Recent Obituaries, Classic Films Only

[CBHagman]

84. Dancer Marc Platt, 100, of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."

Platt is the one in the purple shirt.

No, the age is not a typo.

And his bio is just amazing!

[url]http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/apr/09/marc-platt[/url]

Marc Platt was one of the first Americans to join the Ballets Russes, and at the time of his death, aged 100, among the very last survivors. Tall and loose-limbed, with red hair and freckles, he must have seemed an unlikely addition to the ranks of the largely Russian company. But when Michel Fokine saw Platoff – as he had been hastily renamed – playing the role of Dodon, the archetypal foolish tsar in his ballet Le Coq d'Or, the choreographer exclaimed: "I didn't think anyone could be more Russian."

In 1943, Platt created the leading role of Curly in the dream ballet sequence of the Broadway hit Oklahoma!, and he also appeared as a minor character in the 1955 film version of the show. His two best-known film roles, however, were as brother Daniel Pontipee in the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and in the Rita Hayworth film Tonight and Every Night (1945). In the latter, Platt is shown auditioning for a theatre similar to the Windmill in London. Having failed to bring music with him, he dances to music from the radio, changing styles as the theatre owner switches stations, moving instantly and effortlessly between classical, tap, swing and flamenco in a tour de force.

The son of a French violinist who had moved to the US and a soprano singer, Marcel Le Plat was born in Pasadena, California. The family travelled widely but eventually settled in Seattle, where Marcel studied first at the Cornish school (now Cornish College of the Arts) and then for eight years with the dancer and trainer Mary Ann Wells. It was Wells who, in 1935, arranged an audition for him with Wassily de Basil and Léonide Massine, respectively director and choreographer of the Ballets Russes. Once accepted, he immediately joined the company on its tour, making his stage debut a few days later.

By Platt's own account, the occasion was little short of a disaster. He was taller than any of the troupe's other men, and once he was on stage his ill-fitting costume began to fall apart. Worse was to come with the last ballet of the evening, the Polovtsian dances from Prince Igor. Equipped like all his fellow dancers with a genuine bow, crossing the stage at full speed he mistakenly turned right instead of left and caught his weapon in that of his neighbour, thus causing a major pileup of warriors. "What you were trying to do? Kill everybody?" hissed one of his fellow dancers, adding, "This is ballet. Not war."

This is fun:

His IMDB page:

[url]http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0686885/?ref_=fn_nm_nm_2[/url]


Always do what you love as long as you can. - Marc Platt