Person
Sammy Lee
New York, USA
Sammy Lee will best be remembered for his great contributions as Dance Director of many important musicals during Hollywood's golden age. He first achieved fame in New York as dan…
IMDbKnown for
Popular titles
Biography
A closer look
Read full biography
Sammy Lee will best be remembered for his great contributions as Dance Director of many important musicals during Hollywood's golden age. He first achieved fame in New York as dance director of the highly successful Ziegfeld Follies of 1927. After contributing dance routines for Ziegfeld's famous productions "Showboat", "Rio Rita", and the last of the "Midnight Frolics", he signed with MGM studios early in 1929. His imaginative dance routines included overhead shots a year before Buzby Berkeley's work in "Whoopee". He brought the prestige of the Ziegfeld image to MGM's early musical talkies. Sammy Lee was nominated twice for an academy award for best dance direction, in 1935 for "King Of Burlesque", and 1937 for "Ali Baba Goes To Town", both at 20th Century Fox. He would return to MGM after a stint at RKO (1937) and directed shorts and choreographed war time musicals. Smaller studios benefited from his talents in 1944 and 1945. During this time he choreographed Columbia's "Carolina Blues" and Republic's "Earl Carroll's Vanities" before he retired with Paramount's 1945 release, "Out Of This World". Sammy Lee's productive career spanned an impressive sixteen years in Hollywood, and gave us many of cinema's most entertaining moments!
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
-
1947
Beyond Our Own
Movie Director
-
1946
Abilene Town
Movie Choreographer
-
1945
Stairway to Light
Movie Director
-
1944
The Immortal Blacksmith
Movie Director
-
1943
Forgotten Treasure
Movie Director
-
1943
Portrait of a Genius
Movie Director
-
1943
Who's Superstitious?
Movie Director
-
1942
The Film That Was Lost
Movie Director
-
1942
The Woman in the House
Movie Director
-
1941
Strange Testament
Movie Director
-
1941
Out of Darkness
Movie Director
-
1940
Rodeo Dough
Movie Director
-
1940
Soak the Old
Movie Director
-
1940
The Hidden Master
Movie Director
-
1939
Rhumba Rhythm at the Hollywood La Conga
Movie Director
-
1939
Somewhat Secret
Movie Director
More credits
-
1939
Honolulu
Movie Choreographer
-
1939
The Greener Hills
Movie Director
-
1938
Men of Steel
Movie Director
-
1937
Ali Baba Goes to Town
Movie Choreographer
-
1936
New Shoes
Movie Director
-
1936
King of Burlesque
Movie Choreographer
-
1934
Caravan
Movie Choreographer
-
1934
Caravane
Movie Choreographer
-
1933
It's Great to Be Alive
Movie Choreographer
-
1933
Life in the Raw
Movie Choreographer
-
1933
Cavalcade
Movie Stage Director
-
1933
Hot Pepper
Movie Choreographer
-
1930
Doughboys
Movie Choreographer
-
1930
Children of Pleasure
Movie Choreographer
-
1930
Free and Easy
Movie Choreographer
-
1930
They Learned About Women
Movie Choreographer
-
1929
Manhattan Serenade
Movie Director
-
1929
It's a Great Life
Movie Choreographer
-
1929
The Song Writers' Revue
Movie Director
-
1929
The Doll Shop
Movie Director
-
—
Some Time Soon
Movie Director
