By Richard Severo Feb. 23, 2019
Stanley Donen in 1958. He directed some of Hollywood's most beloved musicals, including "On the Town" (1949).
Ronald Grant Archive, via Alamy
Stanley Donen, who directed Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling, Gene Kelly singing in the rain and a host of other sparkling moments from some of Hollywood's greatest musicals, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 94.
His son, Mark Donen, confirmed the death.
Stanley Donen brought a certain charm and elegance to the silver screen in the late 1940s through the 1950s, at a time when Hollywood was soaked in glamour and the big studio movies were polished to a sheen.
"For a time, Donen epitomized Hollywood style," Tad Friend wrote in The New Yorker in 2003. Mr. Donen, he wrote, "made the world of champagne fountains and pillbox hats look enchanting, which is much harder than it sounds."
Mr. Donen worked with some of the most illustrious figures of his era: from Astaire and Kelly to Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. He also worked with Leonard Bernstein, the lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and the writing team of Comden and Green, not to mention Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor.
Mr. Donen's filmography is studded with some of Hollywood's most loved and admired musicals. "Royal Wedding" (1951), in which Astaire defied gravity, and "Singin' in the Rain" (1952), in which Kelly defied the weather, were just two of his crowd-pleasers.
Among many others were the Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green collaboration "On the Town" (1949) - which, like "Singin' in the Rain," Mr. Donen co-directed with Kelly - as well as "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1954), with Jane Powell; "Funny Face" (1957), with Hepburn and Astaire; and "Damn Yankees" (1958), with Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acknowledged his mastery by honoring Mr. Donen in 1998 with a lifetime achievement award for "a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation." Many saw the award as Hollywood's way of making amends because Mr. Donen had never been nominated for an Oscar, much less won one.
Mr. Donen also directed thrillers like "Charade," wild comedies like "Bedazzled" and rueful romances like "Two for the Road." But musicals were his specialty, and his fellow director Jean-Luc Godard - though it could be said that his French New Wave films borrowed virtually nothing from Mr. Donen's work - spoke for many when he called Mr. Donen "the master of the musical."