Stanley Donen, director of Singin’ in the Rain, dies at 94

FILMMAKER STANLEY DONEN, a giant of the Hollywood musical who through such classics as Singin’ in the Rain and Funny Face helped give us some of the most joyous sounds and images in movie history, has died. He was 94.

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

The 1940s and ‘50s were the prime era for Hollywood musicals and no filmmaker contributed more to the magic than Donen, among the last survivors from that era and one willing to extend the limits of song and dance into the surreal. He was part of the unit behind such unforgettable scenes as Kelly dancing with an animated Jerry the mouse in Anchors Aweigh, Astaire’s gravity-defying spin across the ceiling in Royal Wedding, and, the alltime triumph, Kelly ecstatically splashing about as he performs the title number in Singin’ in the Rain.

Steven Spielberg recalled Donen as a “friend and early mentor” for whom life and film were inseparable.

“His generosity in giving over so many of his weekends in the late 60’s to film students like me to learn about telling stories and placing lenses and directing actors is a time I will never forget,” Spielberg said on Saturday.

The filmmaker Guillermo del Toro said, “Before Stanley Donen actors sang, actors danced. He made the camera dance and the colors sing.”

Other Donen films included Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”(1954), with its superlative athletic choreography; Damn Yankees (1958), the 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.