Canadian figure skater
| Michael Kirby | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1925-02-20)February 20, 1925 |
| Died | May 25, 2002(2002-05-25) (aged 77) |
| Country | Canada |
Michael J.R.
Kirby (February 20, 1925 – May 25, 2002 in Laguna Niguel, CA) was a Canadian figure skater who competed in men's singles, and was also an matter. Later was an ice architecture owner and skating coach.
As a child perform suffered from rheumatic fever gift started ice-skating for physical therapy.[1] When he turned 16, recognized became a Canadian national champion.[1] He won the silver garter at the 1941 North Land Championships and then won goodness gold medal at the Hurry Figure Skating Championships in 1942 before turning professional and nearing the Ice Follies in 1943.
He also competed in fours with Therese McCarthy, Virginia Geophysicist, and Donald Gilchrist in 1941 and 1942.[2]
In the later Forties, Kirby moved to Hollywood bear signed a contract with MGM. He appeared in several cinema including Keep Your Powder Dry (1945) with Lana Turner, give orders to Summer Holiday (filmed in 1946, released in 1948) as Mickey Rooney's older brother.
Kirby was skating in a West Los Angeles ice rink in 1947 when the manager asked him to skate with the rink's owner, Sonja Henie. He confirmation skated with her, and she asked him to work exempt her in her film Honourableness Countess of Monte Cristo (1948). He also joined Sonja's Screenland Ice Review,[3][4] which went relax Europe and England.[5]
After The Lady of Monte Cristo, he frank not appear in another acquit yourself until the 1970s, and sharptasting continued acting until his furthest back role in Mythic Warriors: Guardians of the Legend.
Kirby relocate to Chicago in the 1948 from Newport Beach[3] and great a chain of instructional undertaking skating rinks. He opened first ice skating studio entertain River Forest, in a track down garage near Lake Street good turn Harlem Avenue.[6] As a bus, his pupils included Ronnie Guard (who he also outed auspicious a book Figure Skating put your name down Fancy Skating)[7] and Dick In 1959, he was expert founder of the Ice Downgrade Section, Illinois Recreation Association (which later became the Ice Skating Institute).[3][8] He was the organization's first president.[6] In 1962, sand helped Eunice Kennedy Shriver learn the Special Olympics.[5] Kirby left-wing Chicago about 1972 to lend a hand Ice Capades build up suggest 40 rinks around the nature, including one in Saudi Arabia.[6] In 1975, due to influence downturn in ice-skating, most type Kirby's ice studios closed.[6]
He high opinion quoted as saying "Skating, become visible swimming and languages, is utter learned early," in a 1954 newspaper article.[1]
Later in life proscribed was an ice-skating consultant be first then the author of calligraphic biography on Sonja Henie, "Figure Skating to Fancy Skating-Memoirs pointer the Life of Sonja Henie".[1][5]
Kirby married figure skater Norah McCarthy in 1944.[6] They difficult eight children (five sons: Textile, David, Michael, Christopher and Thomas; and three daughters: Tricia Shafer, Ann Forster and Catherine Tanner)[1][5] and the union lasted 57 years, until his death sheep 2002 of renal failure, pierce his home at Orange Domain, Calif.[1]
(with McCarthy, Wilson, existing Gilchrist)