Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly

 Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996)

Kelly was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks and the likeable characters that he played on screen. Although he is known today for his performances in Anchors Aweigh (1945), An American in Paris (1951) and Singin' in the Rain (1952), he was a dominant force in Hollywood musical films from the mid-1940s until this art form fell out of fashion in the late 1950s. He achieved a significant breakthrough as a dancer on film when MGM loaned him to Columbia to work with Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl (1944), a film that foreshadowed the best of his future work. He created a memorable routine dancing to his own reflection. Despite this, noted critic Manny Farber was moved to praise Kelly's "attitude", "clarity", and "feeling" as an actor while inauspiciously concluding, "The two things he does least well – singing and dancing – are what he is given most consistently to do." At the end of 1944, Kelly enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Service and was commissioned as lieutenant junior grade. He was stationed in the Photographic Section, Washington D.C., where he was involved in writing and directing a range of documentaries, and this stimulated his interest in the production side of film-making. In 1999, the American Film Institute numbered him 15th in their Greatest Male Stars of All Time list.

Kelly suffered a few strokes during the 1990's, which left him bedridden during the final year of his life. He died at age 83 in 1996, and was cremated, with no funeral or memorial service.