Stanley Donen
1924 - 2019
The lead paragraph of the New York Times' obituary for Stanley Donen, who died yesterday at the age of 94, described him as the man "who directed Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling, Gene Kelly singing in the rain and a host of other sparkling moments from some of Hollywood’s greatest musicals".
The list of Donen's directorial credits is long and distinguished, and includes some of Hollywood's greatest film musicals (On the Town, Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face) and some pretty good non-musical ones as well (Blame It On Rio, Two For the Road, and one of my favorites, Charade), but if did nothing else, Donen would be remembered forever for co-directing, with Gene Kelly, "Singin' In The Rain". This 1952 movie is considered one of the ten best American movies ever made and the best movie musical of all time.
Here are pictures of two of the most famous scenes in film musicals ever, and the man responsible for filming them was Stanley Donen.
Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling in "Royal Wedding"
Gene Kelly dancing and singing in the rain
For all of his accomplishments, Donen was never once nominated for an Academy Award, but in 1998, the Motion Picture Academy made up for this oversight by awarding Stanley Donen an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. His acceptance of that award was a classic:
RIP Stanley Donen.
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