Donald O'Connor (1925 - 2003)

‘I Have a Ph.D. in Not Having Money’ Donald joined the act when he was about a year old, crossed the country several times before he was able to talk, and was singing and dancing regularly at age 3. He never went to public school. His mother gave him some elementary education between his lessons in the essentials -- tap-dancing, soft-shoe routines, double shuffle handstands and cannon-balls. Childhood was not an especially good time for Donald, but not because he was subjected to the vicissitudes of show business when other children his age were going to school and playing games. He thought that such conventional children were strange. But it was in this period that his sister was killed when a car struck her and the baby carriage he was in (he was not seriously injured). By age 12, he had appeared in a song-and-dance act with two of his brothers, Jack and Billy. They made a short film together in 1937, but Donald did not make his official Hollywood film debut until 1938, when he appeared in ''Sing You Sinners'' as Bing Crosby's younger brother who becomes a jockey. The next year, he appeared as a young Gary Cooper in the adventure film ''Beau Geste.'' Hollywood had tapped him for these roles after a talent scout saw him perform at a benefit in the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. He also was picked to play in a production of ''Tom Sawyer'' in 1938. But the next year he lost his brother Billy to scarlet fever, and, by 1940, the O'Connor family act was no more. Donald, however, snagged a contract to appear as a juvenile with Universal at $200 a week. He started to get more conspicuous roles. In 1943, The New York Times took note of his performance in ''Mr. Big'' and described his work as ''as fresh and delightful a performance as any jaded eye could care to see.'' The next year, The New York World-Telegram called him ''the funniest man around right now,'' and Variety praised his skills in singing, dancing and acting.

Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor was born on Aug. 28, 1925, in Chicago, a son of John Edward O'Connor, an Irish-born circus strongman, dancer and comedian, and Effie Irene Crane O'Connor, who was a circus acrobat, bareback rider, tightrope walker and dancer. When Donald was just six months old, his father died of a heart attack in the middle of a performance. His mother, true to the traditions of show business, carried on, using her children in her vaudeville acts.

Starting with ''Francis'' in 1950, Mr. O'Connor made a lot of money playing opposite a mule. The film proved so popular, it was followed by ''Francis Goes to the Races'' (1951), ''Francis Goes to West Point'' (1952), ''Francis Covers the Big Town'' (1953), ''Francis Joins the Wacs'' (1954) and ''Francis in the Navy'' (1955). Hollywood also turned out ''Francis in the Haunted House'' (1956), but by then, Mr. O'Connor had decided that a continued association with a mule was not a good thing for his career, and the human lead went to Mickey Rooney. Mr. O'Connor also did a great deal of television, starring in the 1950's in ''Colgate Comedy Hour.'' John Crosby, the television critic for The New York Herald Tribune, saw him perform with Jimmy Durante on ''Texaco Star Theater'' and called Mr. O'Connor ''one of the greatest all-around talents in show business.'' But the golden age of the Hollywood musical was over, and as Mr. O'Connor aged and thickened, he no longer looked perfect for juvenile roles. His career faded, not to be revived by his performance in the title role of ''The Buster Keaton Story'' in 1957. He appeared in few movies after that. His brief appearance in ''Ragtime'' in 1981 was the first film he had done in 16 years. Somewhere along the line, Mr. O'Connor developed a serious drinking problem. He said he started drinking while in the service in 1944, and later on, he said, ''instead of coming home and having one or two drinks, I'd have one or two bottles.'' Work was even harder to come by. He stopped drinking in 1979, but he developed heart trouble and began to use nitroglycerin pills before performances so that he would have the stamina to complete them. He underwent successful quadruple-bypass surgery in 1990. After that he began to watch his diet. He worked out three times a week, and, in 1992, told a reporter that ''sobriety has been my savior.'' Mr. O'Connor came to Broadway in 1983 in a revival of ''Show Boat,'' in which he played the boat's proprietor, Cap'n Andy. In his review in The Times, Frank Rich wrote of Mr. O'Connor: ''He gets his laughs, by hook and crook, and contributes a delightful (if brief) display of his old razzmatazz tap style in Act II.'' In 1997, at the age of 71, Mr. O'Connor made a rare movie appearance in ''Out to Sea,'' a comedy starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. With him in that small part was Gloria De Haven, who had starred with him in ''Yes Sir, That's My Baby'' in 1949. His 1944 marriage to Gwendolyn Carter ended in divorce 10 years later. They had a daughter, Donna. His second marriage, to Gloria Noble in 1956, lasted for the rest of his life. They had three children, Alicia, Donald Frederick and Kevin. Mr. O'Connor prided himself on being forward-looking, and he was not inclined to dwell on his past. ''I'm no longer a superstar,'' he said in 1992. ''Now I'm working on being a quasar, because stars wear out. Quasars go on forever.'' He said that as a young man, he had always been afraid of failure but that stopped as he grew older. ''Now I look for the parts where I die and they talk about me for the rest of the movie,'' he said.

He was drafted toward the end of World War II and spent much of his time in the service entertaining combat troops. His popularity was such that Universal paid him his regular salary -- $50 a day -- while he was in uniform. After the war, he won favorable reviews even when his movies did not. Among the films in those years were ''Something in the Wind'' (1947), in which he appeared with Deanna Durbin, then a major star; ''Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin','' in which he demonstrated his great physical agility (1948); and ''Yes Sir, That's My Baby,'' a campus romp with another frequent partner, Gloria De Haven (1949). Critics and audiences applauded the breathtaking tap dance routine he did on roller skates in ''I Love Melvin'' (1953), even if they felt differently about the movie. Mr. O'Connor agreed with them that the movie was ''a lousy picture,'' much to the dismay of his producers. By 1954, his stature was such that he was asked to be the master of ceremonies for that year's Academy Awards ceremony at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood.