#he performed his last heart surgery last October. and ever since he’s been fading away and had to retire. rapid onset but behavior changes

[stuckinapril]

And on this Valentine’s I almost broke down in tears at a wife’s dedication to her heart surgeon husband whose brain is deteriorating with a rare case of dementia

[crushondonald]

Remembering Donald O'Connor ❤

“A performer has to answer to himself. If you think something’s funny, you’ve got to go out there and try. It’s only by trial and error that you find out.”

 August 28, 1925 - September 27, 2003

“I’m tired of being a machine … I am no angel, I’m the same as everyone else, with the same temperament and temper. I resent having people tag me as perpetual, super-polite juvenile. I’m subject to fever, headaches and bad-temper just like anybody else.” February 1954

“Alcoholism was a desease, a genetic thing. I used to have a marvelous time drinking. Until I passed that invisible line and became an alcoholic. I figured that I could master the rehab programme, be out there in a week, go back to drinking. But once I was there, something marvelous happened. My obsession to drink left me. Now I have been a recovering alcoholic for fifteen and a half years.” June 1994

After he suffered a very serious physical collapse caused by excessive alcohol abuse in 1978, Donald was finally hospitalized for approx. three months. Ever since he was cured from alcoholism in 1979, Donald recovered visibly, regained the trust of his family, went back to work successfully and never touched a drop of alcohol again for the rest of his life. On top of that, he claimed that he had never been happier in life ever before.

“He’s the man you’d wish to be with you for the rest of your life.” Gloria Noble O'Connor ~ Donald’s second wife

“I’m the guy who danced through life. It seems that no matter what I do, if I did MacBeth, they’d want me to do eight bars of ‘Tea for Two’ just because it pleases. It’s the kind of dancing I do – jumping around and having a good time. It’s happy, gay, and pleasant. Dancing is so wonderful. Once they start the music, your whole day, if it’s been rotten, seems to melt away. You get carried away in the tune that you’re moving to. It’s a marvelous catharsis … to be able to get on top and tap dance.”

“Donald was a spontaneous artist and comedian, and he could never do anything the same twice. There was no way you could say, ‘Do it this way, and it will be funnier.’ It was all improvisation.The dummy he uses in the dance, for example, was lying on a rehearsal stage next door to us [on the set of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN]. We walked in one day and Donald started to fool around with it. For half an hour, we just roared with laughter. Finally, we said, ‘Well, let’s put that in the number.’ All of it came right out of Donald. It was unbelievable. We had to throw out 20 minutes of it.“ Gene Kelly

“I was born in a trunk, and I’ll die performing.”

… you nearly made it, Don! I love and miss him with all my heart … it is a blessing that Donald shared his unique talent with the world for more than 70 (!) years! He loved to entertain his audiences, was a passionate performer and made generations laugh (of course, he still does!), even though he had to struggle with many personal, painful strokes of fate. Donald O'Connor was the youngest and the fourth surviving child of seven, born to John Edward “Chuck” O'Connor, who was from County Cork in Ireland, and Effie Irene O'Connor (née Crane), both vaudevillians. The O'Connor Family was billed as “The Royal Family of Vaudeville” at the time. When Donald was 10 months old, his father died from heart attack while performing on stage, only a few weeks after his seven year-old sister Arlene was killed in a car accident. As she was crossing the street with Donald in a stroller, the car hit her. Miraculously, Donald remained nearly unhurt. Effie O'Connor had become extremely overprotective of her remaining children, seeming never to completely recover from the shock of losing her daughter and husband within weeks of each other. Donald joined the family act when he was just a toddler. He enjoyed being on stage, which also served as escape from his domineering mother. Sadly, she had a good reason to worry. Until 1958, Donald finally had survived all his siblings. Don was only 19 years old, when he married his first wife Gwen Carter in 1944, the year he entered service in WWII. While he was overseas, he got acquainted with the devil who became finally an obsession ... alcohol. After returning home, life went back to normal very slowly. Universal Pictures, where he was under contract since 1942, did not really know what to do with him. His first apperance on screen after the war followed in 1947. In the meantime, his daughter Donna was born in 1946. Unfortunately, the marriage of Don and Gwen didn’t went very well and finally ended up with divorce in 1954. All these incidents and the fact, that Don was always a workoholic resulted in alcoholism, he suffered from for almost 25 years ... creepingly getting worse and worse over the decades, reducing his ability to work increasingly and reaching its sad low point, visible to the outside, in the 1970s. As he was also a heavy smoker, he additionally developed a heart deasease. Burning the candle at both ends resulted in a heart attack in 1971, a serious physical collapse in 1978 and a quadruple bypass surgery in the early 1990s. That was quite a price to pay, but he always managed to pick himself up and keep going. After all, Donald O'Connor stayed down-to-earth and was beyond that one of the most versatile, charming, modest and sweetest gentlemen in Hollywood. ☆ Thankfully, Don found happiness with his lovely second wife Gloria Noble. She was the love of his life and the best that could have happened to him. Because of his addiction, they went through hard times, but she never let him down. Their marriage lasted over 46 years until his death in 2003, three children were born to them.

Dream team - Donald & Gloria at “Ciro’s” in 1956. They got married in October of the same year. ☆ Since I was a child, I’ve adored him as an excellent (tap) dancer, singer, comedian and actor. By the way, he was a great composer, too! Until 1955, at the age of 30, Donald had appeared in 45 (!) motion pictures [“Singin’ In The Rain" is #38!]. The press called him “the youngest old-timer in show business” at that time. That’s quite a statement of what had been accomplished by such a young man. In addition, his vaudeville background, successful TV shows during the 1950s and 1960s as well as a vast number of stage performances his entire life speak for themselves. It always seems to me that there was nothing Donald couldn’t do. In his later years, when the popularity of musicals slowly had faded away, Donald should have been managed better. After “Singin’ In The Rain” he never got a role again matching his extraordinary talent in this way, even if he made some wonderful movies in the 1950s, such as “Call Me Madam”. It wasn’t considered enough that he was a also a fine ‘serious’ actor, proved by his performances in the ‘Francis the Talking Mule” series or in ”The Buster Keaton Story” (although the script is awful and terribly incorrect!) and even in his early roles as a child. It makes me sad that Hollywood didn’t really know how to take advantage of his versatility. Unfortunately, he does not receive the credit he really deserves … he was so much more than 'Cosmo Brown'! ☆ Over the years, I’ve also developed profound respect and admiration for this wonderful man away from the spotlight. I’m fascinated by his real life achievement, kindness, honest modesty and willpower. Hopefully, someone will pay tribute to this endearing human being and unique  artist, perpetuate his memory by writing down his life story. Maybe one (or more) of his four lovely children, Donna, Alicia, Donald Frederick or Kevin … … I could die happy then!

“I’m no longer a superstar. Now I’m working on being a quasar, because stars wear out. Quasars go on forever … I look for the parts where I die and they talk about me for the rest of the movie.” 1992

Happy Birthday Donald 💋 … You’ve always been my mentor and the light of my life, darling!

Keeping his legacy alive … le grá go deo ♡♡♡

(Photos on top show Donald O'Connor over the decades, in order 1930s - 2000s from left to right.)

[morningstar-chronicles]

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And on this Valentine’s I almost broke down in tears at a wife’s dedication to her heart surgeon husband whose brain is deteriorating with a rare case of dementia