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As Top Choreographer, He Groomed '7 Brides'

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The Associated Press

Published: December 26, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Choreographer Michael Kidd, whose joyously athletic dances for ballet, Broadway and Hollywood delighted audiences for half a century and won him five Tonys and an Oscar, has died.

Kidd's nephew, Robert Greenwald, told The New York Times that Kidd died at his Los Angeles home Sunday night of cancer. Kidd's age is often listed as 88, but Greenwald told the Times that his uncle was actually 92.

To moviegoers, Kidd was best known for the robust 1954 film "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," in which a bunch of backwoodsmen prance exuberantly with their prospective brides.

He also directed dances for Danny Kaye in "Knock on Wood," took Fred Astaire out of his top hat to play a private eye in a Mickey Spillane spoof in "The Band Wagon," and taught Marlon Brando how to hoof for "Guys and Dolls."

There is no Oscar category for choreography, so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Kidd with a special award in 1997 for "his services in the art of the dance in the art of the screen."

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