Director of Royal Wedding and Funny Face and so many other films, co-director of On the Town and Singin’ in the Rain, Stanley Donen has died at the age of ninety-four. The New York Times has an obituary.
Our fambly was fortunate to see Stanley Donen with John Williams and the Boston Pops at Tanglewood some years ago. Donen introduced clips from his films, which played silently on a huge screen as the orchestra played the appropriate part of the score. We must have been at this 2005 concert, which also featured Josh Groban. I remember that there were many younger (and noisy) people in the audience.
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Stanley Donen (1924–2019)
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comments: 6
When I saw that he had died, I was surprised that he had still been alive. If that makes sense.
I know what you mean. I was surprised in the same way when the folk-music advocate Izzy Young died.
Oh, no---he was Elaine May's life partner. I'm sad for her.
He said he asked her to marry him "about 172 times."
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/03/stanley-donan-singin-in-the-rain
I was surprised to see her name in the Times obit — I didn’t know they were a pair. I like the medallion in the Vanity Fair piece: “STANLEY DONEN. IF FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO ELAINE MAY.”
I liked that medallion too. It reminded me of the medallion in "A New Leaf".
Remember? Henrietta (Elaine May) gives a medallion with a fern frond in it to Henry (Walter Matthau)--the fern she discovered and named "Grahami" after him.
I only vaguely remember that, but I do remember that it’s a wonderful movie.
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