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  Gene Kelly Fans

Did Gene Kelly Wear a Hairpiece?

By Kelli
This post is part of the series Gene Kelly: The Basics, which addresses fundamental questions fans often ask about the star.
Picture

From Julian's Live auctions, this is one of four hairpieces custom-made for Gene Kelly. "Studio wigs at the time were custom-made and fitted to measure by the star's head and hairline."
Yes, Gene Kelly wore a hairpiece, actually lots of them. Before you gasp, you should know that many of your classical Hollywood favorites also wore rugs: 
  • Humphrey Bogart
  • Fred Astaire
  • John Wayne
  • Jack Benny
  • Bing Crosby
  • Sean Connery
  • Charlton Heston
  • Rex Harrison
  • Yul Brynner
  • Henry Fonda
  • Jimmy Stewart
  • Van Heflin
  • Fred MacMurray
In fact, this Time column from Aug. 23, 1954 claims that “nine out of ten male stars over the age of 35 [wore] ‘hair additions’ on the screen.” What’s more, most of them did not care. After all, any grown man in the ’40s and ’50s could order one from a magazine.

​Classical Hollywood stars wore toupees both on- and offscreen. Sometimes offscreen, they wore no hairpiece at all. For example, here's Gene Kelly without his partial hairpiece hobnobbing with Grace Kelly at the Cannes Film Festival. And here he is again, sans toupee, enjoying a cigarette.

Hollywood hairpieces aren’t just things of the past though. Several current movie and TV personalities also don toupees both on- and offscreen. See, for instance,
  • John Travolta
  • Nicholas Cage
  • Hugh Laurie
  • Bruce Willis
  • Ted Danson
  • Matthew McConaughey 
  • William Shatner
The same, of course, goes for many women, who frequently wear weaves and hair extensions.

At any rate, as this newspaper article suggests, Gene Kelly’s hairpieces must’ve been rather tough to withstand all that dancing and spinning. And you know what, most of his wigs also looked good. They’d better; Kelly's “hair additions” were presumably written into his MGM contract.

With that said, if one looks closely at Kelly's hair in this On the Town promotional photo, one can see the lace front of his partial hairpiece. No need to squint; here is a close-up.
GEne Kelly: THe Basics
Gene Kelly Fans Logo by Lauren Randalls
Graphite drawing
of Gene Kelly by L.R.
Used with permission.

​© COPYRIGHT 2022 Gene Kelly Fans. All rights reserved.
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    • 5 Reasons You Should Watch...
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    • Contributors
    • Fellow Fans
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