Bruce M. wrote:
Looks like no one has mentioned Stanley Donen, who directed, among other things, "Singin' in the Rain," possibly my favorite movie ever.
He also directed On the Town and It's Always Fair Weather with Gene Kelly, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Damn Yankees, Royal Wedding starring Fred Astaire, Funny Face - Fred Astaire & Audrey Hepburn, Give a Girl a Break - Debbie Reynolds, The Pajama Game - Doris Day, Love is Better Than Ever - Elizabeth Taylor, Indiscreet - Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman, Kiss Them For Me - Cary Grant, The Grass is Greener - Cary Grant, Charade - Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn, Two For the Road - Audrey Hepburn & Albert Finney, Arabesque - Gregory Peck & Sophia Loren, Lucky Lady - Liza Minnelli & Gene Hackman, The Little Prince, the original, good Bedazzled with Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, and Staircase, about an old gay couple played by Richard Burton and Rex Harrison at a time when movies did not star old or gay couples. He also choreographed the greatest dancers of his time.
He and Gene Kelly changed movie musicals from the old Busby Berkeley formula to what we now think of as movie musicals. You can look at any musical and easily tell if it was made before or after Stanley Donen started directing.
His death is essentially the end of an era. He worked in a time when they used trained dancers and singers who could act, rather than today's actors who can be taught a few basic steps and maybe carry a tune.