Vincent Minnelli Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Director , Actor
Nationality American
Birth February 28, 1903
Death July 25, 1986
BIOGRAPHY
As a child, Lester Anthony Minnelli was an attentive and privileged spectator of the performances of the Ohio theater troupe directed by his father and uncle, Vincent and Franklin, Americans of Sicilian origin. Her mother, Marie Émilie Odile Lebeau – with Canadian ancestors – is the main actress. The little boy acts himself on occasion but prefers to devote himself to drawing. Raised by his grandmother when his parents were on tour, he worked during the holidays as an assistant to an advertising billboard painter.

Leaving for Chicago, he was hired as a window dresser for the prestigious Marshall Fields department store before the Baladan and Katz theater chain hired him as a decorator and costume designer. He left for New York when the company moved there. There, in 1933, he became artistic director of Radio City Music Hall, where he directed his first productions, including Ziegfeld Follies , with Josephine Baker, Bob Hope, and choreographies by George Balanchine. Recruited in 1937 by Paramount, which didn’t really know what to do with him, he quickly returned to Broadway where his aura continued to grow. He was spotted by Arthur Freed, musician and producer at MGM, who convinced him to sign a contract with the studio in 1940.

After filming a few numbers for the film Panama Hattie in 1942, he was entrusted with directing a first feature film, A Little Corner in Heaven (1943), adaptation of a Broadway hit with African-American actors. He continued with Mademoiselle ma femme but established himself with his third opus , Le Chant du Missouri (1944), a nostalgic portrait of a family from the beginning of the 20th century, with Judy Garland , who would become the first of his four wives, and the mother of his daughter Liza . MGM’s biggest success after Gone with the Wind , the film includes musical scenes, which will become one of the director’s specialties.

Benefiting from the know-how of the collaborators brought together by Arthur Freed (the “Freed unit”), the esthete Minnelli then created some masterpieces from the golden age of the Hollywood musical, with dazzling colors and sumptuous sets. . Gene Kelly played Pirate (1948) in the Caribbean before ending up as an American in Paris opposite Leslie Caron (1951) and dancing in the Scottish Highlands alongside Cyd Charisse ( Brigadoon , 1954). Other summits of the genre: All on stage! (1953) with Fred Astaire, which testifies to the filmmaker’s fascination with the world of entertainment, or Gigi (1958), based on Colette, and its sumptuous reconstruction of Belle-Epoque Paris – the film won 9 Oscars, including Best Director.

Minnelli’s work is not limited to musicals , however , since in 1950 he triumphed with the comedy Father of the Bride (which will give rise to a sequel and a remake). Author of the sparkling What does Mom understand about love? or The Model Woman , he is just as flamboyant when he approaches the terrain of drama. Evoking themes as delicate as homosexuality ( Tea and Sympathy ), mental illness ( The Spider’s Web ) or alcoholism ( Comme un torrent with the trio Frank Sinatra – Dean Martin – Shirley MacLaine), he often describes complex family relationships, whether it is the melodrama He Through Whom the Scandal Arrives… or the fresco The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse . Enjoying exploring the border between reality and fantasy, he adapted Madame Bovary in 1949 and painted a dark portrait of the film industry in Les Ensorcelés (1952) and Quinze Jours Elsewhere (1963). Hero of these two films, Kirk Douglas finds another great role in The Passionate Life of Vincent Van Gogh .

Loyal to MGM (which belatedly loaned him to Fox for Goodbye Charlie ), he only left the studio after The Sand Knight , with the Taylor-Burton couple in 1965. During the 70s, he only filmed two minor feature films with a prestigious cast, Melinda , a musical comedy with Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand, and Nina , the final opus which gives him the opportunity to direct his daughter Liza. He, who was praised by New Wave filmmakers, was honored in France with a Legion of Honor a few weeks before dying of pneumonia in 1986.