--- name: "Vincente Minnelli" canonical: "https://film.one/person/vincente-minnelli" roles: ["Director"] born: "28 February 1903" died: "25 July 1986" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 76 average_as: "director" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T03:15:49.496918+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Vincente Minnelli Director. Born 28 February 1903 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Died 25 July 1986. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 28 February 1903, Chicago, Illinois, USA - **Died:** 25 July 1986 - **Active:** 1950–1958 - **Also known as:** Lester Anthony Minnelli, Винсенте Миннелли, Винсент Миннелли - **Frequently works with:** [Alan Jay Lerner](https://film.one/person/alan-jay-lerner.md), [Arthur Freed](https://film.one/person/arthur-freed.md), [Leslie Caron](https://film.one/person/leslie-caron.md) - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 1 nominated) - **Average Fi1m score:** 76, as director, over 2 titles - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincente_Minnelli, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q51535, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0591486/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13980 ## Fi1m on Vincente Minnelli > Minnelli designed theatre sets before he directed films. The colour and movement of his MGM musicals made his name, and underneath the decoration there is usually a family worrying about somebody leaving the house. In *Father of the Bride* (1950), Spencer Tracy's daughter tells him she is getting married, and he spends the next 92 minutes losing control of his house, his bank balance and, he suspects, her. There is almost no plot, only a run of ordeals: the other parents, the engagement party, the guest list, the caterer. John Alton, whose usual trade was crime pictures and shadow, lights the Banks house evenly and brightly, so that everything Stanley stands to lose is on show. It is a modest, likeable film, and it is Minnelli in small: a designer's eye put to work on a father's fear. He was a designer first. He built costumes and sets for Chicago theatres, moved to New York in 1931 and by 1935 was directing revues on Broadway and at Radio City Music Hall. Arthur Freed brought him to MGM in 1940, and after *Cabin in the Sky* (1943) came *Meet Me in St. Louis* (1944), the film that made him. He stayed at the studio for two decades, moving between musicals, comedies and dramas, and kept working freelance into the 1970s. The musicals are what people mean when they say his name. Judy Garland made four films with him and Gene Kelly three, and the long ballet in *An American in Paris* (1951) and the Fred Astaire numbers in *The Band Wagon* (1953) are the peak of what the Freed unit could do. *Gigi* (1958) is the fullest example of his taste in colour and decor, and his rooms and costumes borrow openly from art nouveau, the Impressionists and the Surrealists. He could also drop the songs altogether: *The Bad and the Beautiful* (1952) is a drama about the film business with performances as strong as anything in his musicals. The charge against him has always been that he was a decorator, a stylist whose crane shots and swirling fabric got in the way of the story. We do not think so, and *Father of the Bride* is why. We sat down expecting period jokes and got them, and what stayed with us afterwards was the sadness underneath, Tracy jealous, proud and bewildered in a bright, tidy house he no longer runs. Minnelli said it was always the story that interested him. On that evidence, we believe him. What the swirl covers is usually the same worry. *Meet Me in St. Louis* loves a family house and dreads the day one of the family leaves it; *Father of the Bride* is that dread dressed as comedy, smaller and plainer, with Tracy there to let it show through. If you have never watched him, start with *Father of the Bride*, then go back to St. Louis. Watch how long he lets a room stay still before the camera moves. ## Biography Vincente Minnelli (born Lester Anthony Minnelli) was an American film and stage director. Born in Chicago, Illinois, on 28 February 1903, he died in Beverly Hills, California, on 25 July 1986. He began his career as a costume and set designer in Chicago and New York before directing Broadway musicals and moving to Hollywood in 1940. Minnelli directed numerous MGM musicals, comedies and dramas. His credits include *Meet Me in St. Louis* (1944), *Father of the Bride* (1950), *An American in Paris* (1951), *The Bad and the Beautiful* (1952), *The Band Wagon* (1953) and *Gigi* (1958). *An American in Paris* and *Gigi* both won the Academy Award for Best Picture; Minnelli received the Oscar for Best Director for *Gigi* and was nominated for *An American in Paris*. He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 to 1951; their daughter is Liza Minnelli. *Sources: britannica.com, en.wikipedia.org, tvinsider.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *An American in Paris* (1951), Fi1m 76, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/an-american-in-paris.md) - *Father of the Bride* (1950), Fi1m 77, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/father-of-the-bride.md) ## Complete filmography (39) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *A Matter of Time* (1976), Director - *That's Entertainment, Part II* (1976), Thanks - *On a Clear Day You Can See Forever* (1970), Director - *The Sandpiper* (1965), Director - *Goodbye Charlie* (1964), Director - *The Courtship of Eddie's Father* (1963), Director - *Two Weeks in Another Town* (1962), Director - *The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse* (1962), Director - *Bells Are Ringing* (1960), Director - *Home from the Hill* (1960), Director - *Some Came Running* (1958), Director - *The Reluctant Debutante* (1958), Director - *Gigi* (1958), Director - *The Seventh Sin* (1957), Co-Director - *Designing Woman* (1957), Director - *Tea and Sympathy* (1956), Director - *Lust for Life* (1956), Director - *Kismet* (1955), Director - *The Cobweb* (1955), Director - *Brigadoon* (1954), Director - *The Long, Long Trailer* (1954), Director - *The Band Wagon* (1953), Director - *The Story of Three Loves* (1953), Director - *The Bad and the Beautiful* (1952), Director - *An American in Paris* (1951), Director — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/an-american-in-paris.md) - *Father's Little Dividend* (1951), Director - *Father of the Bride* (1950), Director — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/father-of-the-bride.md) - *Madame Bovary* (1949), Director - *The Pirate* (1948), Director - *Till the Clouds Roll By* (1946), Co-Director - *Undercurrent* (1946), Director - *Yolanda and the Thief* (1945), Director - *Ziegfeld Follies* (1945), Director - *The Clock* (1945), Director - *Meet Me in St. Louis* (1944), Director - *I Dood It* (1943), Director - *Cabin in the Sky* (1943), Director - *Panama Hattie* (1942), Story, Choreographer - *Artists & Models* (1937), Stage Director ## Gallery - ![Vincente Minnelli](https://film.one/media/person/1236524/gallery-583044a26a8a.jpg) Vincente Minnelli — Earl Ostroff, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Vincent_Minelli_-_1950s.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Vincente Minnelli](https://film.one/media/person/1236524/gallery-ad3efd4f8857.jpg) Vincente Minnelli — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 1 won, 1 nominated - 1959: Best Director (won), for *Gigi* - 1952: Best Director (nominated), for *An American in Paris* ### Golden Globes — 1 won - 1959: Best Director (won), for *Gigi* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/vincente-minnelli