Actor donald oconnor films and biography
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Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was born on August 28, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois and died on September 27, 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was an American actor, singer and dancer who became famous in a series of movies in which he costarred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. He is best known today for his role as Don Lockwood’s friend and colleague Cosmo Brown in Singin’ in the Rain.
O’Connor was the seventh son of circus performers who went into vaudeville. His Irish-born father, John “Chuck” O’Connor, who died when his son was six months old, was a circus strongman and acrobat; his mother a bareback rider. Donald, who never went to school, joined the family act as soon as he could walk, though he admitted not having sung until he was two years old.
He made his screen debut at 11, in a speciality routine in Melody For Two (1937) with two of his older brothers and, the following year, signed up with Paramount, for whom he made a dozen films in two years, playing cocky youngsters. He was Bing Crosby’s jockey kid brother in Sing You Sinners (1938), Huckleberry Finn in Tom Sawyer: Detective (1938), Fred MacMurray as a child in William Wellman’s Men With Wings (1938) and Gary Cooper as a child in Beau Geste (1939).
His bo
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“The O’Connor”
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– – Donald O’Connor [Frank 152]
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Donald O'Connor
American film actor (1925–2003)
Donald O'Connor | |
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O'Connor in 1952 | |
| Born | Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (1925-08-28)August 28, 1925 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | September 27, 2003(2003-09-27) (aged 78) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1932–1999 |
| Spouses | Gwen Carter (m. 1944; div. 1954)Gloria Noble (m. 1956) |
| Children | 4 |
Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer and actor. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred, in succession, with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule.
O'Connor was born into a vaudeville family, where he learned to dance, sing, play comedy, and perform slapstick. The most distinctive characteristic of his dancing style was its athleticism, for which he had few rivals. Yet it was his boyish charm that audiences found most engaging, and which remained an appealing aspect of his personality throughout his career. In his Universal musicals of the early 1940s, O'Connor was a wisecracking, fast-talking teenager, much like Mickey Rooney of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. But by 1952 and