Leslie Caron

Trivia of Leslie Caron (1 July 1931)

*Her father was a French chemist and owner of a boutique and her mother was Franco-American dancer who briefly performed in the ‘Broadway’ during the 1920s but ended her career for marriage and later committed suicide.It was her mother who pushed Caron for a dancing career and in this pursuit prepared her from an early age.

*Caron was initially a ballerina. She was discovered by Gene Kelly, in the Roland Petit company “Ballet des Champs Elysées”, who cast her to appear opposite him in the musical An American in Paris (1951), a role for which a pregnant Cyd Charisse was originally cast. She had a friendly relationship with Kelly, who nicknamed her “Lester the Pester” and “kid”. Kelly helped the inexperienced Caron—who had never spoken on stage—adjust to filmmaking.

*Many of her initial films were musicals where her expertise in ballet were brilliantly utilised. Two other successful musicals of Caron during the 1950s were ‘Daddy Long Legs’ (1955) and ‘Gigi’ (1958), of which the latter earned her the ‘Laurel Award for Top Female Musical Performance’ and a nomination for a ‘Golden Globe Award’ for Best Actress.

*Mitzi Gaynor was the studio's first choice to play Julie in Daddy Long Legs (1955), as she was already under contract to Fox, but Fred Astaire personally asked for Leslie Caron.Fred Astaire was 56 years old at the time the movie was shot. Leslie Caron was 24.

*Audrey Hepburn originated the Broadway role in a non-musical adaption of Gigi in 1958. While the play wasn’t well-received, her break-out performance helped launch her into the spotlight. Years later, when she was offered the film, she declined because she felt that she was now too old. Leslie Caron, who also starred in an adaption of Gigi, then accepted the part in the musical.

*Leslie Caron has described the dancing style of Gene Kelly as more sporty, while she felt Fred Astaire was always “one-and-a-half feet off the ground” as she recalled her time with the Hollywood stars.She was lucky able performed alongside both of the late stars during her career and reflected on how they would look after her on set.However, Caron would not reveal who her favourite dancing partner was out of Kelly and Astaire as she felt their styles were “very different”.One was very modern and more like a footballer, with his beautiful gestures, beautiful bodies. It was more sports – that’s Gene.And Fred was always one-and-a-half foot off the ground. He made everything beautiful.I saw him walk into a shop and walk to the counter and he was dancing, he walked beautifully.”

*Her first marriage to musician, composer and meat-packing planet heir (Hormel Foods) Geordie Hormel ended after three years. Her second marriage to famed stage director Peter Hall also ended in divorce, with his naming Warren Beatty, her co-star in Promise Her Anything (1966), as co-respondent. The London court ordered Beatty to pay court costs.