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Gene Kelly Quotes

Eugene Curran Kelly was an American-Irish dancer, actor of film, stage, and television, singer, film director, producer, screenwriter, comedian and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks, and the likable characters that he played on screen.

Best known today for his performances in films such as On the Town , An American in Paris , Anchors Aweigh — for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor—and Singin' in the Rain , he starred in musical films until they fell out of fashion in the late 1950s. He starred in, choreographed, or co-directed some of the most well-regarded musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, debuting with Judy Garland in For Me and My Gal , and followed by Du Barry Was a Lady , Thousands Cheer , The Pirate , and It's Always Fair Weather , among others. Later, he starred in two films outside the musical genre: Inherit the Wind and What a Way to Go! . Kelly directed films without a collaborator , including Hello, Dolly! , which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.His many innovations transformed the Hollywood musical, and he is credited with almost single-handedly making the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences. Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements, the same year An American in Paris won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He later received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors and from the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute. In 1999, the American Film Institute also ranked him as the 15th greatest male screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Wikipedia  

✵ 23. August 1912 – 2. February 1996
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Gene Kelly: 4   quotes 0   likes

Famous Gene Kelly Quotes

“In the 1930s, when I started, Martha Graham was the only dancer doing anything modern, but she did it all to classical music. I couldn't see myself doing Swan Lake every night, and I wanted to develop a truly American style. The only dancer in the movies at that time with any success was Fred Astaire, but he did very small, elegant steps in a top hat, white tie, and tails.”

Gene Kelly

Quoted in "Gene Kelly's Musical Memories"

“It's all true. It's true I didn't want to be a dancer. What I really wanted to be was a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Then at 14 I discovered girls, and began to study dancing diligently. At that time dancing was the only way you could put your arm around the girl. Dancing was courtship. Only later did I discover you dance joy. You dance love. You dance dreams. Of course, the Pittsburgh Pirates lost a hell of a shortstop.”

Gene Kelly

Speaking on March 8, 1985 at the American Film Institute; as quoted in "Hollywood Honors Man Who `Danced Joy'" by Paul Rosenfield, in Los Angeles Times (March 9, 1985)

“Fred Astaire represented the aristocracy, I represented the proletariat.”

Gene Kelly

Quoted in Vaudeville Old and New, Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman, Donald McNeilly (2004) http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XFnfnKg6BcAC&pg=PA623&lpg=PA623&dq=%22Fred+Astaire+represented+the+aristocracy,+I+represented+the+proletariat.%22&source=bl&ots=5uoGqPw6x4&sig=YkykWG5pcdAalk3jOpgoWqVYxhQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Znv_Tqr4CYqy8QPJxfydAg&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22Fred%20Astaire%20represented%20the%20aristocracy%2C%20I%20represented%20the%20proletariat.%22&f=false

“I really don't know why I clicked. I didn't want to be a dancer, I just did it to work my way through college. But I was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally.”

Gene Kelly

Quoted in "Gene Kelly's Musical Memories" by Rex Reed, in The Chicago Tribune (November 29, 1970)

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