118 Facts About Vincente Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli made his stage debut as an actor in a production of East Lynne, staged by the Vincente Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater.

In 1935, Vincente Minnelli became a theatre director with At Home Abroad, starring Beatrice Lillie and Eleanor Powell.

In 1937, Vincente Minnelli moved to Hollywood and served a brief stint at Paramount Pictures before returning to Broadway.

In 1940, Vincente Minnelli was hired by Arthur Freed to work for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he directed sequences in Babes on Broadway and Panama Hattie.

Vincente Minnelli made his directorial film debut with Cabin in the Sky.

Vincente Minnelli married Garland a year later, and their daughter Liza was born in 1946.

Vincente Minnelli subsequently directed Garland in The Clock, Ziegfeld Follies and The Pirate.

An American in Paris and Gigi respectively both won the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Vincente Minnelli winning the Best Director for the latter film.

For over 26 years, Vincente Minnelli became the longest-tenured film director for MGM.

Vincente Minnelli formed his production company called Venice Productions, partnering with MGM and 20th Century Fox on The Courtship of Eddie's Father and Goodbye Charlie.

Vincente Minnelli directed his final film A Matter of Time, starring his daughter Liza.

Ten years later, in 1986, Vincente Minnelli died at his Beverly Hills residence, at age 83.

Lester Anthony Vincente Minnelli was born on February 28,1903, to Marie Emilie Odile Lebeau and Vincent Charles Vincente Minnelli.

Vincente Minnelli was baptized in Chicago, and was the youngest of four known sons, only two of whom survived to adulthood.

Vincente Minnelli's mother, whose stage name was Mina Gennell, was born in Chicago.

Vincente Minnelli was of French-Canadian descent, and there is a likelihood of Anishinaabe lineage through her mother, who was born on Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Vincente Minnelli's father co-founded the Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater, serving as the musical conductor.

Domenico Vincente Minnelli had been Vice-Chancellor of the Gran Corte Civile in Palermo at the time he helped organize the January 12,1848, uprising there.

At three years old, Vincente Minnelli made his debut stage performance portraying Little Willie in East Lynne, alongside his mother performing dual roles as Lady Isabel and Madame Vine.

Vincente Minnelli's family moved to Delaware, Ohio, where he spent the first three years of high school at St Mary's.

In search for a job, Vincente Minnelli took his portfolio of watercolor paintings to the Marshall Field's department store.

Vincente Minnelli was first assigned to design the men's store, but he instead asked to design windows on Wabash Avenue where furniture and decorative antique items were frequently rearranged.

Meanwhile, Vincente Minnelli enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago with personal ambitions to become a painter.

Vincente Minnelli asked Minnelli to join their acting group where they were performing one-act plays by Eugene O'Neill.

Vincente Minnelli agreed, and read for the part of a retired sea captain in O'Neill's Where the Cross is Made.

Vincente Minnelli disliked this acting job, but Minnelli remained a frequent attendee of Chicago's theatre district.

Vincente Minnelli left his Marshall Field's job, and worked for Stone as an assistant photographer.

At Stone's Raymor studio, Vincente Minnelli photographed numerous celebrities, including Ina Claire, where he coaxed them into capturing their best angles.

Vincente Minnelli admired the experimental films of Jean Cocteau and Luis Bunuel, and the writings of Sigmund Freud.

Around this time, Minnelli dropped Lester from his name, replacing it with "Vincente"; the final "e" was added in order to seem more sophisticated and elegant.

One day, Vincente Minnelli approached Frank Cambria, who headed the Chicago Theatre, which was a part of the Balaban and Katz theater chain.

Vincente Minnelli told Cambria that he should open his own costume department, and allow him to run it.

In 1931, Balaban and Katz merged with the Paramount-Publix theater chain, and Vincente Minnelli was asked to work on New York stage productions for $150 a week.

Vincente Minnelli left Chicago and rented a tiny Greenwich Village apartment.

At Paramount, Vincente Minnelli worked exclusively in costumes, and was restricted from designing sets because he wasn't in the set designers' union.

Vincente Minnelli was eventually accepted into the union membership thanks to sponsorship from J Woodman Thompson, a prominent stage designer.

Vincente Minnelli was eventually employed as a set designer at Radio City Music Hall, after it opened in December 1932.

Vincente Minnelli's efforts were applauded in the mainstream press, including The New York Times and New York Herald Tribune.

In 1934, Schmus selected Vincente Minnelli to produce his first stage show titled Coast to Coast, which opened on October 25.

Backstage, Vincente Minnelli was offered a directing job by Lee Shubert for his stage company.

Vincente Minnelli was handed his first directorial project titled At Home Abroad, with music composed by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz.

Vincente Minnelli was not involved in the revival, but instead chose to direct a musical revue titled The Show Must Go.

Vincente Minnelli devised an original story, featuring new songs from a team of Tin Pan Alley lyricists.

Vincente Minnelli proposed a surrealist ballet featuring Paramount's contract actors, and held conversations with Kurt Weill about a potential musical film.

Vincente Minnelli discussed the project with Adolph Zukor, the head of Paramount, but he was uninterested; discussions with William LeBaron, the studio's head of production, did not move the project forward.

Vincente Minnelli consulted on Raoul Walsh's 1937 film Artists and Models devising the "Public Melody No 1" number, featuring Louis Armstrong and Martha Raye.

Vincente Minnelli was given only three months for preparation before its premiere on December 1,1937.

Vincente Minnelli offered her four musical numbers and four sketches outlining his vision, but Lillie, then in England, had not responded in time.

Vincente Minnelli then shifted to a musicalization of S N Behrman's play Serena Blandish, wanting to feature Black American actors.

Pleased with the musical's first act, Vincente Minnelli unsuccessfully tried to rearrange the second act.

Vincente Minnelli became friends with Saroyan and they partnered on a black surrealist musical comedy, with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart composing the score.

Meanwhile, Vincente Minnelli visited the set for Strike Up the Band, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.

Vincente Minnelli suggested using a bowl of fruits, having spotted one on set.

Vincente Minnelli subsequently worked on Busby Berkeley's Babes on Broadway, which starred Rooney and Garland, for the "Ghost Theater" sequence.

Vincente Minnelli suggested they imitate veteran Broadway stars, but Berkeley rejected the idea.

In 1942, Vincente Minnelli was called to Freed's office where he was offered to direct Cabin in the Sky.

Three weeks after he finished filming Cabin in the Sky, Vincente Minnelli was assigned to direct I Dood It, starring Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell.

The film's producer Jack Cummings hoped Vincente Minnelli would inject his style into the film.

Onboard as director, Vincente Minnelli hired Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy to rewrite the script.

Between projects, Vincente Minnelli directed Lena Horne in her "Honeysuckle Rose" segment in Thousands Cheer.

Midway through filming, Sidney asked to leave the production and Vincente Minnelli was hired to finish filming.

Vincente Minnelli directed a total of ten segments, with the remaining four directed by Sidney, Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, and Robert Lewis.

Vincente Minnelli accepted the assignment on two conditions: Zinnemann would not object to his hiring and he would have creative control over Garland.

Garland had been cast as Marilyn Miller and Vincente Minnelli had been assigned to direct Garland's scenes.

Vincente Minnelli's scenes took two weeks to complete and were finished on November 8,1945.

Vincente Minnelli was next approached to direct Undercurrent by Pandro Berman with Katharine Hepburn and Robert Taylor cast in the lead roles.

Vincente Minnelli soon learns about her missing brother-in-law, whom her husband is suspected of murdering, and investigates his disappearance.

Rehearsals began on September 5,1947, but five days later, Vincente Minnelli was called into Freed's office and removed from the film.

Vincente Minnelli accepted as it was one of his favorite novels.

That same year, Minnelli reportedly directed the climax sequence in Robert Z Leonard's The Bribe.

Jack Benny pursued the lead role and was given a screen test, but Vincente Minnelli wanted Spencer Tracy and cast him.

Vincente Minnelli meets Milo Roberts, an heiress and arts patron who expresses a romantic and professional interest in Jerry.

Vincente Minnelli left to direct another film, Father's Little Dividend, the sequel to Father of the Bride.

On January 18,1951, Vincente Minnelli was announced to direct a musical film adaptation of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

Vincente Minnelli agreed to direct, with Kirk Douglas as his sole choice to portray ruthless film producer Jonathan Shields.

At the behest of Sidney Franklin, Vincente Minnelli was approached to direct two segments for the 1953 anthology film The Story of Three Loves.

Vincente Minnelli agreed to direct the segment "Mademoiselle", adapted from the short story "Lucy and the Stranger" by Arnold Phillips.

Vincente Minnelli meets with two writer friends and a Broadway producer who stage a musical, starring Hunter and a ballerina.

Vincente Minnelli reteamed with Pandro Berman and the screenwriting team of Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich for The Long, Long Trailer, which starred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Vincente Minnelli then directed The Cobweb after John Houseman handed him the 1954 novel by William Gibson.

Ten days before filming was complete, Vincente Minnelli left for France to begin filming Lust for Life.

Vincente Minnelli called the film his personal favorite of the ones he directed.

Vincente Minnelli instead cast Leslie Caron, having directed her in An American in Paris.

However, Vincente Minnelli was unavailable as he was filming The Reluctant Debutante overseas.

Regardless, he agreed to direct, and after Berman had recommended them, Vincente Minnelli approached Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall in New York with the central roles.

On February 8,1960, Vincente Minnelli received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.

Comden and Green met the deadline but delivered a 159-paged script, which Vincente Minnelli felt was too long.

Vincente Minnelli involves herself with playwright Jeffrey Moss, and falls in love with him.

Vincente Minnelli recognized the novel's similarities to The Bad and the Beautiful and hired the film's screenwriter Charles Schnee and composer David Raksin.

Vincente Minnelli negotiated to earn 25 percent of any net box office profits, in addition to his salary as director, as well as retain final cut privilege through the second previews.

For most of 1963, Vincente Minnelli was without a film project.

MGM allowed Vincente Minnelli to accept outside directing jobs, in which he selected Twentieth Century Fox's offer to direct Goodbye Charlie starring Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds.

Vincente Minnelli returned to MGM to direct The Sandpiper starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Taylor and Burton then asked Vincente Minnelli, who had previously directed Taylor in Father of the Bride and Father's Little Dividend.

Vincente Minnelli then developed a musical film titled Say It With Music, a biographical film of Irving Berlin he had been contemplating for several years.

The Freed Unit was closed, and MGM and Vincente Minnelli agreed to part ways.

The film was tentatively scheduled for a Christmas 1966 release, but Vincente Minnelli left the project and was replaced by Richard Fleischer.

Vincente Minnelli then turned to a film project, which would star his daughter Liza Vincente Minnelli, who had been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for The Sterile Cuckoo.

Vincente Minnelli concurrently began developing a biographical film of Bessie Smith with Tina Turner in mind, but it fell through.

In 1974, Vincente Minnelli became interested in adapting Maurice Druon's 1954 novel The Film of Memory.

Vincente Minnelli turned to veteran collaborators, including screenwriter John Gay and producer Edmund Grainger.

Vincente Minnelli first met Judy Garland during the filming for Strike Up the Band.

On February 16,1954, Vincente Minnelli married Georgette Magnani, the sister of Miss Universe 1953 Christiane Martel.

Smitten by her appearance, Vincente Minnelli offered Georgette a screen test, which she turned down.

Vincente Minnelli accompanied him during the filming of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and they were married in January 1962.

Vincente Minnelli met his fourth wife, Margaretta Lee Anderson, through his third wife who befriended her during the 1960s.

Vincente Minnelli was married to her from 1980 until his death in 1986.

For years, there was speculation in the entertainment community that Vincente Minnelli was gay or bisexual.

On July 25,1986, Vincente Minnelli died in his Beverly Hills home, aged 83, from emphysema and pneumonia, which had caused him to be repeatedly hospitalized in his final year.

Vincente Minnelli is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Vincente Minnelli seems mainly to feel his way toward the solution of creative problems, clued more by visual ideas than by any of the signs one might term 'literary.

Vincente Minnelli's films have wit and charm and beauty, but they have cinematic style.

Vincente Minnelli was one of the few directors who could develop his own personal vision in musicals, a difficult genre for a director because there is no more collaborative genre, none more dependent on the talents of so many others to succeed.

Stephen M Silverman distinguished both filmmakers' camerawork, observing Minnelli tends to track forward or backwards while Donen frequently uses horizontal tracking and crane shots to support the story and choreography.

Vincente Minnelli was not very articulate, he would leave sentences unfinished.

Vincente Minnelli holds no mirror up to nature but places a lamp next to it.

Vincente Minnelli's is the recreative rather than the mimetic tradition of art.

George Peppard, an alumnus of the Actors Studio, clashed with Vincente Minnelli during filming for Home from the Hill.