Wonderful! Thank you for sharing this! And I guess the lessons worked!

Pittsburgh!

Wow! He could dance, too? Lucky Mrs. Rogers!

Amazing!!! Tell us more! I love Gene Kelly. It’s must be surreal to meet him!

How amazing and wonderful!!

Yes! I teared up when his children were describing their relationship with him. Truly wonderful!

Absolutely. So many of the children of actors from that generation have only negative things to say about their famous parent. It’s such a pleasant surprise to see just how much Gene Kelly’s children revere him. It goes to show what a loving father he was.

He was quite a real man!

He was an athlete..remarkably strong..lots of endurance..it takes strength to dance.

+

Me either

Ditto. He was a genius!

9

And he was so, so sick when he had to do Singing in the Rain. Imagine having to do that, over and over again while sick? Such a Warrior.

Don't forget one of my favorites he did was Brigadoon. The Town that appears out of the mist! It's a really good movie.

When Gene passed away, I was working at ABC News, and Peter Jennings was not only the anchor but also the managing editor (or whatever we called it) on World News Tonight. Peter personally decided not to run a traditional obituary. On the program that night, he said a few words about Gene dying, and said what would follow would say more about Gene Kelly than words ever could. And then we played the entire four-minutes-plus of Gene's iconic song and dance number for Singing in the Rain. A finer obituary there never was.

What a wonderful story. Keep sharing.

@@MrPerfesser I remember that and it was very moving.

Thankyou for adding your recollections, great to hear from people who knew Gene K well earlier in his life!

🚬👴🏿🥃 SOOO HOWS YO MOTHER DOIN?

Yes! And also Louis Armstrong singing "What a Wonderful World". I can def hear him smiling too.

Yes, his talents included, he could, dance,.was a choreographer of dance, performed ice skating style ballet on rollerskates, sing, act, he also directed movies, a script writing expert,.and assembled documentarys. His talents will be missed. I enjoyed your response 👍

He was also an acrobat and gymnast

Daughters. Amen. JulieKilburn

ABSOLUTELY!

Back when a celebrity had to earn that title by actually being TALENTED, and not just "famous for being famous" celebs of today.

He was only 5'6" tall

Harto sexy era.Pero por sobre todo buen bailarín.

He was a dancing athlete. EPIC ass! I never really understood men’s buttocks til I beheld Kelly’s.

@@michellelekas211 He was 5'8" tall.

@@susanlloyd7395 Susan, They always overreport male heights, especially in acting

monster just disgusting hate his style hate him and nor surprised finding out everyone hated and feared him. I can't look at any film he is in. dancing second rate seemed to get a kick out of how much he hurt his female partners Tony Martin always knowing when Cyd had been on set dancing with him from her bruises All his routines are UGLY in style and concept and his singing just horrid.. YUCK

My favorite dance number from that movie was "Good Morning." Donald O'Connor was a very underrated dancer. His number, "Make Them Laugh," was another one of my favorites.

My favorite dancer is George Murphy. That man was so smooth and light on his feet; he was great in Little Miss Broadway!✌️

Every person is an individual. Nobody is like anyone else.

The tap was dubbed by Gwen Verdon, who was famous as a child tap dancer, but never did it once she was a star.

Your message is beautiful. No one compares to him. He was amazingly talented and lovely in every way. We were lucky to be alive to see him before he grew old.

That's actually pretty sad

@@michellelekas211 He was quite a bully at times. Lots of people he worked with complained of it, especially women. He was also competitive to the point of boorishness. A great talent and a good guy, but he had his flaws too.

Debbie Reynolds had never really danced before so Gene had to train her for Singing in the Rain. He worked her so hard, then sometimes when she would remove her shoes, her feet would be blistered and bloody.

But she sure learned! They didn't have the luxury of time! Gene Kelly didn't set the timetable. Louis B Mayer and Production Head Arthur Freed demanded they be ready by a certain date. THEY hired a non-dancer with great talent. Debbie Reynolds learned from THE Pro who KNEW what SHE must learn to stay in the movie!! She wanted it! She signed a contract! Gene Kelly ALWAYS worked per schedule. And yeah, he was a perfectionist! BUT that's what dancers signed onto or were forced by contract to learn!! THEY chose to dance. Gene Kelly SHOWED them HOW to Dance!! Let's look at the WHOLE Picture!! AND Debbie often said what she'd give to dance again, with the bloody toes. “He said, ‘Donald, I’m so sorry I yelled at you, but Debbie just hasn’t been able to get these steps,'” O’Connor remembered. “‘If I had yelled at her, I ran the risk of losing her from the rest of the film. I couldn’t take that chance, so I took it out on you instead.’ I said, ‘All right, but you better protect yourself next time’ (Laughs).” I googled and found TCM interview with Debbie Reynolds (I have her autograph when she was selling her beloved collection. OMG). Anyway, www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/singin-in-the-rain-debbie-reynolds-blood-shoes-filming-good-morning-tap-dance.html/

What about Ginger Rogers And Astaire, all so wonderful and entertaining, I have watched some of their movies several times ,always with great admiration. A great family also. ❤️🇺🇸😃👍🌺

That's exactly it! I can see him as an athlete more than just a dancer

Unfortunately there’s not a wide enough audience for that anymore. Only on broadway is where stuff like that still has a presence. Now everything needs to have sex or drugs or violence or a mixture of all three

Hello Dolly was a terrible movie of a terrific show.

LOL! Same here. Born in 1961. In the 70s, my girlfriends had pics of Elvis, Donny Osmond, David Cassidy etc. I displayed posters of movie scenes that featured Gene. We had mature, sophisticated taste, Valerie! And dang, I was a tad jealous when he married his third wife Patricia. She's about the same age we are. No fair! If only...

I don't think he is underrated. Anyone who dances or knows about dance considers him an icon. Misha talked about him in his heyday.

@@katashley1031 Yes, he is a Legend.

lucky luke...I think that another much underrated dancer/singer is/was Donald O'Connor. He was a very physical dancer like Kelly. He could also sing. I can only assume that O'connor was well known and respected within the dance community and by Hollywood, but perhaps because he didn't quite have the outward good looks of Gene Kelly that he didn't rise to the same level of Kelly...??

@@marbleman52 No he came along when the musical was dying out as he was far younger than Kelly and Astaire. He was a brilliant dancer and Kelly commented that O’Connor was a better dancer than himself which is high praise indeed.

@@marbleman52 You are actually correct. Hwood insisted on the "handsome" male look for their start rosters.

My sisters and I love The Pirate. We quote from it and send each other funny clips.

*He was just amazing.

Why not?at ain't hard.give it a whirl!👍😎

No one can think of such a thing.

@@judihart9658Debbie Reynolds’s had a very different view…

An American Icon!❤

The third wife is sometimes called his elder abuser. Somehow she's been falsely acting as if she has the rights to everything and now goes around the country speaking about Gene and horning in on the stage productions of Singin' in the Rain. I despise her.

@@CathyS_Bx That's a very serious charge. If you have inside information, you should go to the authorities. If not, slinging terms like "elder abuse" around is the height of irresponsibility.

@@susanlloyd7395 Cathy doesn't need to get proof, Robert Wagner (Actor) was a very close friend of Gene's as well as Jeanne Martin (Dean Martin's wife) & Robert Wagner wrote in his own memoirs what a "witch" Patricia ward Kelly was to Gene in his later & final years, so no one needs to heed your advice Susan Lloyd!!

An American Matador. Yes! You nailed it.

YES!

Yes… they are both showmen… I’ve always said that Baryshnikov is the Gene Kelly of the ballet world, and visa versa.

You are forgetting Bob Fosse and Tommy Nall and Fayard Nicholas

& Mr Astaire…..

Tommy Rall was a much better dancer than Gene, or anybody frankly - everyone knew that.

There aren't enough words.❤

He was my favorite male "classic movies" dancer. Loved watching him, Astaire, etc. Cyd Charice is my favorite female dancer of that time.

and Noel Airman in Marjorie Morningstar please listen to him sing “ A very precious love “ from that film

*human

It is not really a question of effeminate - he just didn't have a ' typical ' dancers body shape. It is a very common association: long - limbed and lean would indicate light and elegant, short and stocky- powerful , but not necessarily light.The magic of Gene is that with his atypical body he was all- powerful, athletic and exceptionally light.

@@Katrina-mi2gm Thank you for your reply. I was actually referring to the common perception of the time that all male dancers were homosexual and considered to be effeminate . Gene proved this was not always the case and helped change the common perceptions of the time.

What "common perception " ? News to many of us interested in music in school at that time. Many of our track stars learned to dance for our school plays. There was nothing "effeminate" about these sinewy fellows,who also excelled in swimming. None of them ever had to deal with brain injuries, as football players did...and they were usually smarter ! BTW, check out the number of football homosexuals still in the closet at that time.

@@sarahhearn-vonfoerster7401 I think that it was more commonly associated with ballet and ' top hat and tails ' styles than with those that were more robust and athletic , such as tap and musical theatre. Also, a lot came from common culture prejudice, where dancing was considered to be a less masculine pursuit. " Real men play sports, don't dance. Dancing is for girls and sissies " . This is significantly less common in countries where there is a folk dancing culture , where men's ability to dance in admired, not sneered at and his masculinity is not questioned because of that.

Pues bajo fornido y musculoso. Con aspecto de trabajar en la construccion.Pero sexy. Los otros bailarines de esa época serían mas estilizados .Pero no eran sexy como Gene Kelly. Ni guapos tampoco. Y lo prefiero mil veces a Fred Astaire.

The Pirate is an etraordinary film - and Judy's best performance too.

Lucky you.

@@susanlloyd7395 came here to say that