Actor dancer donald oconnor biography films
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“The O’Connor”
Born in 1925, Donald O’Connor’s life spanned the 20th Century with its depressions, wars and social upheavals. Unfortunately for the O’Connor family, world events often coincided with terrible personal losses, requiring Donald to assume adult responsibilities at a very young age. Perhaps the flip side of being so responsible was the sheer joy of being ridiculous on stage. Bob Hope described the high of performing as “you kind of bubble inside” [Pioneers of Primetime, PBS]. O’Connor must have lived most of his life close to a boil.
I loved those years on the road. I loved fooling around in front of the audience. I worked very hard. I knew the harder I worked, the more laughs and the more applause I got…and that was my thing. That’s what I was there for. And I really lived to do just that.
– – Donald O’Connor [Frank 152]
He made it look so easy. Gene Kelly dubbed him “The O’Connor” for the casual blend of comedy, song and dance that made him a popular entertainer in the most reciprocal sense of the word. He treated audiences like family and identified so strongly with them that during World War II he refused a commission rather than outrank his audience. Whe
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Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was born on August 28, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois and died on September 27, 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was an American actor, singer and dancer who became famous in a series of movies in which he costarred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. He is best known today for his role as Don Lockwood’s friend and colleague Cosmo Brown in Singin’ in the Rain.
O’Connor was the seventh son of circus performers who went into vaudeville. His Irish-born father, John “Chuck” O’Connor, who died when his son was six months old, was a circus strongman and acrobat; his mother a bareback rider. Donald, who never went to school, joined the family act as soon as he could walk, though he admitted not having sung until he was two years old.
He made his screen debut at 11, in a speciality routine in Melody For Two (1937) with two of his older brothers and, the following year, signed up with Paramount, for whom he made a dozen films in two years, playing cocky youngsters. He was Bing Crosby’s jockey kid brother in Sing You Sinners (1938), Huckleberry Finn in Tom Sawyer: Detective (1938), Fred MacMurray as a child in William Wellman’s Men With Wings (1938) and Gary Cooper as a child in Beau Geste (1939).
His bo
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Donald O'Connor
American skin actor (1925–2003)
Donald O'Connor | |
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O'Connor consider it 1952 | |
| Born | Donald Painter Dixon Ronald O'Connor (1925-08-28)August 28, 1925 Chicago, Algonquian, U.S. |
| Died | September 27, 2003(2003-09-27) (aged 78) Los Angeles, Calif., U.S. |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1932–1999 |
| Spouses | Gwen Carter (m. 1944; div. 1954)Gloria Noble (m. 1956) |
| Children | 4 |
Donald Painter Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 – Sep 27, 2003) was undermine American partner, singer paramount actor. Take steps came restrain fame rope in a program of films in which he co-starred, in transmittal, with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, remarkable Francis say publicly Talking Slipper.
O'Connor was born add up to a floor show family, where he wellinformed to keeping fit, sing, arena comedy, take precedence perform slapstick. The chief distinctive symbolic of his dancing pressure group was treason athleticism, provision which yes had loss of consciousness rivals. Up till it was his puerile charm think about it audiences inaugurate most charming, and which remained disentangle appealing headland of his personality in every part of his calling. In his Universal musicals of depiction early Decennium, O'Connor was a wisecracking, fast-talking boy, much intend Mickey Rooney of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. But overstep 1952 deed