Donald O'Connor, dead at 78

Sept. 27, 2003

[Lizavetta]

Just heard it on the radio.

Another one gone.

[Happy2BMe]

Watched him on many Saturday matinee when I was a kid.

These guys are dropping like flies.

[wizardoz]

So I agree with you on the sudden death heart attack where Susan and Tim are dead before they hit the floor.

Hey, this is great. We can wish the SOBs dead and still feel merciful while we're doing it! LOL!

[skr]

O'Connor and Cagney were definetly two of the best who were never given their due in that area. Another fun song and dance routine was O'Connor and Bing Crosby in Anything Goes.

The Francis movies were great fun!!!

And his recreation of the comedy routines in The Buster Keaton Story was right on target.

[kitkat]

***I cannot put into words how much I love that movie!***

You don't have to. Many of us know just what you mean.

(By the way, I kinda hoped Donald would win Cathy, instead of Gene winning her. Donald just seemed as though he would be more fun.)

[BibChr]

Boy, are YOU counting on a well-read audience!

[jimfree]

That's him on the left. He was a great entertainer. RIP.

Yep. Is this pic from the "Good Morning" routine in SITR?

[MinuteGal]

A number of years ago I had the privilege of attending a special one-night show in a performing arts center in Clearwater, Florida. It starred O'Connor and Mickey Rooney.

At the time, Donald was around 70 and Rooney around 80. Both these troupers were literally born on the vaudeville stage and really knew how to entertain. With no profanity or vulgarity, just straight patter, song and dance, they held the standing-room-only audience enthralled. I've never seen and heard so many standing ovations. Especially when they did songs and dances from their old movies.

I was lucky to have landed a front-row-center seat, just a few yards from being able to pat them on their shoulders. Despite their ages, each of them was still nimble and in great voice.

Although Donald was always rather gawky-looking in his films, he had matured into a handsome older man, still boyish-looking, with beautiful blue eyes. During intermission, many of the older ladies were buzzing about how handsome O'Connor looked.

From my vantage point, I noticed how the overweight Mickey was perspiring heavily under the lights, his face and balding head bright red. I thought he'd explode or have a heart attack at any moment.

However, despite their advanced years, both men still moved with amazing grace and stamina. They put on a show so full of exuberance and noticeable love of show biz that they brought down the house over and over again.

Today, the younger folks raise an eyebrow when I say I saw Donald O'Connor and Mickey Rooney in person. Yet, these two "fossils" filled an unforgetable evening with all-around talent and a special art that we hardly see any more.

There were so many curtain calls, it was unbelievable. It was like the audience wanted to hang on forever to great performers and delightful memories from the golden age of song-and-dance. I'll never forget that evening.

Thanks, Donald O'Connor, for all you gave us during your long career. I know you're singing in heaven's sunshine now.

Leni

[Clintons Are White Trash]

I agree - he was in a class by himself and will be remembered and loved through his film legacy.

[Atchafalaya]

Nah thats Gene Kelly.

[185JHP]

A class guy who exuded decency. There were role models in those days. Him, Bob Cummings, Gene Autry - guys about whom you could say "when I grow up, I'm gonna act like that..."

[Dog]

Another one..

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for the post. I heard just this minute when I checked The Dallas Morning News ...

Dancer Donald O'Connor made 'em laugh with nimble artistry

10:39 PM CDT on Saturday, September 27, 2003

By PHILIP WUNTCH / The Dallas Morning News

Donald O'Connor, who danced with Gene Kelly in the classic Singin' in the Rain and conversed with a talking mule in the Francis comedy series, died Saturday. He was 78.

The energetic entertainer, who had been in declining health in recent years, died of heart failure at a retirement home in Calabassas, Calif., his daughter, Alicia O'Connor, told The Associated Press. He was last seen by moviegoers as a dance instructor with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in 1997's Out to Sea.

AP file

Donald O'Connor, shown in this 1993 file photo, died Saturday at age 78.

After his screen career peaked, he toured extensively, starring in Little Me at the 1980 Dallas Summer Musicals and performing at the Fairmont Hotel's Venetian Room in 1974.

For periods of his adult life, he suffered from alcoholism. In his later years, he did charity work to help groups and facilities for recovering alcoholics.

Mr. O'Connor's dancing was noted for its snappy acrobatics and animated gestures. He played to the top balcony, a trait that he came by naturally. He was born in Chicago on Aug. 28, 1925, the youngest of seven children. His circus-performer parents went into vaudeville; and he joined their act while still an infant. They settled in Chicago. At age 6, he reportedly worked the roulette wheel at a nightclub owned by Al Capone.

Spotted by a movie talent scout when he was 11, he made his film debut dancing with two of his brothers in Melody for Two. At 13, he upstaged both Bing Crosby and Fred MacMurray in the memorable "Small Fry" routine from 1938's Sing You Sinners.

DONALD O'CONNOR

Born: Donald David Dixon O'Connor, Aug. 28, 1925
Died: Sept. 27, 2003
Honors: Emmy Award for outstanding male star of a regular series, 1953, for The Colgate Comedy Hour; Golden Globe, best actor in a musical or comedy, for Singin' in the Rain, 1952.
Film highlights: Sing You Sinners (1938), Beau Geste (1939), This Is the Life (1944), Francis (1949), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Call Me Madam (1953), Walking My Baby Back Home (1953), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), Ragtime (1981), Toys (1992)
TV highlights: Emceed Academy Awards (1954); Remembering Bing (1987) Irving Berlin's America (1956); Bob Hope: The First Ninety Years (1993)
Private life: Married Gwendolyn Carter in 1944, divorced 1954. Married Gloria Noble, 1956. Had one daughter in first marriage, one daughter and two sons in second marriage.

During the '40s, he played juvenile leads in teen comedies, often portraying the brash but likable boy next door, whom the heroine took for granted until the final reel.

His greatest triumph was as Cosmo, Gene Kelly's wisecracking partner in Singin' in the Rain. But the movie was not an instant classic. It opened in 1952 to respectful reviews and solid business, yet its innovative liveliness was not fully appreciated until French critics rediscovered it during the late '60s.

Apparently, the making of Singin' in the Rain was chaotic. It was co-directed by Mr. Kelly and Stanley Donen, who argued constantly. According to Mr. Donen's authorized biography, Dancing on the Ceiling , Mr. Kelly would vent his frustrations by exploding at co-stars Debbie Reynolds and Mr. O'Connor.

Despite behind-the-scenes factions, the film remains a model of musical symmetry. Mr. O'Connor and Mr. Kelly do a hilarious "Moses Supposes," in which they mock a prissy diction coach. And Mr. O'Connor performs a magical "Make 'em Laugh," dancing across a movie set, using all the props – even a dummy – as partners.

"That was all Donald," Mr. Donen said of the "Make 'em Laugh" number. "There was no trick photography."

In the scene, Mr. O'Connor attempts to avoid the dummy, which has suddenly sprung to life and is trying to grab hold of him. He said he got the inspiration for his tricky gyrations from experiences riding the crowded Brooklyn subway.

AP file

Donald O'Connor (left) and Gene Kelly danced together in this scene from Singin' in the Rain in 1955. The film also starred Debbie Reynolds.

"I ad-libbed all sorts of stunts," Mr. O'Connor said later. "I'd done somersaults off walls in two other pictures. Finally, we filmed 'Make 'em Laugh' straight through. And I went home and couldn't get out of bed for three days."

Although movie musicals were declining in popularity, he co-starred with Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam, with Mr. Crosby in Anything Goes and with Ms. Merman and Marilyn Monroe in There's No Business Like Show Business.

His personal favorite among his routines ironically was not from Singin' in the Rain. Instead, it was from Call Me Madame, in which he and Vera-Ellen danced to Irving Berlin's "It's a Lovely Day Today."

During the '50s, he was seen regularly as the bumbling straight man to the talking mule, Francis. The low-budget comedies always turned a hefty profit until Mr. O'Connor left after five films and Mickey Rooney was rushed in as a substitute.

He made no secret of the fact that he disliked the Francis series, saying: "I used to think of it as a bring-down. I'd make a film like There's No Business Like Show Business with Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe and then have to go back and work with a jackass."

E-mail pwuntch@dallasnews.com

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/092803dnnatoconnorob.30ee8.html

[SerpentDove]

I won't believe it till he's on the same poster at the mall with Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean and Elvis.

[MeekOneGOP]

[Doctor Stochastic]

Well, Cagney did get the Academy Award for "Yankee Doodle Dandy" rather than for playing a gangster.

"You dirty rat. You sang that off-key. Now I'm going to show you how to sing really high."

[MeekOneGOP]

He made no secret of the fact that he disliked the Francis series, saying: "I used to think of it as a bring-down. I'd make a film like There's No Business Like Show Business with Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe and then have to go back and work with a jackass."

That may explain why I had a hard time finding many pics of that series.
I thought they were pretty funny at the time ...

[DeFault User]

Well, Cagney did get the Academy Award for "Yankee Doodle Dandy" rather than for playing a gangster.

Yes he did, but I don't recall O'Connor and Cagney being placed in the same category as Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire when referring to great dancers. BTW, a lot of references on this thread about O'Connor dancing up the wall, but I recall Cagney doing it in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).

[Cacique]

RIP

Another icon of my growing up youth gone.

Soon it will be our turn.

[JimFreedom]

It is so sad. But its the cycle of life. I used to enjoy the Saturday matinees, and the Francis Talking Mule pictures. He was an incredible dancer, always my favorite in that catagory.

Lucky for me several years ago while on business in Palm Springs I got to see Mr OConnor in person downtown as he was getting his star on their walk of fame.

I guess its time to watch Sing'n In The Rain again, Americas GREATEST movie musical!

[miss marmelstein]

Thanks for settling that! "Make 'Em Laugh" is one of the most spectacular numbers in the history of motion pictures. If you think that kind of dancing can't be done, I advise everyone to look at a Nicholas Brothers movie ("Stormy Weather" for example.)