[Deathwatch] George Sidney, Film Director, 85

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

George Sidney, 'Mr. MGM' musical director, dead
May 6, 2002 Posted: 9:41 AM EDT (1341 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/05/06/obit.sidney.ap/index.html

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- Other directors had tried their hand at the
classic Kern-Hammerstein musical "Show Boat," but actress Kathryn
Grayson had two words to describe why the 1951 version stood apart. 

"George Sidney," the musical's star told The Associated Press in a 1991
interview. 

Sidney, who directed dozens of musicals when the genre was at its peak
and presided over Hollywood's directors guild for 16 years, died Sunday
at age 85. He died at home of complications of lymphoma, said his wife,
Corinne Sidney. 

Sidney was a widely admired and influential director during his many
years in show business. He directed a string of hits for MGM in the
1940s and 1950s, including "Ziegfeld Follies" (1946), "Annie Get Your
Gun" (1950), "Show Boat" (1951) and "Kiss Me Kate" (1953). 

"He was Mr. MGM, he just plain was," said actor and longtime friend
Robert Stack, 83. "Those were the days when people were kinds of
symbols. ... He was a very important man." 

Sidney enjoyed shooting skeet with Clark Gable and Gary Cooper at a
time when working in Hollywood meant gaining access to an exclusive,
tight-knit club, Stack said. 

He worked with such show business greats as Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly,
Tony Curtis, Lana Turner, Dick Van Dyke and Ann-Margret, and once
defined a star as "someone who attracts your attention even when he or
she isn't doing anything." 

"He was the best," Stack said. "God knows his credits certainly prove
it." 

Musicals faded from prominence in the decades after Sidney's run in the
1940s and '50s. In a 1998 interview with AP, Sidney discussed the
decline of the genre he loved. 

"Musicals became too expensive," he said. "When we were working at MGM,
there was a whole company of talent: stars, directors, choreographers,
song writers, conductors, arrangers. All worked under contract at
regular salaries. To gather people like that today would be enormously
costly." 

Sidney was born October 4, 1916, in Long Island City, New York, to a
wealthy show business family. His father was a Broadway producer and
his mother was part of a headlining sister act. He was named for his
uncle, a Jewish comic actor. 

Sidney worked as a child actor and as a teen-ager in 1933 got a job at
MGM as a messenger boy. He quickly rose to film editor and assistant
director, and in 1936 was given the chance to direct live-action
one-reel shorts. MGM hyped the novice director as a "boy wonder." 

Sidney's work with shorts led to "B" feature films, and he soon became
a top director of musical comedies. Through the 1940s, he directed as
many as four musicals a year for MGM. 

In the 1950s, Sidney left MGM to work as an independent producer for
Columbia, directing "Pal Joey" with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth;
"Bye Bye Birdie" with Janet Leigh, Van Dyke and Ann-Margret; and "Viva
Las Vegas" with Elvis Presley. 

An innovator in using animated figures side-by-side with live actors,
Sidney paired Gene Kelly with Jerry the Mouse in "Anchors Aweigh." He
financed and founded Hanna-Barbera productions in 1944 and was
president for 10 years. 

Sidney was president of the Screen Directors Guild from 1951 to 1959,
the year before it merged with the Radio and Television Directors Guild
to form the Directors Guild of America. He was president of the DGA
from 1961-67 and was the first recipient of the DGA president's award
in 1998. 

"The Directors Guild is extremely saddened by the passing of our former
president," DGA president Martha Coolidge said in a statement. "His
distinguished career as a director, along with his years of service and
dedication to the DGA, were an inspiration to us all. He will be
greatly missed." 

Sidney and his third wife, Corinne, moved to Las Vegas five years ago
from Beverly Hills. She recalled that when Sidney was diagnosed with
cancer, doctors wanted to operate, but he refused. 

"He told the team of doctors, 'Well, we're from show business and we
know the final curtain.' When we left he winked at me and said we just
beat them out of a $100,000 operation," she said. "He had a sense of
humor up until the end." 

A private memorial was being planned. 

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