number cost $500,000.
The film won the Academy Award as best picture of 1951, and Kelly was given a special award ``in appreciation of his versatility as actor, singer, director and dancer, and especially for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film.''
Kelly always sought to elevate the art of dance in films. His first work as solo director was ``Invitation to the Dance'' (1956), which contained no dialogue.
``I've always held that you shouldn't underestimate the intelligence of the movie audience,'' he once said. ``That's where Hollywood has made a mistake. I remember how everybody thought we were nuts to put that big ballet number in `An American in Paris.'''
Kelly began concentrating on dramatic roles and directing in the late '50s, particularly after a knee injury sidelined him from dancing for a couple of years.
``For a guy who had been dancing all his life, that was tough to take,'' he said years later. ``But I began to realize there was something else I could do to make a living.''
His nonmusical films included ``Marjorie Morningstar,'' ``Inherit the Wind'' and ``40 Carats.'' His films as director were limited: ``Tunnel of Love,'' ``Gigot,'' ``A Guide to the Married Man,'' ``Hello, Dolly!'' and ``The Cheyenne Social Club'' (with Henry Fonda and James Stewart).
Kelly's last movie as a performer was the 1980 failure ``Xanadu.'' Co-starring with Olivia Newton-John, he performed on roller skates, something he had done with his brother Fred 35 years before. More recently, he reminisced in the 1994 compilation film ``That's Entertainment III.''
Kelly was a successful Broadway hoofer before he began his screen career. He made his Broadway debut as a dancer in the 1938 Cole Porter musical ``Leave It to Me,'' which was notable for the hit of Mary Martin singing ``My Heart Belongs to Daddy.''
More Broadway shows followed: a revue ``One for the Money,'' William Saroyan's play ``The Time of Your Life,'' and Rodgers and Hart's ``Pal Joey.'' Kelly's performance as the gold-plated heel Joey brought him a movie contract.
He made his film debut in 1942 with ``For Me and My Gal,'' co-starring Judy Garland. With his high, reedy voice and his athletic agility, Kelly established himself as a musical star in ``Dubarry Was a Lady,'' ``Thousands Cheer'' and ``Cover Girl'' (with Rita Hayworth at Columbia).
After a stint in the Navy's photographic section during World War II, he returned to films with the tepid ``Living in a Big Way.'' He resumed his stride with ``The Pirate'' (with Garland), ``Take Me Out to the Ballgame'' (with Esther Williams and Sinatra), ``On the Town'' and ``Summer Stock.''
Kelly appeared frequently on television and starred in one short-lived 1962 series, ``Going My Way,'' based on the Bing Crosby movie.
Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh Aug. 23, 1912. His mother, an actress, made him take dancing lessons as a youngster, but he was more interested in athletics and didn't take up dance seriously until high school.
``I was a little short then, and looking back I can see that it was pure self-aggrandizement,'' he once told an interviewer. ``I wanted everyone to say, `Gee, he's clever.' And they did, too.''
While studying at the University of Pittsburgh, Kelly took part in campus musicals and entered talent contests in a dancing act with his brother Fred. After graduating in 1933 and a short try at law school, he danced with his brother in second-rate theaters and nightclubs and helped out at his mother's dancing school.
Appearing in a revue in Pittsburgh, he was spotted by a dance director who brought him to Broadway.
In later years, Kelly was laden with honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 1985 and the Screen Actors Guild achievement award in 1988.
Socially a convivial man, Kelly was a taskmaster on a movie set, alternating charm with flashes of temper. He kept his personal life private and often seemed uncomfortable with interviewers' questions.
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. headshot of Kelly colorby CNB2. AP ``Whenever it rains ... I will think of him and smile,'' said
Liza Minnelli of Gene Kelly's dancing in ``Singin' in the Rain.''