Biography
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Mamie Van Doren
[Friend]
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Peggy Ryan
[Friend]
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Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 I was born in a trunk... Judy Garland`s using it now. 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.
[1955]
With Marilyn, she had this phobia. I told everybody about it: that she was afraid to get in front of the camera. She was scared to death.
(On Marilyn Monroe)
Lousy picture.
(On the picture I Love Melvin.)
Vera was a physical dancer like me. She could adapt her style, and Call Me Madam had every kind of number you could think of. When we danced together the great thing about her was that she didn`t try to upstage you. Women dancers sometimes try to lead. We worked together and every movement we did meant something.
Dancing
(On Vera-Ellen)
A marvelous gal who made me look good. She was extremely sweet-so very sweet-and she always had that smile on her face.
(On Vera-Ellen)
Making the transition to television was no problem for me. I liked it because we brought in the audience. The only [bad] thing was the lack of time to do anything complicated.
Television
Bob Alton had already put a lot of the choreography together for me but I got this strange disease and the doctors couldn`t diagnose it and it turned out to be Q-fever. They waited two months for me. I was terribly disappointed. And Danny Kaye made twice the money I would have gotten and he got a piece of the picture. You can see that the movements used looked like something I would have done.
I had talked to the music director, Alfred Newman, about recording You`re Just In Love with the full orchestra instead of singing in an isolation booth. I felt the sound was much better that way. I tried it with the orchestra and Al agreed it sounded good. Then Merman came in. We started singing, `I hear music`... She was six feet away and my eardrums were vibrating. We finally recorded the song with me in the isolation booth and her in the studio with the orchestra. When we filmed the song to the playback, I wore earplugs.
My father started out as a circus `leaper`. He`d run down a ramp, jump over an elephant and land on a mat. 3 He was a singer, a dancer, an acrobat, a trapeze artist, a clown, a comedian, and also a strong man. He did a little bit of everything, because the more you did the more you made. He was 5`5" and weighed 220 pounds. He was very light on his feet, though: he was known as the Njinsky of acrobats. The height he could get was incredible.
(John Edward "Chuck" O`Connor)
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.
(brainyquote.com)
They put me in a harness, like a horse, to learn the back somersault. It was weird up there when I put on that harness for the first time. The courage came with practice.
(brainyquote.com)
I didn`t smoke. I didn`t smoke then, and I don`t smoke now. We worked every day - that keeps you in pretty good shape. We could go for a long time in one take. You had to be in good shape with Gene Kelly.
(brainyquote.com)
It`s so wonderful... if your whole day is rotten, once they start the music, it seems to melt away.
(brainyquote.com)
Going up the walls doing somersaults, that trick took a couple of days.
(brainyquote.com)
I think you should make more movies, more musicals. I think the public deserves that. I think this country deserves to be able to get out and foster that talent. Give them an opportunity to become stars. I think the whole idea is wonderful.
(brainyquote.com)
I`m not a good choreographer: I can`t remember what I put down.
(brainyquote.com)
That is the godawful thing about television today. Performers don`t have any place to hit and miss. You`re either in or you`re out; you don`t have a chance to become good at your craft. If you make three pictures in a row and they don`t go over, you`re out of the business.
(brainyquote.com)
Doing those costume pictures was wonderful.
(brainyquote.com)
“I`m basically a hoofer, a tap dancer. I was always very good from the waist down, moving with the feet... I became what`s known as a total dancer, using the entire body in order to express what you want to express in tap dancing and line.”
It`s so wonderful... if your whole day is rotten, once they start the music, it seems to melt away.”
i like it live. I think the numbers are live in the movie. If they replaced any, it would have been due to extreme set noise.”
I`m no angel. I`m the same as everyone else, with the same temperament and temper. I resent having people tag me as a perpetual, super-polite juvenile. I`m subject to fever and headaches and bad-temper just like anybody else.
(increasingly dissatisfied with his role as Universal`s resident `nice boy`.)
You see, as far as the man`s personality goes, there`s no one who can touch Fred Astaire. He`s unique. But for the work he does, I would say Tommy can do it, Fosse can do it.”
“I didn`t smoke. I didn`t smoke then, and I don`t smoke now. We worked every day - that keeps you in pretty good shape. We could go for a long time in one take. You had to be in good shape with Gene Kelly.”
Trivia
Shares the same birthday (28th August) with another teenage vaudeville vet and frequent costar, Peggy Ryan.
In 1953 he won the award for Best Male Star for his performances on The Colgate Comedy Hour.
In 1952 Donald received an Emmy nomination as Most Outstanding Television Personality.
Gloria Jean and Donald O`Connor went to school together at Universal. They worked together too. Donald never knew how much Gloria loved him as adolescent.
His favorite dish was chicken fried steak with cream gravy.
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