Donald O'Connor

From New World Encyclopedia

Donald O'Connor
Birth name: Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor
Date of birth: August 28, 1925
Birth location: Chicago, Illinois
Flag of United States United States
Date of death: September 27, 2003 aged 78
Death location: Calabasas, California

Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was a one of the most famous and talented stars in Hollywood during his time. He was known in his films for his amazing dancing and singing, including his most famous number of all Make 'Em Laugh from Singin’ in the Rain (1952). He began performing at only thirteen months and he didn't stop until his death.

"I'm an illusionist - a trickster who quick-changes before your eyes. I capture your attention without giving you time to think about it. I move fast, I keep changing my hats. And the more pleased an audience is, the more energy I get from it and give back to the audience." - Donald O'Connor 1992


Childhood and Vaudeville

Donald O’Connor was born on August 28, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the seventh child born to John Edward "Chuck" O'Connor and Effie Irene Crane O'Connor. Three of the children born to the O'Connor's died in infancy and Donald was the last child the couple had. Both Chuch and Effie began their careers in the circus, where they met and fell in love. Effie was a trapeze perfomer and only 15 years old when she married the 28 year old Chuck. In describing his father, Donald said, "My father started out as a circus 'leaper'. He'd run down a ramp, jump over an elephant and land on a mat. 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." [1] Together, the couple decided to leave the circus and use their original talents to start their own traveling act for vaudeville.

O'Connor appeared on stage when he was only three days old, his mother, who played the piano, took him right along with her when she performed. By thirteen months, O'Connor was being balanced in the hands of his elder brothers, doing acrobatic tricks and dancing around on stage. O'Connor's father loved when another member of the family could perform because it meant an extra twenty-five dollars a week. Each of the surviving O'Connor children worked in the family act.

At thirteen months, tragedy struck the O'Connor family. O'Connor's six year old sister, Arlene, and O'Connor himself were hit by a car when they were crossing the street. Arlene was killed instantly. Only thirteen short weeks later, Chuck O'Connor collapsed on stage and died from a heart attack. He was only 47 years old. In 1997, O'Connor was quoted in the magazine, Irish America as saying that having such a short time with his father deeply affected him. "My father could do everything, and so I grew up with this phantom character, hearing all these stories about all the things he could do, and so I tried to emulate him."

Even after the tragic events, the O'Connor family went on performing. The group consisted of O'Connors, his brother Billy (including his wife and child), his brother Jack, and his mother. No matter the situation, the family lived by the creedo that the "show must go one". Once, between acts of the show, O'Connor had slipped of a wall and hurt his arm, he didn't want to tell anyone, so he went out and performed as usual, doing all the handstands and dancing as the number called for. After the show his mother realized how sick he looked and took him to the hospital where the doctor discovered that O'Connor had broken his arm in the fall, but still managed to perform.

O'Connor grew up in front of an audience, listening to their laughter, and figuring out ways to keep them laughing. He never had play time and friends like other young boys his age, instead he was treated like a little adult, making money and working. But, O'Connor loved his life and never desired anything more. In his own words, he describes the magical vaudeville years.

"It was a great time for me, a time of wonderful memories. We traveled the country and worked with all of the big names of the period. George Burns and Gracie Allen were just getting started then. And I used to love working with the Marx Brothers. After they entered motion pictures they would go on the vaudeville circuits and try out new material, keeping the best stuff for their movies. The Three Stooges did that, too.

"From backstage I watched them all, the greats of the business: Abbott and Costello, Olsen and Johnson, Jimmy Durante, Jack Benny, Al Jolson, Thurston, tops in their fields. I loved magic. I loved magicians. I just loved being a part of show business. It was wonderful. We did two shows a day and we worked 52 weeks a year on the old Fanchon and Marco Circuit. We traveled everywhere by train. I was such a happy kid. All of this came naturally to me: the singing, the dancing, everything." [2]

Film and Television Career

Donald O'Connor and his brothers started doing a few films where they remained uncredited. They would do acts from their vaudeville shows. But, at age 11, a talent scout noticed O'Connor and decided to cast him in films. He was very excited by this prospect, as he had a crush on the unknown Judy Garland at the time, he thought his film career would be impressive to her.

His first credited rold in a film was playing next to Bing Crosby in Sing You Sinners. When Mr. Crosby refered to O'Connor, he was heard saying, "Is there anything that kid can't do?" When interviewed by Irish America, O'Connor recalled his first film experience, "Bing Crosby was wonderful to me. The one thing he kept reminding me was that I didn't have to yell. I was always working to the balcony, and he told me the microphone would pick everything up, so I could calm my voice down. He was a tremendous help, very encouraging, always patting me on the back." His friendship with Bing Crosby and Judy Garland would last the rest of his life.

As a child actor, O'Connor usually played the young orphan or the troublesome kid. He gained rolls as Huck Finn in Tom Sawyer, Detective and played the young verious of Beau in Beau Geste. But Donald O'Connor's film career faded in 1939 when his mother called him back to the family vaudeville show, the show had lost O'Connor's elder brother Billy to scarlet fever and O'Connor felt a responsibility to see the show through.

In 1942, O'Connor was rediscovered as an agent for Universal Pictures saw the vaudeville show and signed him up to perform with a group of young and talented teenagers known as the 'Jivin' Jacks and Jills'. During the dance numbers, O'Connor was paired with Peggy Ryan and the couple became a hit. Both went on to receive larger screen rolls. O'Connor's famed started to mount with Mister Big in 1943. But O'Connor took another leave of absence from the film world when he joined the armed forces in 1944, he gave over 3,000 performances for the troops he was with, and earned a wonderful reputation as a person and performer. Right before he left for the army, O'Connor married Gwen Carter (who was only 17 years old) on February 7th 1944.


O'Connor joined the armed forces in 1944. Upon his return to films, Universal (now reorganized as Universal-International) cast him in lightweight musicals and comedies. In 1949 he was given the leading role in Francis, the whimsical story of a sad-sack soldier befriended by a talking mule. The film was a huge success, and a mixed blessing for O'Connor: the momentum of his musical career was constantly interrupted, because the studio insisted on his making one "Francis" picture a year until 1955. It was because of Francis that O'Connor missed out on a plum role: Bing Crosby's sidekick in White Christmas (film). O'Connor was forced to bow out when he contracted an illness transmitted by the mule. O'Connor was replaced in the film by Danny Kaye.


Donald O'Connor was a TV favorite in the 1950s, and was one of the regular hosts of NBC's popular Colgate Comedy Hour. He also had a short-lived television series during the late 1960s.

Later Life

After overcoming a drinking problem in the 1970s, 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 also 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. One of the last known on-camera interviews with Donald O’Connor was arranged by friend David Ruprecht and conducted by Steven F. Zambo. A small portion of this interview can be seen in the 2005 PBS special Pioneers of Primetime.

Death

O'Connor died from congestive heart failure on September 27, 2003 at the age of 78. Among his last words, he is reported to have expressed tongue-in-cheek thanks for the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement that he expected to win at some future date. He left behind his wife, Gloria, and four children.

Donald O’Connor was cremated at the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Filmography

  • It Can't Last Forever (1937)
  • Men with Wings (1938)
  • Sing You Sinners (film)|Sing You Sinners]] (1938)
  • Sons of the Legion (1938)
  • Tom Sawyer, Detective (1938)
  • Boy Trouble (1939)
  • Unmarried (1939)
  • Million Dollar Legs (1939)
  • Beau Geste (1939)
  • Night Work (1939)
  • Death of a Champion (1939)
  • On Your Toes (1939)
  • What's Cookin'? (1942)
  • Private Buckaroo (1942)
  • Give Out, Sisters (1942)
  • Get Hep to Love (1942)
  • When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942)
  • It Comes Up Love (1943)
  • Mister Big (1943)
  • Top Man (1943)
  • Chip Off the Old Block (1944)
  • Follow the Boys (1944)
  • This Is the Life (1944)
  • The Merry Monahans (1944)
  • Bowery to Broadway (1944)
  • Patrick the Great (1945)
  • Something in the Wind (1947)
  • Are You with It? (1948)
  • Feudin', Fussin', and A-Fightin' (1948)
  • Screen Snapshots: Motion Picture Mothers, Inc. (1949) (short subject)
  • Yes Sir That's My Baby (1949)
  • Francis the Talking Mule (1950)
  • Curtain Call at Cactus Creek (1950)
  • The Milkman (1950)
  • Double Crossbones (1951)
  • Francis Goes to the Races (1951)
  • Singin' in the Rain (1952)
  • Francis Goes to West Point (1952)
  • I Love Melvin (1953)
  • Call Me Madam (1953)
  • Francis Covers the Big Town (1953)
  • Walking My Baby Back Home (1953)
  • Francis Joins the WACs (1954)
  • There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)
  • Francis in the Navy (1955)
  • Anything Goes (1956)
  • The Buster Keaton Story (1957)
  • Cry for Happy (1961)
  • The Wonders of Aladdin (1961)
  • That Funny Feeling (1965)
  • Just One More Time (1974) (short subject)
  • That's Entertainment! (1974)
  • Ragtime (1981)
  • Pandemonium (1982)
  • A Time to Remember (1987)
  • Toys (1992)
  • Father Frost (1996)
  • Out to Sea (1997)

TV Work

  • as a Producer - Milton Berle Show - 1948
  • as a director - one episode of Petticoat Junction - 1964
  • as an actor
    • Colgate Comedy Hour - 1953-54
    • Bell Telephone Hour - 1964-66
    • Donald O'Connor Show - 1968
    • Love Boat - 1981-84 :)
    • Many single episodes from 1966 to 1996

External links

Preceded by:
Bob Hope and Conrad Nagel
25th Academy Awards
Oscars host
26th Academy Awards (with Fredric March)
Succeeded by:
Bob Hope and Thelma Ritter
27th Academy Awards

Credits

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