| I never heard of Donald O'Connor being referred to as a non-singer. Triple threat is more like it : he had a lovely voice -- listen to him in "Call Me Madam" or in any of his films; he's just such a fabulous dancer that one can perhaps overlook that he has a fine singing voice. Fred Astaire you also call a non-singer? Well, his voice is a bit reedy, yes, he's been accused of that. But the greatest songwriters of the day -- Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, etc. longed to write for him because he brought out the truth of their songs in a simple, direct way. It's a very pleasant voice. Even Gene Kelly, who has more vocal problems and is a bit of a chore to listen to when singing a ballad, started on Broadway in "Pal Joey" presumably without a microphone back in 1940. But it was a mistake for him to take what was basically a strong legit singing role in "Brigadoon" and try to play down his ballad-heavy role by turning it into more of a dance part. Kelly is dubbed in the French film "The Young Girls of Rochefort" because the role goes very high, though one can hear Kelly's speaking voice in some of the French dialogue scenes. His signing dubber doesn't really sound like him though, as Kelly never sang that high. |
