Gene Kelly (1912-1996) was an American dancer, singer, actor, director, producer, and choreographer.  Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire are considered to be the two greatest dancers to ever appear in movies.  Kelly acted in movies from 1942’s For Me and My Gal to 1980’s Xanadu.  Highlights of his career would be On The Town, Anchors Aweigh and the classic Singin’ In The Rain.

According to IMDB Gene Kelly had 47 acting credits and 13 directing credits during his distinguished career.  This page will only look at his movies that were released in theaters.  All television credits, movie shorts, documentaries and cameos were not included in the rankings.  That leaves 40 movies to rank. Most of the movies are acting roles, but there are 5 movies that Gene Kelly only directed. In the table below Ultimate Movie Rankings ranks 40 of his movies in 7 different sortable columns.

Possibly Interesting Facts About Gene Kelly

1.  Gene Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1912.

2.  Gene Kelly’s path to stardom:  After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh he and his family started running a dance studio.  The success of the Gene Kelly Studio of the Dance started to attract attention to Kelly and his dancing skills.  From Pittsburgh, Kelly went to New York City.  While appearing on Broadway, Kelly was noticed and signed to a film contract by David O. Selznick.  Talk about being a roll….Selznick also signed Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman to contracts around this time as well….not a bad trifecta.  Selznick eventually signed his contract over to MGM and Gene Kelly headed to Hollywood at the end of 1941.

3.  Gene Kelly’s first movie role was in 1942’s For Me and My Gal.  His co-star was Judy Garland.  They would appear together in two more movies (The Pirate and Summer Stock).  Kelly was also supposed to play opposite Garland in Easter Parade but an injury (a broken leg makes dancing somewhat difficult) forced him out of the role.  Fittingly Fred Astaire stepped into his role.

4.  Gene Kelly received his only Best Actor Oscar® nomination for 1945’s Anchors Aweigh.  He did receive two Golden Globe® nominations in his career.  One was for Best Actor in 1951’s An American In Paris and the other was Best Director for 1969’s Hello Dolly. 

5.  Gene Kelly did receive an Honorary Oscar® in 1952…..”In appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film “.

6.  Gene Kelly was married three times.  His first marriage was to actress Betsy Blair from 1941 to 1957.  They had one child, Kerry Kelly.  His second marriage was to dance choreographer Jeanne Coyne from 1960 until her death in 1973.  They had two children, Bridget and Tim.  His final marriage was to author Patricia Ward from 1990 until his death in 1996.

7.  Some things we found interesting about his classic movie Singin’ In The Rain.  Kelly had a 103 degree fever when he filmed his most famous scene….dancing and singing in the rain.  His quote about working with Debbie Reynolds on the movie….”I wasn’t nice to Debbie. It’s a wonder she still speaks to me.”  Once after Kelly insulted Reynolds for not being able to dance, Fred Astaire, who was hanging around the studio, found her crying under a piano and helped her with her dancing.

8.  Cyd Charisse worked numerous times with both dancing legends Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.  Charisse’s husband, Tony Martin, said he could tell who she had been dancing with that day on an MGM set. If she came home covered with bruises on her, it was the very physically-demanding Gene Kelly, if not it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire.

9.  The half-moon shaped scar on his left cheek was caused by a bicycle accident he had as a young boy.

10.  Check out Gene Kelly‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

One Gene Kelly movie did not make the rankings.  1958’s Something For The Girls is listed on almost all of his movie lists.  We were unable to find any information on this movie.  No reviews, no audience voting, no box office. no nothing….so if anybody has any information on this mystery movie please let us know.

I highly recommend checking out this GeneKelly site.  This is a truly impressive GeneKelly website.