Broadway Choreographer Kidd Dies
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WENN.com
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Wednesday, December 26, 2007
HOLLYWOOD - Legendary Broadway choreographer Michael Kidd has lost his battle with cancer. He was 92. Kidd died on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles.
Born Milton Greenwald in New York City, Kidd began his career as a dancer at the Big Apple's Ballet Theater, and was given his first opportunity to choreograph in 1945.
But it was in 1947 when Kidd's career really began to take off and he was invited to work on a theatre production of Finian's Rainbow. His efforts won him his first of five Tony Awards, before moving into Hollywood.
On the big screen, Kidd is perhaps best known for his work on 1954's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and directing dances for Fred Astaire in 1953 comedy, The Band Wagon, and Marlon Brando in 1955's Guys and Dolls.
His innovative dance sequences earned him much high praise, and in 1997 he was recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and presented with a special prize for "his services in the art of the dance in the art of the screen".
But his biggest success remained in theatre, where his choreography in shows like Can-Can in 1954, and Destry Rides Again in 1960, won him a further four Tony Awards.
He even received critical acclaim for one of his few ventures into television, earning himself an Emmy nomination in 1981 for directing former Sex and the City star Mikhail Baryshnikov in Baryshnikov in Hollywood.
Michael Kidd is survived by his second wife, former dancer Shelah Hackett, and their two children, Amy and Matthew, as well as his two daughters from an earlier marriage, Kristine and Susan, reports the New York Times.
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