He was born Marcel LePlat in Pasadena. When he joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, its director, Leonid Massine, Russified his name to Marc Platoff. On Broadway and in Hollywood he was called Marc Platt.
He danced the “Dream Curly” in the original Broadway production of Oklahoma, was a lead in Hollywood musicals in the 1940s, and was the oldest dancing brother in the movie 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. He has died at the age of 100:
Platt, who celebrated his 100th birthday in December, died Saturday in a hospice facility in San Rafael, Calif. The cause was complications from pneumonia, said his daughter, Donna Platt.
He was born Marcel Emile Gaston LePlat in Pasadena on Dec. 2, 1913, the only child of a concert violinist and soprano singer. The family traveled a lot for performances and finally settled in Seattle. When his father died around the time of the move, his mother “got a job in Mary Ann Wells’ dancing school,” Platt said in a 1946 Hedda Hopper column that ran in the Los Angeles Times. “I wanted to help buy the bacon, so I got a job as an errand boy at the same school.”
But Wells saw his potential as a dancer, and after eight years of lessons, she arranged for him to audition for Ballet Russe when the company visited Seattle.
That was followed by Broadway and then by Hollywood. In later years he directed the ballet company at Radio City Music Hall, then ran a dancing school in Fort Myers, Florida. His last screen appearance was in a documentary in 2005. He just couldn’t get show business out of his blood.
He was an extraordinarily gifted performer.
