DONEN, STANLEY

DONEN, STANLEY (1924– ), U.S. film director. Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Donen trained as a dancer and while still in his teens began working with Gene Kelly on Broadway. He went with Kelly to Hollywood and joined MGM, where he worked closely with producer Arthur Freed. Donen's inventive choreography and directorial skills helped revitalize the musical during the 1940s and 1950s. For example, his filming of Fred Astaire dancing on the walls and ceiling of his London hotel room in Royal Wedding (1951) has become legendary. Donen directed some of the most successful and best-regarded musicals of the time, including On the Town (1949), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), It's Always Fair Weather (1955), Love Is Better than Ever (1956), Funny Face (1957), The Pajama Game (1957), Damn Yankees\! (1958), The Little Prince (1974), and Movie Movie (1978). Donen also directed sophisticated comedies and thrillers, such as Kiss Them for Me (1957), Indiscreet (1958), Once More, with Feeling (1960), Surprise Package (1960), The Grass Is Greener (1960), Charade (1963), Arabesque (1966), Two for the Road (1967), Bedazzled (1967), Staircase (1969), Lucky Lady (1975), Saturn 3 (1980), and Blame It on Rio (1984). In 1985 Donen directed the TV series Moonlighting, and in 1999 he directed the TV drama Love Letters, based on the play by A.R. Gurney. Among his many honors, Donen has received the Career Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (1989); a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy Awards "in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit, and visual innovation" (1998); the Akira Kurasawa Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival (1995); the Opus Award from the ASCAP Film and TV Awards (2000); and the Career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (2004). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S.M. Silverman, Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies (1996); J.A. Casper, Stanley Donen (1983). (Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)