In Remembrance: Donald O’Connor

     Donald O’Connor, whose dance routine for the song “Make `Em Laugh” in Singing In The Rain is one of the most memorable in Hollywood history, has passed away on Saturday, September 27, 2003. He was 78.

     On Connor was born on August 28, 1925 into a show business family in Chicago, Illinois and at an early age he joined the family’s vaudeville act. His first film appearance came in 1937’s Melody for Two, in which he appeared with his family. The following year he signed to Paramount Studios for a featured role in Sing, You Sinners with Fred MacMurray and Bing Crosby. He would go onto appear in a handful of pictures for the studio including 1938’s Tom Sawyer, Detective (appearing as Huckleberry Finn) and 1939’s Beau Geste  (playing Gary Cooper as a boy). After Night Work (1939), O’Connor left Hollywood to return to vaudeville.

     In 1942 he returned to Hollywood, signed to Universal studios where he starred in a series of forgettable, low budget, youth oriented musicals. O’Connor’s first big break was in 1949 when he was cast opposite a most unusual co-star in Francis, The Talking Mule. The comedy was a hit and O’Connor would go on to star in five pictures sequels. The last Francis movie he appeared in was 1955’s Francis In The Navy. Film critic Roger Ebert has reported that O’Connor would joke, “I quit working with Francis when he started getting more fan mail than I did.”

     In 1952, O’Connor starred opposite Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in Singing In The Rain, the movie for which he is best remembered. O’Connor choreographed his own routine for “Make `Em Laugh,” a routine so physically demanding he needed three days of rest to recover. In addition to his work on “Make `Em Laugh,” O’Connor was required to match Gene Kelly tap-step for tap-step in the song “Moses.”

     Following the success of Singing In The Rain, he starred in a string of musicals including Call Me Madam (1953) with Ethel Merman, There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954) with Ethel Mermen and Marilyn Monroe and Anything Goes (1956) with Bing Crosby and Mitzi Gaynor. His physicality made him an ideal choice to star in The Buster Keaton Story. Unfortunately, the highly fictionalized 1957 biopic bombed at the box office and O’Connor withdrew from motion pictures.

     In 1981 he appeared in Ragtime as a dance instructor. In 1992 he played Robin William’s dad in Barry Levinson’s Toys. His last appearance was in the 1997 comedy Out To Sea with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

     The Associated Press reports that his family has stated that among his last words were "I'd like to thank the Academy for my lifetime achievement award that I will eventually get."