Gene Kelly

American tap and ballet dancer, choreographer,rift gold, actor, and director, known for his work in motion-picture musicals. Born Eugene Curran Kelly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he studied at his mother’s dance school, he first won recognition in the Broadway musical Pal Joey (1940). Kelly moved to Hollywood, California, and made his film debut with American actor Judy Garland in For Me and My Gal (1942), which launched his career. He subsequently appeared in and codirected such popular film musicals as On the Town (1949) and Singin’ in the Rain (1952).

His dancing and choreography in An American in Paris (1951) were acclaimed as outstanding examples of film ballet, as was his performance of Richard Rodgers’s Slaughter on 10th Avenue ballet in Words and Music (1948). Kelly’s work also includes the all-dance film Invitation to the Dance (1956) and the jazz ballet Pas de deux, choreographed for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1960. He performed dramatic roles in such films as The Three Musketeers (1948), Marjorie Morningstar (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), A Guide for the Married Man (1967), and Hello, Dolly! (1969).

Kelly received a special Academy Award in 1951 for his contributions to motion-picture choreography. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government in 1960. In the 1980s he received two prestigious life achievement awards,rift gold one from the Kennedy Center (1982) and one from the American Film Institute (1985). He was awarded a National Medal of Arts in 1994.