He was one of the most famous and influential dancers and entertainers in history, but when Gene Kelly’s third wife Patricia Ward Kelly first met him, she had no idea who he was.
However, what started as a friendly working relationship turned into a whirlwind love story and surprise marriage, despite their 47-year age gap. Now Patricia has opened up to Starts at 60 on how she overcame other people’s judgement to enjoy a few blissful years with the legendary star, before his death in 1996.
The pair first met at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, US, in 1985, when he was the host for a television special about the museum and she was a writer on the project. Surprisingly, despite Gene being a well established star at the time thanks to his fame in everything from Singin’ In The Rain to An American In Paris, Patricia didn’t know who he was.
“I try to think of that now, it’s impossible to believe!” the now-60-year-old said. “I do hear a lot of people say, ‘I can’t believe so and so doesn’t even know who Gene Kelly is!’ And I kind of roll my eyes and go, ‘I didn’t!’ It wasn’t my world and I’m happy it was that way because in a funny way it couldn’t have worked out better. It breaks down some of the preconceptions, particularly of a younger woman with an older living legend.”
The pair hit it off from word go, despite the fact she was 26 and he was 73 at the time. Bonding over their mutual love of word play and poetry, they began spending time together before Gene eventually invited Patricia to California to write his memoir.
Asked when she realised she had feelings towards Gene, she said: “I had feelings for him before I knew he was famous because I was completely enchanted by him by about the third day that I worked with him. I was knocked out, he was just such a fascinating man. Just so bright and passionate and we really bonded over language and words.”
Patricia previously studied word origins and would often sit in a room with Gene discussing the topic, playing word games and quoting poetry back and forth. “I was sat there thinking, he’s drop dead gorgeous and he’s got this charm, that sparkle you see in his eyes – that was really there,” she recalled.
While their relationship remained private at first, it wasn’t long before the media caught wind that Gene – who had been married twice before – was in a new relationship with a younger woman. However, Patricia insisted that until then, she’d never even considered the fact they were such different ages.
“The irony was that I wasn’t even aware of it until everyone else made a big deal of it and it hit every tabloid front cover at the grocery store,” she insisted. “It was standard fare. People make assumptions and things.
“My parents certainly understood it and were very supportive which made it easier. My dad was a university professor and he was born in 1925. Gene was born in 1912 so I think that was always quite interesting to him that he had a son-in-law who was older than he was!
“But I never really coloured within the lines so it didn’t surprise them at all I don’t think. I think had they not supported it, that would have been very difficult. It wouldn’t have ended it, but it would have made it more difficult. It was really other people. You’ll hear a gasp in the audience at the age difference, but I just look at each person and say, ‘Are you telling me that you wouldn’t have ended up with him? You tell me that’.”
Before meeting Patricia and settling down, Gene had always insisted he would never marry again following the death of his second wife Jeanne Coyne. The couple had two children together, while Gene already had a daughter with his first wife Betsy Blair, who he divorced in 1957.
However, Patricia admitted it crept up on him and after five years, he eventually popped the question. She recalled: “I think by falling into this relationship through work… we set out to work together and then the other just came upon us both, it wasn’t until five years into being together when I’d lived with him the whole time that he finally got around to it.”
After making the decision, Patricia said he became “really cute” about the wedding – even having a new blazer made for the big day. “He put on this blazer and he was just having so much fun, and he said, ‘I should have done this a long time ago!’ And I was looking at him lie… yes! It was a funny time, he was like a little kid,” she laughed.
Of course, meeting when Gene was older meant Patricia sadly didn’t have as long as she’d wish with her husband. She can remember the struggle of watching Gene have to say goodbye to many of his friends while they were together, while she herself helped to care for them.
“It was a very important time in his life,” she said. “I think it was a very interesting experience for Gene to see in advance that’s what the care would be like, how he would be cared for, having seen me caring for his best friends.”
Gene sadly died in February 1996 following a series of strokes, shortly after the pair married. And Patricia, who had been writing down and recording almost every conversation they shared over their years together until then, admitted hearing the recordings now was both positive and negative – but ultimately allows her to keep his memory alive.
She has now launched a show, Gene Kelly The Legacy – set to tour Australia next February, in which she stands in front of a crowd and reads back, plays and recites some of their memories together – portraying a more personal side to the legendary star.
“The idea actually came from Gene. Toward the end of his life he used to do a kind of one-man show, and I travelled round the country with him with that. What amazed me was he would just walk out, sit down and the audience – it might be 3,000 people – every single person in there felt like he was just talking to them,” she said.
Gene Kelly The Legacy show hits Australia in February 2020. Visit the official Facebook page to find out more or buy tickets.