Stanley Donen (born
April 13,
1924) is an American
film director and
choreographer hailed by David Quinlan as "the King of the Hollywood musicals". His most famous work is
Singin' in the Rain, which he co-directed with
Gene Kelly.
Early life
Born in
Columbia, South Carolina to Mordecai Moses Donen, a dress-shop manager, and Helen Cohen, both of whom were
Jewish. Donen himself became an atheist in his youth. He attended the
University of South Carolina. He went to
New York City as a teenager and at age sixteen was a dancer in the original production of
Rodgers and
Hart's Pal Joey, which starred Kelly.
Film career
Donen started at
Metro Goldwyn Mayer as a choreographer and dancer in
Best Foot Forward (
1943) with
Lucille Ball. Donen appeared with Kelly in
Cover Girl (
1944) for
Columbia Pictures, for which Donen also directed a sequence of Kelly dancing with his double on a darkened Manhattan street. His first chance to direct an entire movie was an adaptation of the
Comden and
Green musical about sailors on leave in
New York City,
On the Town (1949), with some songs by
Leonard Bernstein, which Donen co-directed with
Gene Kelly. This was the first movie musical to be filmed on location.
With Kelly again, Donen co-directed
Singin' in the Rain (
1952) and by himself directed such classics as
Royal Wedding (
1951), where Donen directed
Fred Astaire dancing on a ceiling;
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (
1954) with
Jane Powell and
Howard Keel;
Funny Face (
1957) a musical romantic comedy with
Fred Astaire and
Audrey Hepburn;
Pajama Game (
1957) with
Doris Day;
Indiscreet (
1958) with
Cary Grant and
Ingrid Bergman;
Damn Yankees (
1958) a musical comedy with
Tab Hunter,
Gwen Verdon, and
Ray Walston.
The demise of the Hollywood musical caused the string of successes Donen had directed to stall. He went on to direct a variety of films, some financially successful, some less so, but none recaptured the mood of his early classics. These included the comedy thriller
Charade (
1963) with Hepburn, Grant, and
Walter Matthau;
Bedazzled (
1967) a satirical updating of the
Faust legend starring and written by British comedians
Peter Cook and
Dudley Moore; and
Two for the Road (
1967) a drama with Hepburn and
Albert Finney. He also directed the out-of-character
science fiction film
Saturn 3 (
1980) when the film's original director resigned. His last theatrical film to date was the May-December romance
Blame It on Rio (
1984) with
Michael Caine and
Demi Moore, though he would go on to do additional work for television, including directing a musical sequence for the TV series
Moonlighting,
Lionel Richie's music video for "
Dancing on the Ceiling", and a made-for-TV movie on
ABC entitled
Love Letters (
1999).
Donen was nominated for five
Directors Guild of America Awards, but never nominated for a single Oscar. (He did produce the 58th
Academy Awards ceremony in 1986.) In 1998 (for the 1997 awards), Donen was granted an honorary
Academy Award "in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation." In his acceptance speech, he danced with his Oscar statue while singing
Irving Berlin's "
Cheek to Cheek" and declared one of the secrets to being a great director is "You show up--and stay the hell out of the way. But you gotta show up or else you can't take the credit and win one of these guys." Martin Scorsese presented the award.
Filmography
As Director:
As Choreographer:
