Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), was an American dancer, actor, singer, choreographer and presenter. He was the most famous stage, movie and television dancer of his time. He has gotten many honors. He won a Honorary Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was put into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1972, and the Television Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1999, the American Film Institute said Astaire was the fifth-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema in 100 Years... 100 Stars."1981 Fred Astaire Tribute" afi.com"AFI'S 100 Years...100 Stars"  afi.com. Retrieved October 11, 2017

Astaire's career was 76 years long. He starred in over 10 Broadway and West End musicals. He made 31 musical movies. He was also a dancer. He had very good rhythm and creativity.

Life
Astaire started dancing on the stage with his sister Adèle, as a child, in 1905. Their Broadway career lasted from 1917 to 1932. They became world-famous after WWI, and regularly performed on both sides of the Atlantic.

When she married he started a movie partnership with Ginger Rogers. After that, he danced with a succession of talented American dancers on movie and on television. He appeared in 32 movies. His movie partners included Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller, Vera-Ellen, Cyd Charisse: all high-class dancers, and on TV with Barrie Chase. Their An evening with Fred Astaire won nine Emmy Awards in 1958.

Many male dancers of the 20th century were influenced by him, and said so. He owed a lot to the choreography of Hermes Pan, but even more to his own perfectionism and relentless practice.

Astaire was also an excellent actor, and a successful, though personally modest, singer. He introduced some of the most celebrated songs from the Great American Songbook. He married Phyllis Potter in 1933; they had two children. After her death, he remarried in 1980 to Robyn Smith, a female jockey 45 years his junior.

References

Sources



The Astaire Family Papers, The Howard Gotleib Archival Research Center, Boston University, MA

Other websites



Astaire biography at AlsoDances.Net

Astaire's religious views incl. many extracts from his biographers
Astaire or Kelly: A Generation Apart at Indian Auteur
Ava Astaire discusses her father's legacy (BBC Television—RealPlayer required)
Radio Interview—Fred Astaire—1968
"Fred Astaire and the art of fun": an essay on the Oxford Fred Astaire conference from TLS, July 16, 2008.
Photographs and literature at Virtual History

Category:1899 births
Category:1987 deaths
Category:Academy Award Honorary Award winners
Category:Actors from Omaha, Nebraska
Category:American dancers
Category:American movie actors
Category:American stage actors
Category:American television actors
Category:BAFTA Award winning actors
Category:Deaths from pneumonia
Category:American Emmy Award winning actors
Category:Golden Globe Award winning actors
Category:Infectious disease deaths in Los Angeles
Category:Kennedy Center honorees
Category:Singers from Nebraska