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.
But by 1952 and Singin' in the Rain, MGM had cultivated a much more sympathetic sidekick persona for him, and that remained O'Connor's signature image.
His best-known work was his "Make 'Em Laugh" dance routine in Singin' in the Rain (1952), for which O'Connor was awarded a Golden Globe.
"[citation needed] O'Connor's mother was extremely possessive of her youngest son due to these traumas, not allowing him to cross the street on his own until he turned 13.
(1942), a low-budget musical with The Andrews Sisters, the studio's teenage singing star Gloria Jean, and Peggy Ryan.
[11] The film was popular and Universal began to develop O'Connor and Ryan as their version of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.
[12] He, Ryan, and the Andrews Sisters were in Private Buckaroo (1942) and Give Out, Sisters (1942); then he was co-starred opposite Jean in four films: Get Hep to Love (1942), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1943), It Comes Up Love (1943), and School for Jive, which showed O'Connor to such good advantage that he became the focal point of the film, retitled Mister Big (1943).
They rushed production to complete four more by that date,[citation needed] all with Ryan: This Is the Life (1944), with Foster; The Merry Monahans (1944), with Blyth and Jack Oakie; Bowery to Broadway (1945), another all-star effort where O'Connor had a cameo; and Patrick the Great (1945).
With a backlog of seven features, deferred openings kept O'Connor's screen presence uninterrupted during the two years he was overseas with Special Services in the U.S. Army Air Forces.
[citation needed] Finally, the studio paired O'Connor opposite their biggest female star, Deanna Durbin, in Something in the Wind (1947), and kept him busy in musical comedies: Are You with It?
(1948) with Olga San Juan, Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' (1949) with Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride, and Yes Sir, That's My Baby (1949) with Gloria DeHaven.
"[14] O'Connor followed the first Francis with comedies: Curtain Call at Cactus Creek (1950), The Milkman (1950), and Double Crossbones (1951).
[16] He also received an offer to play Cosmo the piano player in Singin' in the Rain (1952) at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer That film featured his widely known rendition of "Make 'Em Laugh", which he choreographed with help from the assistant dance directors and his brother.
[18] He acted alongside Gene Kelly, and earned the 1953 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy or Musical.
[19] O'Connor went back to Universal for Francis Goes to West Point (1952) then returned to MGM for I Love Melvin (1953) a musical with Debbie Reynolds.
After Francis Covers the Big Town (1953), Universal put O'Connor in a musical in color, Walking My Baby Back Home (1953) with Janet Leigh.
O'Connor's industry and public recognition reached a peak in 1954, when he was asked to emcee that year's Academy Awards ceremony.
[22] He received excellent notices for Francis Joins the WACS (1954) and was scheduled to play Bing Crosby's partner in White Christmas (1954).
O'Connor was forced to withdraw because he contracted an illness transmitted by the mule[23] and was replaced in the film by Danny Kaye.
[25] Arthur Lubin, who directed the series, later recalled that O'Connor "got very difficult" to work with: "He'd sit in his dressing room and stare into space, and I think he had problems at home.
O'Connor was stunned at the insignificance of the gift after all the millions of dollars he had made for the studio, and in later life recalled, "What can I say about these people?"
[28] O'Connor teamed with Glenn Ford in Cry for Happy (1961) at Columbia and he played the title role in The Wonders of Aladdin (1961) for MGM.
[30] He did episodes of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Vacation Playhouse, ABC Stage 67 and The Jackie Gleason Show.
[34] He guest-starred on episodes of The Girl with Something Extra, Ellery Queen, The Bionic Woman, Police Story, and Hunter.
He appeared as a gaslight-era entertainer in the 1981 film Ragtime, notable for similar encore performances by James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.
[40] O'Connor's last feature film was the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy Out to Sea, in which he played a dance host on a cruise ship.
[citation needed] O'Connor was honored with a retrospective at New York's Lincoln Center and an honorary degree from Boston University.
He died from complications of heart failure on September 27, 2003, at age 78 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California.