Hollywood master directed Singin’ in the Rain
Stanley Donen was presented with an Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 1998.
Stanley Donen, 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, died Thursday in Manhattan. He was 94. His son, Mark Donen, confirmed the death.
Stanley Donen brought a certain charm and elegance to the silver screen in the late 1940s through the 1950s, at a time when Hollywood was soaked in glamour and big studio movies were polished to a sheen.
“For a time, Donen epitomized Hollywood style,” Tad Friend wrote in the New Yorker in 2003.
Donen, he wrote, “made the world of champagne fountains and pillbox hats look enchanting, which is much harder than it sounds.” Donen worked with some of the most illustrious figures of his era: from Astaire and Kelly to Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. He also worked with Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and the writing team of Comden and Green, not to mention Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor.
Donen’s filmography is studded with some of Hollywood’s most loved and admired musicals. Royal Wedding (1951), in which Astaire defied gravity, and Singin’ in the Rain (1952), in which Kelly defied the weather, were just two of his crowdpleasers.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acknowledged his mastery by honouring Donen in 1998 with a lifetime achievement award for “a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation.”
Many saw the award as Hollywood’s way of making amends because Donen had never been nominated for an Oscar, much less won one.
Donen also directed thrillers like Charade, wild comedies like Bedazzled (1967) and rueful romances like Two for the Road.
But musicals were his specialty, and fellow director Jean-Luc Godard spoke for many when he called Donen “the master of the musical.”
He began his career in Kelly’s shadow. The two first worked together in 1940, in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hart’s Pal Joey.
He remained intermittently active into the 21st century. In 1993 he returned to Broadway to direct a theatrical version of the classic dance film The Red Shoes. But the production closed after five performances.
All five of Donen’s marriages — to dancer and choreographer Jeanne Coyne, actress Marion Marshall, Adelle Beatty, actress Yvette Mimieux and Pamari Braden — ended in divorce. But he did not like living alone. For a time he had a cushion in his living room embroidered with the words “Eat, drink and remarry.” Director and performer Elaine May was his companion of many years. He is survived by his sons, Mark and Joshua Donen, and a sister, Carla Davis. Another son, Peter, preceded him in death.