Stanley Donen was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Helen Pauline (Cohen) and Mordecai Moses Donen, a dress-shop manager, of Russian-Jewish and German-Jewish descent.
He attended dance classes from the age of ten, inspired by Fred Astaire's dancing in Flying Down to Rio (1933),and later recalled that the only thing he wanted to be was a tap dancer.
At seventeen, Donen debuted on Broadway and worked as an assistant choreographer, where he met and befriended actor Gene Kelly.
The two men collaborated on several classic musicals, including On the Town (1949) and Singin' in the Rain (1952),and co-wrote the original story for Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949).
In 1949, MGM signed Donen to a seven-year contract as director in his own right, and he went on to direct Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954),Funny Face (1957),The Pajama Game (1957),and Damn Yankees (1958).
As musicals waned in popularity, Donen branched out into other genres, directing and producing elegant romantic dramas, sophisticated comedies, and top-shelf thrillers.
His most notable films from this period include Indiscreet (1958),The Grass Is Greener (1960),Two for the Road (1967),Charade (1963),and Arabesque (1966).
In the 1970s, Donen's output declined in quality, with films like Lucky Lady (1975),The Little Prince (1974),Saturn 3 (1980),and Blame It on Rio (1984) failing to match the panache of his earlier work.
Despite this, Donen's reputation as one of the giants of the classic Hollywood musical is assured, and he received an Honorary Oscar in 1998 for his body of work.
