Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor (August 28, 1925 –
September 27, 2003) was one of the most likeable and nimble of all Hollywood’s
song-and-dance-men, who retained his youthful looks and casual charm throughout
a career spanning well over 50 years. Perhaps his most famous performance was
as Gene Kelly's sidekick in the musical Singin’ in the Rain (1952).
Though he considered Danville, Illinois to be his hometown,
O’Connor was born in St. Elizabeth Hospital in Chicago. His parents, Effie
Irene (née Crane) and John Edward "Chuck" O'Connor, were vaudeville
entertainers. His father's family was from County Cork, Ireland. When O'Connor
was only a few years old, he and his sister Arlene were in a car crash outside
a theatre in Hartford, Connecticut; O'Connor survived, but his sister was
killed. Several weeks later, his father died of a heart attack while dancing on
stage in Brockton, Massachusetts O'Connor at the time was being held in the
arms of the theatre manager, Mr. Morris Sims.
O'Connor began performing in movies in 1937. He appeared
opposite Bing Crosby in Sing You Sinners at age 12. Paramount Pictures used him
in both A and B films, including Tom Sawyer, Detective and Beau Geste. In 1940,
when he had outgrown child roles, he returned to vaudeville.
On his 18th birthday in August 1943, during World War II
O'Connor was drafted into the United States Army. Before he reported for
induction on Feb. 6, 1944, Universal already had four O’Connor films completed.
They rushed production to complete three more by that date. With a backlog of
seven features, deferred openings kept O’Connor’s screen presence uninterrupted
during the two years he was overseas. Upon his return, a merger in 1946 had
reorganized the studio as Universal-International.
In 1949, he played the lead role in Francis, the story of a
soldier befriended by a talking mule. The film was a huge success. As a
consequence, his musical career was constantly interrupted by production of one
Francis film per year until 1955. O'Connor later said the films "were fun
to make. Actually, they were quite challenging. I had to play straight in order
to convince the audience that the mule could talk."
In 1952 O'Connor signed a three-picture deal with Paramount.
It was because of the Francis series that O'Connor missed playing Bing Crosby's
partner in White Christmas. O'Connor was unavailable because he contracted an
illness transmitted by the mule, and was replaced in the film by Danny Kaye. O'Connor's
role as Cosmo the piano player in Singin' in the Rain earned him a Golden Globe
Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy or Musical. The film
featured his memorable rendition of "Make 'Em Laugh". O'Connor said
he smoked 4 packs of cigarettes a day during filming.
Another notable role was as Tim Donahue in the 20th Century
Fox musical There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), which featured
Irving Berlin's music and also starred with Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe, Dan
Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor and Johnnie Ray.
O'Connor was a regular host of NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour. He
hosted a colour television special on NBC in 1957, one of the earliest colour
programs to be preserved on a colour kinescope. In 1954, he starred in his own
television series, The Donald O'Connor Show on NBC. In 1968, O'Connor hosted a
syndicated talk show also called The Donald O'Connor Show. He suffered a heart
attack in 1971.
O'Connor overcame alcoholism after being hospitalized for
three months after collapsing in 1978. His career had a boost when he hosted
the Academy Awards, which earned him two Primetime Emmy nominations. He
appeared as a gaslight-era entertainer in the 1981 film Ragtime, notable for
similar encore performances by James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. It was his first
feature film role in 16 years.
O'Connor appeared in the short-lived Bring Back Birdie on
Broadway in 1981 and continued to make film and television appearances into the
1990s, including the Robin Williams film Toys as the president of a toy-making
company. He had guest roles in 1996 in a pair of popular TV comedy series, The
Nanny and Frasier. O'Connor had undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery in
1990, and he nearly died from double pneumonia in January 1998.
Donald with Debbie Reynolds |
O'Connor's last feature film was the Jack Lemmon-Walter
Matthau comedy Out to Sea, in which he played a dance host on a cruise ship.
O’Connor was still making public appearances well into 2003.
Donald O’Connor died from complications of heart failure on
September 27, 2003, at age 78 at the Motion Picture & Television Country
House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California. His remains were cremated
and buried at the Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.
(Compiled mainly from Wikipedia)
This musical sequence from the 1952 film SINGIN' IN THE RAIN features Donald O'Connor in perhaps the most iconic and gleefully performed dance scene ever filmed for the movies
2 comments:
For “Donald O’Connor- Here Comes Donald” go here:
http://www44.zippyshare.com/v/Ym1NvrX9/file.html
1. Crash! 2:45
2. I'm Walking Behind You 2:14
3. The Biggest Bloomin' Bumpershoot In The World 2:23
4. Love Is In The Air 2:20
5. Chihuahua Choo-Choo 2:33
6. Here Comes Donald 1:59
7. Fit As A Fiddle 1:39
8. Make 'Em Laugh 2:31
9. Moses 2:55
10. I Wander As I Wonder 2:48
11. Where Did You Learn To Dance Like That? 2:35
12. It's A Lovely Day Today 3:32
13. You're Just In Love 3:05
14. What Chance Have I With Love 3:01
15. Something To Dance About 3:22
16. A Man Chases A Girl 4:46
17. You Can Bounce Right Back 4:09
18. No Two People (with Doris Day)
19. You Can’t Lose me (with Doris Day)
20. Happy Go Lucky And Free (with Deanna Durbin)
21. Small Fry Parody (with Bing Crosby)
Here’s a compilation I found on iTunes of mainly film soundtracks from Donald’s movies. I’ve added the last 4 songs as bonus tracks from my own collection.
Great post Bob. You never cease to amaze.
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