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Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor
28 August 1925, Chicago, Illinois
27 September 2003, Calabasas, California
“Remember, if you do the same act for 20, 30 years it gets a little boring unless you've got something else going for you... And the orchestra really kept you going. They'd laugh at all your jokes, even if they'd been hearing them for the last 30 years.”
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. Perhaps his most famous performance was as Gene Kelly's friend and colleague in Singin' in the Rain (1952).
Though he considered Danville, Illinois to be his home town, O’Connor was born in St. Elizabeth Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Irish American vaudeville entertainers. When O'Connor was only a few years old, he and his sister Arlene were in a car crash outside a theater 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 theater manager Mr. Maurice 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.
In 1942 O'Connor joined Universal Pictures. He played roles in four of the Gloria Jean musicals, and achieved stardom with Mister Big (1943).
In 1944, O'Connor was drafted into the Army. Before he reported for induction, Universal Pictures rushed him through three feature films, done simultaneously and released when he was overseas. After his discharge, Universal (now reorganized as Universal-International) cast him in lightweight musicals and comedies.
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. However, his musical career was constantly interrupted by his making one Francis film a year until 1955. It was because of Francis that O'Connor missed out on playing Bing Crosby's companion 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.
Donald O'Connor was a regular host of NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour. He hosted a color television special on NBC in 1957, one of the earliest color programs to be preserved on a color kinescope; an excerpt of the telecast was included in NBC's 50th anniversary special in 1976. He also had a television series in the late 1960s.
After overcoming alcoholism in the 1970s, he had a career boost when he hosted the Oscar 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. 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. Donald 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 congestive heart failure in 2003 at age 78. He is reported to have expressed tongue-in-cheek thanks to the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement that he expected to receive at a "future date". He was cremated and buried at the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.
O'Connor was survived by his wife, Gloria, and four children.
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Donald O'Connor allegedly didn't enjoy working with Gene Kelly while filming Singin' in the Rain (1952), because he found him to be a bit of a tyrant on set.
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Hospitalized with pneumonia [31 January 1999]
Father of Donna Gwen O'Connor (b. August 10, 1946), Alicia O'Connor (b. September 20, 1957), Donald Frederick O'Connor (b. 1960), and Kevin O'Connor (b. 1961).
Had to have three days bed rest after the "Make 'Em Laugh" sequence in Singin' in the Rain (1952).
From a vaudeville family act, his father John Edward "Chuck" O'Connor" was an acrobat with Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Baily Circus as a "leaper." His mother was a circus bareback rider and dancer named Effie. One of seven children, three died in infancy, but the rest were incorporated into show business. His mother kept the family going with extended family members despite many deaths (including her husband) until 1941.
Made his film debut at age 12 in Melody for Two (1937) with his two brothers, Jack and Billy, doing a specialty routine. Billy died a year or two later after contracting scarlet fever.
Suffered a heart attack in 1971.
Received the 1953 Sylvania Award for his work on TV.
Was suppose to co-star with Bing Crosby in the perennial film classic White Christmas (1954) in 1954 but was sidelined with pneumonia and replaced by Danny Kaye.
He left Universal Pictures due to unhappiness over the studio's decision of type-casting him to the "super-polite boy" roles almost throughout his acting career, despite starring in many box office hits released by Universal. It was a bitter-sweet departure as Donald had been with Universal for most of his acting career. The studio held a small party for him and gave him a camera along with 14 films as a departure gift. Sadly, his acting career in Hollywood ended soon after his departure from Universal.
Judy Garland, whom he knew as a child, was one of his best friends.
In 1994, he and his wife, Gloria Noble, had a close brush with death. It was about four in the morning and he had just finished reading something in bed. All at once, the house started to shake (earthquake). The house started sliding off its foundation. Luckily, the house wedged up against a big tree and that kept it from crashing into a canyon.
Despite failing health in 2003, he made appearances at the Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival and the opening of the Judy Garland Museum.
In 1998 he signed on for The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a revue featuring 54-year-old + performers. He was their headliner, dancing and singing his way through eight performances a week. He closed out the season with the Palm Spring Follies, performing in the last four shows after recovering from a serious illness that stopped him from performing.
Allegedly didn't enjoy working with Gene Kelly while filming Singin' in the Rain (1952), because he found him to be a bit of a tyrant on set.
While he's hesitant to select a favorite film, he's quick to single out his favorite performance: "Call Me Madam (1953) - my favorite number is in there with Vera-Ellen. It's the number I do out in the garden with her to "It's a Lovely Day Today". It's a beautiful lyrical number. I think she was the best dancer outside of Peggy Ryan I ever danced with".
Danced with Beverly Yissar (nee Scherrer) when she was 5 or 6; he, 10 or 11.
In the space of two years, he appeared in two different, unrelated adaptations of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", playing different characters: he was the Mock Turtle in "Great Performances: Alice in Wonderland" (1983), and the Lory Bird in Alice in Wonderland (1985) (TV).
Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2004.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 403-405. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
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Revivals are so popular now. But doing one would mean being out in cold, cold New York for a year, a year and a half," he said. "I'd rather do something where I go in and work a week, maybe three days. Get it done and come back home."
O'Connor quit the "Francis" series in 1955, saying, "When you've made six pictures and the mule still gets more fan mail than you do ...."
In a brief statement, the family said that among O'Connor's last words was the following quip: "I'd like to thank the Academy for my lifetime achievement award that I will eventually get."
"It's not easy working with a genius - but Gene was very patient with me." - On his Singin' in the Rain (1952) co-star, Gene Kelly, in 1988.
"I know what you're thinking, and the answer is yes. I can still leap over the furniture and dance on the wall. And recite 24 bars of that popular tongue twister 'Moses Supposes.'" - in 1992
"I was born and raised to entertain other people. I've heard laughter and applause and known a lot of sorrow. Everything about me is based on show business - I think it will bring me happiness. I hope so." - in 1955
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