American choreographer Michael Kidd, who created dance for the stage musical Finian's Rainbow and the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, has died.
Kidd died at his Los Angeles home Sunday of cancer, according to Kidd's nephew Robert Greenwald. He was 92.
Choreographer Michael Kidd in 1997, after receiving a special Academy Award for his choreography.
(Reed Saxon/Associated Press)
Trained in classical ballet, Kidd won five Tony Awards and an Oscar for his dances for Broadway and Hollywood.
He worked with actors such as Danny Kaye, Fred Astaire and even Marlon Brando, who had to be taught to turn on his toes for Guys and Dolls.
Kidd was known for joyous and athletic choreography that filled the stage, or the screen, with life.
"Dancing should be completely understandable — every move, every turn should mean something, should be crystal clear to the audience," Kidd told the New York Times in 1954.
"If you can make them laugh or cry, move them emotionally … you've done your job."
He is best known for the 1954 film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, in which seven backwoods brothers dance with their prospective brides.
As there is no Oscar category for choreography, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Kidd with a special award in 1997 for "services in the art of the dance in the art of the screen."
Kidd was born Milton Greenwald in New York City, the son of a barber. He studied chemical engineering at City College but quit after three years finding it "too impersonal."
He eventually won a scholarship to the American Ballet School and became a dancer with the Ballet Theater in New York.
Kidd's first effort at choreography was the 1945 ballet On Stage, which he also danced, playing the lead role of a backstage worker who helps a shy young dancer learn her craft, before returning to sweep the floor.
Two years later Kidd was hired to stage the dances for the Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow, which became a hit.
His career as a stage choreographer took off and he won Tony awards for Finian's Rainbow, Guys and Dolls in 1951, Can-Can in 1954, Li'l Abner in 1957 and Destry Rides Again in 1960.
He began his movie work in 1952 with Where's Charley, starring Ray Bolger. He choreographed Star for Julie Andrews and Hello Dolly for Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau.
For Kaye, he created the dance for Knock on Wood and Merry Andrew. He also choreographed It's Always Fair Weather, appearing on screen himself with Gene Kelly and Dan Dailey.
Kidd was "willing to do anything himself that he expects of his dancers," said New York City Ballet dancer Jacques d'Amboise, who was in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
"And he's a great dancer himself — we respect that," he said after the making of that film
One of his few ventures into television was directing Mikhail Baryshnikov in Baryshnikov in Hollywood, which was nominated for an Emmy in 1981.
"I was amazed by his energy and his willingness to reinvent all the time if the situation didn't work," Baryshnikov said at the time.
Kidd married Mary Heater in 1940 and they had two daughters, Kristine and Susan.
Kidd is also survived by his second wife, the former dancer Shelah Hackett and their two children, Amy Kidd and Matthew Kidd.
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