While Gene Kelly’s death is sad in itself, it is also fraught with controversy. Twenty years ago today, the world lost one of Hollywood’s greatest entertainers, dancers, choreographers, innovators, cinematographers, and genuine movie stars. What follows is a brief tribute to Gene Kelly including an explanation of his death and the industry’s response(s) thereafter. In July 1994, Gene Kelly suffered the first of two strokes. Although doctors at UCLA’s Medical Center labeled it “mild,” the stroke kept him in the hospital for nearly seven weeks. Kelly suffered another, much smaller stroke in Feburary 1995. “He was neurologically stable, aware, and conversational,” the Associated Press reported the following day. But sadly, Gene would never fully recover from this one. At age 84, he died in his sleep on Friday, February 2, 1996. No Friends, Food, Tears, or Embraces While Gene Kelly’s death is sad in itself — in that such an energetic man/body was overtaken by such a debilitating condition ...