System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Donald O'Connor, Entertainer
August 28, 1925 - September 28, 2003
Entertainer Donald O'Connor, who combined comedy and acrobatics in the show-stopping Make 'Em Laugh number in the classic movie Singin' in the Rain, died Saturday, September 27, 2003. O'Connor, who had been in declining health in recent years, died of heart failure. He was 78.
Donald O'Connor was born August 28, 1925. Like so many other show biz veterans of his generation, O'Connor was on stage before he was even born. The son of circus performers turned vaudevillians, O'Connor performed with his parents as well as in a specialty act with his brothers--particularly brother Jack--during his formative years, touring the US and playing virtually every vaudeville theatre in the country. (In the 90s, O'Connor would be active in preserving the few remaining vaudeville houses and would often travel on his own dime to various small cities explaining the history of its vaudeville theatre.) At age 11, O'Connor performed for film cameras for the first time with his brothers in "Melody for Two" (1937), but it was only a featured specialty routine. In 1938, he was signed as a solo act by Paramount and slotted into "Sing, You Sinners", a Bing Crosby vehicle in which O'Connor wowed them performing "Small Fry". He played Huck in the 1938 version of "Tom Sawyer-Detective" and the title character as a youth in "Beau Geste" (1939).
O’Conner often played a bubbly, youthful teenaged lead in minor Universal musicals in the 1940s. It was in the 1950s that O'Connor made the films for which he was best known -- a series of highly successful Francis the Talking Mule comedies and movie musicals that put his song-and-dance talents to good use. O'Connor, an excellent dancer and eager clown, co-starred opposite Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in the now classic "Singin' in the Rain" (1952). Among O'Connor's other '50s musicals were Call Me Madam, Anything Goes and There's No Business Like Show Business. His high energy style, boyish manner and engaging lack of ordinary good looks earned him success in adult roles in the 50s but his career slipped abruptly as TV sitcoms killed the market for his more innocent comedies and movie musicals went largely out of fashion.
In 1957, O'Connor starred in the title role of "The Buster Keaton Story, " but, like Keaton, whose film career waned with the coming of sound, O'Connor's waned with the decline of the studio system and the virtual end of musicals not based on Broadway shows. O'Connor was virtually off the screen in the 60s, save an appearance in an Italian film in 1961 and in "That Funny Feeling" (1965). His work on film in the 70s was limited to co-narrating and being on screen introducing the clips in "That's Entertainment!" (1974). He also had a small role in Milos Forman's "Ragtime" (1981).
He also performed on most of the big-name variety shows of the 50s and 60s, and, in 1968, had a short stint as the host of a talk-variety series that was syndicated as "The Donald O'Connor Show". In the 80s, O'Connor made several appearances on "The Love Boat". He also began directing in the 60s, for the stage as well as for TV commercials and TV episodics, particularly "Petticoat Junction".
There was always the stage. When film work petered out, O'Connor became a frequent headliner in Las Vegas and tried Broadway for the first time in a book musical with the short-lived and ill-advised "Bring Back Birdie" (1981), a sequel to the 60s hit "Bye Bye Birdie". In 1984, he headlined the revival of Jerome Kern's "Show Boat" as Cap'n Andy. O'Connor has also toured in numerous shows, including Neil Simon's "I Oughta Be in Pictures". In the 90s, he and Debbie Reynolds have made frequent appearances together in a stage variety show. He made a return to the big screen alongside such other veterans as Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Gloria DeHaven in the small role of a dance instructor on a cruise ship in the uneven comedy "Out to Sea" (1997).
Modern audiences may have noticed O'Connor for his small role in Barry Levinson's lavish "Toys" (1992), as the toy mogul father of Robin Williams' character.
