Gene Kelly: A Brief Biography

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Gene Kelly By Lucia Morales Eugene (Gene) Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 23, 1912. He had four siblings Jay, Jim, Louise, and Fred. His father was James Kelly a salesman who led a very modest life for himself and his family. His Mother Harriet Curran was responsible for exposing Gene and his siblings to the art of dancing. When Gene was eight years old, he and his siblings performed amateur dancing at various places. They were known as “The Five Kelly’s”. As a child he really was not interested in dancing, but once he found out that “girls” liked boys, who could dance, he started to take dancing more seriously. In 1931 Gene enrolled in college at the University of Pittsburgh. He studied economics and earned his degree in 1933. Around this time, his family opened up a dance studio called “The Gene Kelly Studio of the Dance”. Gene started teaching…show more content…
In 1982 he received “The Kennedy Center Honors”, and went on into 1985 receiving a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the American Film Institute. In 1990 Gene got remarried to Patricia Ward, a writer. He worked very hard at writing his autobiography, but sadly on February 2, 1996 he died from a series of strokes, and never finished. In my opinion Gene Kelly will always be remembered by his unorthodox style of dancing, he said when asked about his dancing technique. "I don't have a name for my style of dancing...It's certainly hybrid...I've borrowed from the modern dance, from the classical, and certainly from the American folk dance – tap-dancing, jitterbugging...But I have tried to develop a style which is indigenous to the environment in which I was reared." Credits: http://dance.about.com/od/famousdancers/p/Gene_Kelly.htm

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