Gene Nelson
Gene Nelson was an American dancer, actor, screenwriter, and director. Born Leander Eugene Berg in Astoria, Oregon, he moved to Seattle when he was a year old. He was inspired to become a dancer by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers when he was a child. After serving in the Army during World War II during which he also performed in the musical This Is the Army, Nelson landed his first Broadway role in Lend an Ear, for which he received the Theatre World Award. He also appeared onstage in Follies, which garnered him a Tony Award nomination, and Good News. Nelson's longtime professional dance partner during the 1950s was actress JoAnn Dean Killingsworth.
Gene Nelson co-starred with Doris Day in "Lullaby of Broadway" in 1951. He played Will Parker in the film Oklahoma!
In 1959, he appeared in Northwest Passage as a young man trying to prove his innocence in a murder case. Nelson appeared on the March 17, 1960 episode of "You Bet Your Life", hosted by Groucho Marx. He and Groucho's daughter, Melinda, performed a dance number together.
Nelson directed eight episodes of The Rifleman in the 1961-62 season, the original Star Trek, the first season of I Dream of Jeannie, Gunsmoke, The Silent Force, and The San Pedro Beach Bums. He directed the Elvis Presley films Kissin' Cousins, which screenplay he wrote, and Harum Scarum. For the Kissin' Cousins screenplay he received a WGA award nomination for best written musical. He later taught in the Theater Arts Department at San Francisco State University in the late 1980s.
He starred as Buddy in the 1971 Broadway musical Follies, for which he received a 1972 Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor In A Musical. The production featured a score by Stephen Sondheim and was co-directed by Michael Bennett and Harold Prince.
For contribution to the motion picture industry, in 1990, Nelson was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Nelson's star is located at 7005 Hollywood Boulevard.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Gene Nelson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 9.213 |
Birthday | 1920-03-24 |
Place of Birth | Astoria, Oregon, USA |
Also Known As | Gene Berg, Eugene A. Nelson, Leander Eugene Berg, |
1950
Tea for Two
5.963/27
In this reworking of "No, No, Nanette," wealthy heiress Nanette Carter bets her uncle $25,000 that she can say "no" to everything for 48 hours. If she...
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Tea for Two
1955
Oklahoma!
6.569/159
In the Oklahoma territory at the turn of the twentieth century, two young cowboys vie with a violent ranch hand and a traveling peddler for the hearts...
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Oklahoma!
1951
Lullaby of Broadway
5.8/14
Pretty Melinda Howard has been abroad singing with a musical troupe. She decides to return home to surprise her mother whom she thinks is a successful...
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Lullaby of Broadway
1955
Dial 999
4.6/8
A man tells his wife that the police are after him for having killed a bookie during an alcoholic binge, but that he is innocent and is being framed f...
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Dial 999
1953
Crime Wave
7/68
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter. The other two former cellmates then att...
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Crime Wave
1950
The West Point Story
5.8/8
A Broadway director helps the West Point cadets put on a show, aided by two lovely ladies and assorted complications.
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The West Point Story
1955
Timeslip
5.3/11
An atomic scientist is found floating in a river with a bullet in his back and a radioactive halo around his body. The radioactivity has put him seven...
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Timeslip
1950
The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady
5/1
An Irish horsecar driver's daughter meets New York showman Tony Pastor and goes into vaudeville.
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The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady
1952
She's Working Her Way Through College
5.1/7
Shapely burlesque dancer Hot Garters Gertie aka Angela Gardner meets her future drama professor. Her new landlady proves to be the professor's wife. A...
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She's Working Her Way Through College
1953
She's Back on Broadway
5.7/3
When Catherine Terris's career in Hollywood hits the skids, she heads back to the site of her first great triumphs...Broadway! She takes the lead in a...
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She's Back on Broadway
1951
Starlift
5.6/4
To impress a movie star, a U.S. Air Force crewman pretends he is soon to see combat. When his lie gets out, chaos ensues.
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Starlift
1961
20,000 Eyes
3.5/2
An investment counselor turns jewel thief when the gangster he embezzled funds from demands to be paid back.
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20,000 Eyes
1953
Three Sailors and a Girl
6/2
A group of sailors invest in a musical revue.
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Three Sailors and a Girl
1973
A Brand New Life
0/0
After 18 years of marriage, a middle-aged couple has to face the prospect of having their first child.
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A Brand New Life
1951
Painting The Clouds With Sunshine
4.5/2
The story of three gold-digging ladies searching for millionaires. A loose remake of Gold Diggers of 1933.
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Painting The Clouds With Sunshine
1943
This Is the Army
5.667/21
In WW I dancer Jerry Jones stages an all-soldier show on Broadway, called Yip Yip Yaphank. Wounded in the War, he becomes a producer. In WW II his son...
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This Is the Army
1981
S.O.B.
5.894/85
A movie producer who made a huge flop tries to salvage his career by revamping his film as an erotic production, where its family-friendly star takes...
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S.O.B.
1939
Second Fiddle
5/5
Studio publicist discovers Minnesota skating teacher and takes her to Hollywood. She goes back to Minnesota but he follows her.
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Second Fiddle
1939
Everything Happens at Night
4.1/4
Two reporters compete to discover a scientist living in hiding and win his daughter.
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Everything Happens at Night
1954
So This Is Paris
9/1
Three sailors on leave head for Paris with one thing on their minds.
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So This Is Paris
1947
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
5/1
A biopic of the career of Joe Howard (12 Feb.,1878 - 19 May, 1961), famous songwriter of the early 20th Century. Howard wrote the title song, Goodbye,...
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I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
1963
Thunder Island
4.9/8
A hit man hijacks a boat — and the married couple aboard — in order to carry out a contract on a dictator in the Caribbean.
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Thunder Island
1948
The Walls of Jericho
5.7/5
In a small town in Kansas, a county attorney in an unhappy marriage falls in love with another woman.
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The Walls of Jericho
1948
Apartment for Peggy
7.6/5
Professor Henry Barnes decides he's lived long enough and contemplates suicide. His attitude is changed by Peggy Taylor, a chipper young mother-to-be...
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Apartment for Peggy
1961
The Purple Hills
5/1
When a bounty hunter kills an outlaw for the reward, he has to deal with both a man falsely claiming he made the kill, and the revengeful brother of t...
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The Purple Hills
1972
Family Flight
5.167/6
A bitterly divided family is forced to cooperate when their holiday plane crash-lands in the California wilderness. Overcoming their differences, they...
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