Stanley Donen (born April 13, 1924) is an American film director and choreographer hailed by David Quinlan as "the King of the Hollywood musicals". His most famous work is Singin' in the Rain, which he co-directed with Gene Kelly.
Born in Columbia, South Carolina to Mordecai Moses Donen, a dress-shop manager, and Helen Cohen, both of whom were Jewish. Donen himself became an atheist in his youth. He attended the University of South Carolina. He w...
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Stanley Donen (born April 13, 1924) is an American film director and choreographer hailed by David Quinlan as "the King of the Hollywood musicals". His most famous work is Singin' in the Rain, which he co-directed with Gene Kelly.
Born in Columbia, South Carolina to Mordecai Moses Donen, a dress-shop manager, and Helen Cohen, both of whom were Jewish. Donen himself became an atheist in his youth. He attended the University of South Carolina. He went to New York City as a teenager and at age sixteen was a dancer in the original production of Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, which starred Kelly.
Donen started at Metro Goldwyn Mayer as a choreographer and dancer in Best Foot Forward (1943) with Lucille Ball. Donen appeared with Kelly in Cover Girl (1944) for Columbia Pictures, for which Donen also directed a sequence of Kelly dancing with his double on a darkened Manhattan street. His first chance to direct an entire movie was an adaptation of the Comden and Green musical about sailors on...
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