GENE KELLY

Gene Kelly (born Eugene Curran Kelly) was a legendary musical and dance star (but he also appeared in straight dramatic roles) from the 1940s through the 1990s. Together with Fred Astaire, he is one of the two best remembered stars of dancing musicals, and yet he was far from an overnight success. He made his first movie in 1942, "For Me and My Gal", when he was 30 years old, and for most of the 1940s, he did not make many appearances in musicals. Between 1948 and 1951, he appeared in several memorable musicals, but he and his wife, Betsy Blair, were caught up in the blacklisting scandals of the early 1950s, and while he himself was not blacklisted, it did hurt his career. Some of his movies include: Singin' in the Rain, Inherit the Wind, On the Town, An American in Paris, Anchors Aweigh (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), and scores of others! He passed away in 1996 at the age of 83.