Creator / Stanley Donen

For me, directing is like having sex; when it's good, it's very good, but when it's bad, it's still good.

Stanley Donen (April 13, 1924 - February 21. 2019) was a choreographer and director. Born in South Carolina, he was inspired to get involved in both movies and dancing after seeing Flying Down to Rio. Dropping out of college after one semester, Donen went up to New York City and was eventually cast as a chorus dancer in the play Pal Joey, which is where he met Gene Kelly, the star of the show. Donen went on to choreograph other musicals on Broadway at the time, and when producer Arthur Freed got MGM to buy the rights to one of them, Best Foot Forward, Donen came to Hollywood. He renewed his friendship with Kelly and the two helped choreograph a number of movies Kelly was in, including Cover Girl, Anchors Aweigh, and Take Me Out to the Ball Game. In 1949, Kelly and Donen finally got to direct a movie of their own, On the Town. They would eventually direct two more movies together, Singin' in the Rain and It's Always Fair Weather, but Donen and Kelly had a falling out during the making of the latter movie and the two went their separate ways. By this time, Donen had already branched out as a solo director with such films as Royal Wedding and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. When the popularity of musicals started to wane, Donen moved on to comedies and Hitchcock-type thrillers such as Charade and Arabesque. His last theatrical movie was Blame It on Rio, a Foreign Remake of the French movie Un Moment D'Egarement (One Wild Moment).^note Donen's last movie was the 1999 made-for-TV movie Love Letters, an adaptation of the play of the same name, starring Steven Weber and Laura Linney.

Donen also directed a dance sequence from the TV show Moonlighting, as well as a music video for Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling", which was an homage to the sequence in Royal Wedding where Fred Astaire dances on the ceiling.

Donen was married five times, and was in a relationship with Elaine May from 1999 until his death in 2019 of heart failure.

Films directed by Stanley Donen include:

• On the Town (1949)^note co-directed with Gene Kelly
• Singin' in the Rain (1952)^note co-directed with Gene Kelly
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
• It's Always Fair Weather (1955)^note co-directed with Gene Kelly
• Funny Face (1957)
• The Pajama Game (1957)^note co-directed with George Abbott
• Damn Yankees (1958)^note co-directed with George Abbott
• Charade (1963)
• Arabesque (1966)
• Two for the Road (1967)
• Bedazzled (1967)
• The Little Prince (1974)
• Saturn 3 (1980)^note after taking over for original director John Berry
• Blame It on Rio (1984)