Vincente Minnelli


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Vincente Minnelli

Born Lester Anthony Minnelli
February 28, 1903
Chicago, Illinois
Died July 25, 1986 (aged 83)
Beverly Hills, California
Spouse(s) Judy Garland (1945–1951)
Georgette Magnani (1954–1957)
Denise Minnelli (1962–1971)
Lee Anderson (1980–1986)

Vincente Minnelli (February 28, 1903 – July 25, 1986) was a Hollywood director and stage director. His skilled integration of story, music, lighting, and design elements in a film made him the most critically respected crafter of American film musicals. With first wife Judy Garland he was the father of Liza Minnelli.

Contents

Biography

Born Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago, Illinois, United States,[1] Minnelli was the youngest surviving child of Mina Mary LaLouette Le Beau and Vincent Charles Minnelli. His father was musical conductor of Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater. Minnelli's Chicago-born mother was of French Canadian descent and his paternal grandfather was from Sicily.

With his background in theatre, Minnelli was known as an auteur who always brought his stage experience to his films. The first movie that he directed, Cabin in the Sky (1943), was visibly influenced by the theater. Shortly after that, he directed Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), during which he befriended the film's star, Judy Garland, although it is probable the two had met casually earlier. The two began a courtship that eventually led to their marriage in June 1945. Their one child together, Liza Minnelli, grew up to become an Academy Award-winning singer and actress.

Though widely known for directing musicals, including An American in Paris (1951), Brigadoon (1954), Kismet (1955), and Gigi (1958) he also helmed comedies and melodramas, including Madame Bovary (1949), Father of the Bride (1950), Designing Woman (1957) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963). His last film was A Matter of Time (1976). He received an Oscar nomination as Best Director for An American in Paris (1951) and later won the Best Director Oscar for Gigi (1958). He was awarded France's highest civilian honor, the Commander Nationale of the Legion of Honor, only weeks before his death in 1986.

Minnelli's critical reputation has known a certain amount of fluctuation, being admired (or dismissed) in America as a "pure stylist" who, in Andrew Sarris' words,[citation needed] "believes more in beauty than in art". His work reached a height of critical attention during the late 1950s and early 1960s in France with extensive studies in the Cahiers du Cinéma magazine, especially in the articles by Jean Douchet and Jean Domarchi, who saw in him a cinematic visionary obsessed with beauty and harmony, and an artist who could give substance to the world of dreams. The MGM compilation film That's Entertainment! showed clips from many of his films.

Minnelli died at the age of 83 from complications of Alzheimer's disease, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank, California. He is survived by his British-born wife Lee Anderson Minnelli (born c. 1907).

Family

His marriages ran as follows:

  • Judy Garland (15 June 1945 - 1951) (divorced), one child, Liza Minnelli (b. 1946)
  • Georgette Magnani (February 1954 - 1957), one child, Christiane Nina Minnelli (b. 1955); two grandchildren, Vincent Miro Minnelli (b. 1977), Karla Ximena Miro Minnelli (b. 1979)
  • Denise Minnelli (1962 - August 1971) (divorced); later married Prentis Cobb Hale
  • Lee Anderson (April 1980 - 25 July 1986) (his death)

Trivia

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2007)
  • Named his daughter Liza Minnelli after the Gershwin song "Liza." He had directed the number for Ziegfeld Follies (1946), but it was cut from the final version of the film.
  • Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Triumphant Faith Terraces area.
  • Inventor of the "Crab Dolly", a camera dolly on wheels that can move the camera in any direction.
  • Insisted on using a shade of yellow in the design of his sets that had to be specially mixed. MGM painters began calling it "Minnelli Yellow."
  • When he was signed to MGM, he was allowed to apprentice for a year on the lot. By the time he started directing, he knew every department at the studio.
  • Was voted the 20th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
  • His widow, Lee Anderson, was his companion for a long time before their 1980 marriage.
  • Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967

Selected theatre credits

Filmography

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
David Lean
for The Bridge on the River Kwai		 Academy Award for Best Director
1958
for Gigi		 Succeeded by
William Wyler
for Ben-Hur

Notes

  1. ^ Sacramental records, Notre Dame-de-Chicago

References

  • John Wakeman (ed.), "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945," pp. 778-787, New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

External links

v • d • e
The films of Vincente Minnelli
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
v • d • e
Academy Award for Best Director

John Ford (1941) · William Wyler (1942) · Michael Curtiz (1943) · Leo McCarey (1944) · Billy Wilder (1945) · William Wyler (1946) · Elia Kazan (1947) · John Huston (1948) · Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949) · Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950) · George Stevens (1951) · John Ford (1952) · Fred Zinnemann (1953) · Elia Kazan (1954) · Delbert Mann (1955) · George Stevens (1956) · David Lean (1957) · Vincente Minnelli (1958) · William Wyler (1959) · Billy Wilder (1960)

Complete List · (1927–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present)






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