Luigi Faccuito

Luigi - born as Eugene Louis Faccuito was simply known in the World of Jazz Dance as "LUIGI" Eugene Louis Faccuito (March 20, 1925 – April 7, 2015), known professionally as Luigi, was an American jazz dancer, choreographer, teacher, and innovator who created the jazz exercise technique. Luigi Faccuito Born March 20, 1925 in Steubenville, Ohio, USA Died April 7, 2015 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (cancer) Birth Name Eugene Louis Facciuto Nicknames Luigi Father Jazz Height 5' 10" (1.78 m) Mini Bio (1) Luigi Faccuito was born on March 20, 1925 in Steubenville, Ohio, USA as Eugene Louis Facciuto. He was an actor, known for Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Ten Commandments (1956) and White Christmas (1954). He died on April 7, 2015 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. His father, a steelworker, was killed in a car accident when Eugene was five. He began singing and dancing on street corners to help his family. He won amateur contests, and at age 13 became lead singer with the Bernie Davis Orchestra. (The singer he replaced was another Italian-American kid from Steubenville, Dino Paul Crocetti, better known as Dean Martin.) Before age 20, he was a dancer and singer on the vaudeville circuit. His surname is pronounced "fah-CHEW-toe". He opened his first school in Los Angeles in 1950, before moving to New York. His students have included ordinary people seeking exercise, dancers needing rehabilitation after injury, and big-name stars such as Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, Donna McKechnie, Jane Fonda, John Travolta, Tony Roberts, and Liza Minnelli. During WWII, he served with the Navy in New Guinea and the Philippines. After the war, he was admitted to Kent State University, where he planned to study law. Instead, he went to Hollywood to study dance on the G.I. Bill. He trained with noted ballet teachers including Bronislava Nijinska, the younger sister of the legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. A few months after arriving in California, he suffered a skull fracture in a car accident. He was in a coma for two months, waking to find that the right side of his body and the left side of his face were paralyzed. He devised a painstaking regimen of stretching and movement, relearning how to stand and move his limbs. Three years later, he was dancing again.