Charles Walters

He was born on November 17, 1911, in Brooklyn, New York, in the United States.

He attended the ‘University of Southern California’ in Los Angeles.

He worked for around 8 years in Broadway, mostly as a dancer prior to his stint in Hollywood. He got to choreograph his first show in 1938. The Broadway musicals that he choreographed included ‘Sing Out the News’ during 1938–39 and ‘Let’s Face It!’ during1941–43.

He was introduced to ‘MGM’ by American film director-producer and screenwriter Robert Altman following which he started to stage routines for screen productions.

Starting with a number of the 1943 musical ‘Du Barry Was A Lady’ where Walters had the opportunity to work with American dancer, actor, singer, film director-producer as also choreographer Gene Kelly, he went on to work with several yesteryear divas including Judy Garland, Lucille Ball and June Allyson among others, staging musical numbers.

Eventually he became a close friend of Garland and worked with her in several of her films.

He gradually became one of the leading dance directors of ‘MGM’ and worked on some of its best musical films. These included the 1943 film ‘Best Foot Forward, an adaptation of the 1941 Broadway musical comedy of the same title; the 1943 version of ‘Girl Crazy’ where he partnered on-screen with Judy Garland; the 1944 film ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’; 1944 Technicolor musical film, ‘Broadway Rhythm’ where he choreographed ‘Brazilian Boogie’, and the 1948 film ‘Summer Holiday’, which was based on Eugene O'Neill’s 1933 play ‘Ah, Wilderness!’.

Brent Phillips’ book titled ‘Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance’, portrays him a gay.