American actor, comedian, singer and dancer, known for his boyish charm, and still rated as one of the most versatile song-and-dance men ever to star in films and TV. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. By age 30, in 1955, he had done 50 films. His best-known works came in the film “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952), for which O’Connor was awarded a Golden Globe. He also won a Primetime Emmy Award from four nominations and received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame throughout his career.
Raised in a circus and vaudevillian family, his father died when he was one, and he became part of the act with his mom. Always a trouper, he never attended public school. Starting in movies at 13, his films include: “Top Man,” “Bowery To Broadway,” “Chip Off The Old Block,” and perhaps his best known and most beloved film, “Singing In the Rain,” with co-stars Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds, 1952.
He continued in vaudeville most of his life, but slowed down after a heart attack in 1971. He was still doing Vegas in his later years.
Married on 6 February 1944, they had four kids and divorced ten years later in July, 1954. His second marriage in 1956 lasted over 31 years.
In his 70s, O’Connor lived in Sedona, Arizona and was the featured player in the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a performing arts group at the Historic Plaza Theatre. On 30 January 1999 he was hospitalized with pneumonia; in intensive care, he was placed on a ventilator. Turning his condition around, he was released from the hospital on 26 February 1999, undergoing physical therapy at his nearby home. Then he found himself writing songs, doing community things and “just sort of taking it easy.” He died on 27 September 2003 of heart failure at a retirement home in Calabasas, California. He was 78.
Link to Wikipedia biography