Fred Astaire - Biography - IMDb Fred Astaire Biography Showing all 82 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trade Mark (3) | Trivia (46) | Personal Quotes (26) Overview (4) 5' 9" (1.75 m) Mini Bio (1) Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Johanna (Geilus) and Fritz Austerlitz, a brewer. Fred entered show business at age 5. He was successful both in vaudeville and on Broadway in partnership with his sister, Adele Astaire . After Adele retired to marry in 1932, Astaire headed to Hollywood. Signed to RKO, he was loaned to MGM to appear in Dancing Lady (1933) before starting work on RKO's Flying Down to Rio (1933). In the latter film, he began his highly successful partnership with Ginger Rogers , with whom he danced in 9 RKO pictures. During these years, he was also active in recording and radio. On film, Astaire later appeared opposite a number of partners through various studios.

After a temporary retirement in 1945-7, during which he opened Fred Astaire Dance Studios, Astaire returned to film to star in more musicals through 1957. He subsequently performed a number of straight dramatic roles in film and TV. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Diana Hamilton <hamilton@gl.umbc.edu> Spouse (2) ( 12 July 1933 - 13 September 1954) (her death) (2 children) Trade Mark (3) Often wore top hat and tails His unique dancing Ending an active dance sequence by calmly strolling off Trivia (46) Ranked #73 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] Following his death, he was interred at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California, where longtime dancing partner, Ginger Rogers , is located. The evaluation of Astaire's first screen test: "Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little." Astaire disguised his very large hands by curling his middle two fingers while dancing.

First met lifelong best friend Irving Berlin on the set of Top Hat (1935). After Blue Skies (1946), New York's Paramount Theater generated a petition of 10,000 names to persuade him to come out of retirement. Born at 9:16pm-CST The only time he and Gene Kelly ever danced together on screen (other than the linking-segments in the 1976 compilation movie, That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)) was in one routine, titled "The Babbitt and the Bromide" in the 1946 movie Ziegfeld Follies (1945). Appears on the cover of The Beatles ' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. He was one of the first Kennedy Center Honorees in 1978. Don McLean 's song "Wonderful Baby" was written with Astaire in mind; Astaire reportedly loved the song, and recorded it for an album.

Made a cameo appearance in John Lennon and Yoko Ono 's film Imagine (1972), escorting Yoko through a doorway; after one successful take, he asked to try again, believing he could do a better job. In 2000, the following album was released as a tribute to him: "Let Yourself Go: Celebrating Fred Astaire". All songs were performed by Stacey Kent . He was voted the 19th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. His legs were insured for one million dollars. Famously wore a necktie around his waist instead of a belt, an affectation he picked up from his friendship with actor Douglas Fairbanks but often mistakenly attributed to Astaire alone. He was voted the 23rd Greatest Movie Star of All Time by Premiere magazine. Named the #5 Greatest Actor on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends by the American Film Institute. Born only 18 months after his sister Adele Astaire .

Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna 's song "Vogue" He and Ginger Rogers appeared in 10 movies together: Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) and The Barkleys of Broadway (1949). Although he spent most of his childhood touring on the vaudeville circuit, he would occasionally settle down with his family and their neighbors and friends, who were almost all families of Austrian immigrants. Aside from starring in the film Funny Face (1957), he also starred in the original 1927 Broadway version of the George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin musical "Funny Face". Although he was the male lead in the show, he did not play the same character he does in the film, and the storyline of the original stage musical was entirely different from the one in the film.

Both play and film used many of the same songs. The studio may have felt that the original plot of "Funny Face" could not be properly adapted into a movie as it was an "ensemble" musical with people dropping out and parts changing all the time. Apparently the studio bought the rights to the title just so they could use the song. The plot of this movie is actually that of the unsuccessful Broadway musical "Wedding Bells" by Leonard Gershe . His character in the film is based on photographer Richard Avedon , who in fact, set up most of the photography shown in the film. The soggy Paris weather played havoc with the shooting of the wedding dress dance scene. Both Astaire and Audrey Hepburn were continually slipping in the muddy and slippery grass. While all music and songs were known to be dubbed (recorded before filming), his tap dancing was dubbed also. He "over-dubbed" his taps - recording them live as he danced to the previously recorded taps. Wore his trademark top hat and tails in his very first movie appearance, Dancing Lady (1933). Good friends with actress Carol Lynley . Fred's father was born in Austria.

Fred's paternal grandparents, Salomon Stefan Austerlitz and Lucie Hellerová, were Czech Jews who had converted to Catholicism. Fred's mother was born in Nebraska, to David Geilus and Wilhelmine Klaatke, Lutheran immigrants from Germany. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 36-38. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2002 (inaugural class). For Daddy Long Legs (1955), Leslie Caron told Fred that she wanted to create her own costumes for the film. Fred Astaire told her: "Okay, but no feathers, please", recalling the troubles he had with one of Ginger Rogers ' elaborate ostrich feathered gowns in a dance from Top Hat (1935). A feather broke loose from Ginger Rogers' dress and stubbornly floated in mid air around Astaire's face.

The episode was recreated to hilarious effect in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer portrayed by Judy Garland . Tony Martin , the husband of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star/dancer Cyd Charisse , said he could tell who she had been dancing with that day on the set. If she came home covered with bruises on her, it was the very physically-demanding Gene Kelly , if not it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire . Owned Blue Valley Ranch, a Thoroughbred horse breeding farm in the San Fernando Valley. He maintained a racing stable of four or five horses which competed at racetracks in California. His most famous racehorse was Triplicate, winner of the 1946 Hollywood Gold Cup. Profiled in "American Classic Screen Interviews" (Scarecrow Press) (2010). When Ginger Rogers received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1992, Robyn Smith , widow of Fred Astaire , withheld all rights to clips of Rogers' scenes with Astaire, demanding payment. The Kennedy Center refused and Rogers received her honor without the retrospective show.

Founder of Ava Records, named for his daughter, Ava Astaire-McKenzie . Joining ASCAP in 1942, he collaborated with Johnny Mercer and Gladys Shelly . His popular song compositions include "I'm Building Up to an Awful Let-Down", "Blue Without You", "If Swing Goes, I Go Too", "Just Like Taking Candy from a Baby", "Just One More Dance, Madame", "I'll Never Let You Go", "Oh, My Achin' Back" and "Sweet Sorrow". He was the very first name entered on IMDB (nm0000001). Politically, Astaire was a conservative and a lifelong Republican Party supporter, though he never made his political views publicly known. Along with Bing Crosby , George Murphy , Ginger Rogers and others, he was a charter (founding) member of the Hollywood Republican Committee. Universal Pictures offered Astaire the chance to direct the musical comedy Up in Central Park (1948), but he declined. William A. Seiter directed instead. He was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.

[December 2013] He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6756 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960. Became a father for the first time at age 36 when his first wife Phyllis Potter gave birth to their son Fred Astaire Jr. on January 21, 1936. Became a father for the second time at age 42 when his first wife Phyllis Potter gave birth to their daughter Ava Astaire-McKenzie on March 28, 1942. Died 18 years to the day after his Easter Parade (1948) co-star, Judy Garland . Garland on June 22, 1969 and Astaire on June 22, 1987. First wife Phyllis Potter (née Phyllis Livingston Baker) passed away from lung cancer at age 46 while Astaire was filming Daddy Long Legs (1955).

He was stepfather to Eliphalet IV (known as Peter), the son of his first wife, Phyllis, and her first husband, Eliphalet Nott Potter III. Personal Quotes (26) I have never had anything that I can remember in the business - and that includes all the movies and the stage shows and everything - that I didn't enjoy. I didn't like some of the small-time vaudeville, because we weren't going on and getting better. Aside from that, I didn't dislike anything. [on modern movies] They tend to overdo the vulgarity. I'm not embarrassed by the language itself, but it's embarrassing to be listening to it, sitting next to perfect strangers. Of course, [ Ginger Rogers ] was able to accomplish sex through dance. We told more through our movements instead of the big clinch. We did it all in the dance. I had some ballet training but didn't like it. It was like a game to me. People think I was born in top hat and tails. The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any. It's nice that all the composers have said that nobody interprets a lyric like Fred Astaire.

But when it comes to selling records I was never worth anything particularly except as a collector's item. [on his screen partnership with Ginger Rogers ] Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually, she made things very fine for the both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success. I suppose I made it look easy, but gee whiz, did I work and worry. Dancing is a sweat job. [to Jack Lemmon ] You're at a level where you can only afford one mistake. The higher up you go, the more mistakes you're allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style. I don't want to be the oldest performer in captivity... I don't want to look like a little old man dancing out there. I have no desire to prove anything by it [dancing]. I never used it as an outlet or as a means of expressing myself. I just dance. [on John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (1977)] He's not a dancer. What he did in those dance scenes was very attractive but he is basically not a dancer. I was dancing like that years ago, you know.

Disco is just jitterbug. [on Ginger Rogers ] She may have faked a little, but we knew we had a good thing going. [on tap dancer Eleanor Powell ] Eleanor was an out-and-out dancer. She danced like a man. She slammed the floor and did it great and that's fine and suddenly she's on her toes in the ballet sequence -- it did look kinda funny. [on Rita Hayworth ] A great dancer but a different style to me. [on Judy Garland ] She was just simply wonderful. She danced beautifully, learned beautifully. She was very adept at whatever she did. Really in fine form. We were all set to do another picture together, but she got sick and that was the end of that. [on actress/dancer Leslie Caron ] A ballet dancer really, but technically good. I called her the sergeant major. [on Gene Kelly ] You know, that Kelly, he's just terrific. That's all there is to it. He dances like crazy, he directs like crazy. I adore this guy. I really am crazy about his work. (on dancing partner Cyd Charisse ) When you dance with her, you stay danced.

[on joining the cast of The Towering Inferno (1974)] It's a fun picture to make - all fire and water. I'm just a hoofer with a spare set of tails. All the girls I ever danced with thought they couldn't do it. So they always cried. All except Ginger. No, no, Ginger never cried. Excuse me, I must say Ginger was certainly the one. You know, the most effective partner I had. Everyone knows. That was a whole other thing that we did...I just want to pay a tribute to Ginger because we did so many pictures together and believe me it was a value to have that girl...she had it. She was just great! Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually she made everything work very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success. See also Fred Astaire - Dancer - Biography.com Fred Astaire Fred Astaire was an American dancer of stage and film who is best known for a number of successful musical comedy films in which he starred with Ginger Rogers.

IN THESE GROUPS “Dancing is a sweat job.” Fred Astaire Fred Astaire - Mini Biography (TV-PG; 3:55) Born on May 10, 1899, in Omaha, Nebraska, Fred Astaire is regarded by many as the greatest popular music dancer of all time. Astaire is usually remembered for his pairings with Ginger Rogers. Synopsis Born on May 10, 1899, in Omaha, Nebraska, Fred Astaire is regarded by many as the greatest popular music dancer of all time. Astaire is usually remembered for his pairings with Ginger Rogers, who starred in several films with him, including Swing Time (1936). Early Years Light on his feet, Fred Astaire revolutionized the movie musical with his elegant and seemingly effortless dance style. He may have made dancing look easy, but he was a well-known perfectionist, and his work was the product of endless hours of practice. Astaire started performing as a child, partnering up with his older sister Adele. The two toured the vaudeville circuit before making it to Broadway in 1917.

Among their many productions the brother-sister team starred in the 1927 George and Ira Gershwin musical Funny Face. For all his early success, though, career in the movies eluded Astaire. He had done a screen test, but he failed to attract any interest. A studio executive wrote at the time, "Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little." In 1932, Astaire suffered a career setback. His sister Adele retired from the act to marry a British aristocrat. He floundered a bit professionally without his usual partner, but then decided to go to Hollywood to try once more to break into film. Film Career Finally, Astaire landed a small role in 1933's Dancing Lady with Joan Crawford. The role opened the door to new opportunities, and Astaire signed a contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was matched up with another Broadway talent, Ginger Rogers, for Flying Down to Rio, also in 1933. Cast as supporting players, their dance number stole the movie.

Astaire and Rogers appeared in several more films together, including The Gay Divorcee (1934) and Top Hat (1935). The duo became film's most beloved dance team. Their routines featured a hybrid of styles—borrowing elements from tap, ballroom and even ballet. Katharine Hepburn once described what each of them brought their successful partnership: "Fred gave Ginger class, and Ginger gave Fred sex." Off-screen, Astaire was known for his relentless pursuit of perfection. He thought nothing of rehearsing a scene for days, and Rogers eventually tired of the grueling schedule. The pair went their separate ways after 1939's The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle. Years later, they reunited once more for 1949's The Barkleys of Broadway. After the split with Rogers in 1939, Astaire performed with such leading ladies as Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse, Judy Garland, Leslie Caron and Audrey Hepburn. Some of his most famous musicals from his later career include Easter Parade with Garland and Funny Face with Hepburn. Later Years As his movie roles tapered off, Astaire worked more in television. He often appeared as himself for special tribute shows.

Astaire had a growing interest in dramatic parts, working on such series as Dr. Kildare. He also worked with another legendary dancer, Gene Kelly, on the documentary That's Entertainment, which explored the golden era of the movie musical. Around this time, Astaire received his only Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno. He also won an Emmy Award for his work on the television special A Family Upside Down in 1978. More accolades soon followed. Astaire received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 1981. A few years later, Astaire was hospitalized for pneumonia. He died on June 22, 1987, in Los Angeles, California. With his passing, Hollywood had lost one of its greatest talents. Former actor and president Ronald Reagan, upon learning the news, called Astaire "an American legend" and "the ultimate dancer." Ginger Rogers said Astaire "was the best partner anyone could ever have." Personal Life Off-screen, Astaire was more casual than his upper-crust characters. He was devoted to his family.

Astaire and his first wife, socialite Phyllis Baker Potter, married in 1933 and had two children together, Fred Jr. and Ava. He also helped raise her son from an earlier union. Fred and Phyllis remained a couple until her death in 1954. Astaire shocked friends and family when he remarried in 1980. His second wife was Robyn Smith, a famous jockey. Despite a more than 40-year age difference, the pair's mutual interest in horses and racing turned into romance. After his death in 1987, his widow has been a fierce protector of his name and image. She has filed numerous lawsuits to prevent any unauthorized uses of his likeness or name. In 1997, however, she granted permission for film clips of Fred Astaire to be changed and used for a series of vacuum cleaner commercials. Videos Ginger Rogers - Theater Actress, Dancer, Film Actress, Television Actress, Classic Pin-Ups - Biography.com Famous People Who Died in Rancho Mirage quotes “I'd do three or four pictures between those I made with Fred. We weren't Siamese twins.

I always wanted to stretch out and do some things as me, alone, by myself. I did, and among the things was 'Kitty Foyle.' ” Ginger Rogers Synopsis Born on July 16, 1911, in Independence, Missouri, Ginger Rogers got her start on the vaudeville circuit before working on Broadway. She soon hit the big screen and would go on to make more than 70 movies. She was beloved for her dancing routines with fellow screen legend Fred Astaire in films like Top Hat, Swing Time and The Gay Divorcee, and she won an Oscar for the drama Kitty Foyle. Early Life Actress, singer and dancer Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath on July 16, 1911, in Independence, Missouri, to Lela Owens and William McMath. The couple divorced soon after their daughter’s birth. Virginia eventually received her nickname, "Ginger," from a cousin who was unable to pronounce her full name; the surname "Rogers" came from her stepfather, John Rogers.

Ginger Rogers performed stage work as a child in Fort Worth, Texas, where her family had relocated, and won a major Charleston contest in which she was awarded her own vaudeville tour. Lela became her manager, and Rogers would later largely credit her mother for her showbiz success. After a short-lived marriage to dancer Jack Culpepper, Rogers eventually made her way to New York City as a solo performer. There she was hired for the Broadway production Top Speed. Stage and Film Career Rogers' initial stage work led to a role in the Paramount film Young Man of Manhattan (1930), and she acted and sang the same year on Broadway in Girl Crazy, co-starring Ethel Merman. Rogers began to do both stage and film work simultaneously, working on Paramount's movie stages in Queens during the day and performing live at night.

She then moved back to Hollywood and starred in several films before landing the memorable part of Anytime Annie in classic movie-musical 42nd Street (1933) and a prominent role in Gold Diggers of 1933 with the tune "We're in the Money." At 22, she was cast in the hit 1933 film Flying Down to Rio with Fred Astaire. Though the two were supporting characters, their dancing chemistry was magnificent and showcased intricate footwork with expert craft. They co-starred over the next few years in eight more films, dancing in notable numbers to songs like "Night and Day" from The Gay Divorcee (1934), "Cheek to Cheek" from Top Hat (1935) and "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from Follow the Fleet (1936). Though Rogers and Astaire were a winning film combo, with Rogers often embodying the shimmering glamour of the age, the two weren't close off-screen. Rogers took on many additional film roles outside of her dancing partnership, including a turn in Stage Door (1937) opposite Katharine Hepburn.

Rogers was determined to tackle serious fare, and in 1941 won a lead actress Academy Award for her dramatic title role in the film Kitty Foyle. Afterwards she starred in several films—also becoming the highest-paid woman in America—before reuniting with Astaire for the 1949 hit The Barkleys of Broadway. After a variety of film work in the '50s, including Monkey Business (1952) with Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe, Rogers' last film was the 1965 biopic Harlow, in which she played the mother of 1930s actress Jean Harlow. Later Life and Legacy In 1965, Rogers succeeded Carol Channing as the star of Hello, Dolly! on Broadway and played the role for two years, garnering further acclaim. Rogers also went on to star in Mame in London, and during the 1970s made TV appearances and successfully hit the nightclub circuit. Years later, in 1991, she published her autobiography, Ginger: My Story. She died at age 83 in 1995 at her home in Rancho Mirage, California.

Rogers was a devout Christian Scientist and was married five times. She preferred a more quiet life as opposed to partying and was said to be conservative in her politics, though it's also been argued she was generally following the ideologies of her mother. Yet it is Rogers' presence on-screen that has most defined her legacy. She appeared in more than 70 films, and has been celebrated by generations of filmgoers as an icon of dance. Related Videos Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information From the Archives: Fred Astaire, Movies' Greatest Dancer, Dies - LA Times From the Archives: Fred Astaire, Movies' Greatest Dancer, Dies ca.0414.stockings4 Janis Paige and Fred Astaire in "Silk Stockings" (1957). Janis Paige and Fred Astaire in "Silk Stockings" (1957). (Warner Bros.) Jack JonesTimes Staff Writer Fred Astaire, whose style, elegance and graceful approach to movement made him the most acclaimed dancer in motion picture history, died early Monday at Century City Hospital.

His wife, the former Robyn Smith, told a news conference at the hospital that her 88-year-old husband had been admitted on June 12 with a case of pneumonia. The following day, she said, he was transferred to the hospital's intensive care unit. Astaire died at 4:25 a.m. "in my arms," a tearful Mrs. Astaire, 42, said. "He knew I was with him and he was happy." His humor and finesse coupled with his lilting, half-spoken singing delighted two generations of film-goers while millions more had fallen under his spell through the television specials that became an apex to his long and productive career. Poor Assessment All from a hoofer supposedly once dismissed as "Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little." Whether that is pure legend or whether some long-forgotten studio functionary actually said that about Fred Astaire after seeing the 1928 screen test that Astaire made with his sister, Adele, the unarguable fact was that she was then considered the bigger talent.

Obituaries: Dancers Open link But she left the act in 1932 to marry a British aristocrat and her brother went on to make all those pictures with Ginger Rogers, to dance with a succession of other partners and to continue as an actor long after he no longer was capable of those staccato taps and eloquent slides. None other than Russian ballet star Rudolf Nureyev called him "the greatest American dancer" and declared that Astaire's "contribution was enormous." Over the years Mikhail Baryshnikov praised his "perfection" while choreographer George Balanchine called him "the greatest dancer in the world." WK.Moviebright16 Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire in "The Band Wagon" (1953). Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire in "The Band Wagon" (1953). (MGM) Thus he had long ago come into his own time and few were left that remembered he gained his initial fame with Adele on the musical comedy stages of New York and London at about the time of World War I.

The seemingly casual style he exhibited with Rogers and with such subsequent film and TV partners as Cyd Charisse, Leslie Caron and Barrie Chase may have begun as a form of deference to his sister—18 months older and accepted as the more gifted—when they performed in vaudeville as children. That style became his special charm and he honed it with months of planning for every dance sequence and with such relentless rehearsal that some of his partners were, according to one magazine writer, driven to tears. Before she died at 83 in 1981, Adele said on one of the two public television documentaries produced about her brother that he was a "perfectionist" who worked much harder at his art than she did. "I noticed," she added, "he did better after I left him." His flawless routines looked easy only because of that intense preparation. Depression-weary audiences were captivated by his apparently effortless and sophisticated manner when he and Ginger Rogers first appeared together in "Flying Down to Rio." Astaire was best known for the 10 films he made with Rogers.

All but the last ("The Barkleys of Broadway") were made for RKO and helped save that troubled studio by earning a reported $30 million. Liked Race Horses Astaire was also known as a lover of race horses, which he raised (including the famed Triplicate, winner of $250,000), for being a dapper dresser and something of a frustrated songwriter and for his affinity for aristocratic society. In his 1959 autobiography, "Steps in Time," Astaire claimed to be "bad-tempered,, impatient, hard to please, critical" and, "At the risk of disillusionment, I must admit that I don't like top hats, white ties and tails." He wrote, "The best-dressed, debonair Astaire! What a myth! My hats are too small, my coats are too short, my walk is loose. I am full of faults. I have a sense of humor, but it won't always work for me. I am always blowing my top over the wrong things." "I tell you, I am a very annoying guy," he added. There were those of the film press who agreed with him.

Uncomfortable in interviews, he avoided them when he could. "I tried hard to please them," he said of Hollywood reporters, "but they asked the damnedest questions." One of the questions he tired of hearing: "Why have you never married one of your dancing partners?" In 1933, after Adele left the act to marry Lord Charles Cavendish of England, Astaire wed socialite Phyllis Potter. That gave him a stepson, Peter, by her previous marriage. The couple had two children of their own, Fred Jr. and Ava (pronounced "Ah-vah"). Astaire's wife died in 1954, reportedly leaving him shattered. After her death, he shared his Beverly Hills home with his mother, who had taken him and Adele to New York as children to launch their careers. His mother lived with him until she died in 1975. In 1980, at the age of 81, Astaire married Robyn Smith, 35, a jockey and longtime friend from the racing world, in a private ceremony at his home. Adele, then living in Arizona, did not attend. Neither did Ava, who was living in Ireland.

Both, it was said, opposed Astaire's second marriage. Astaire was born in Omaha on May 10, 1899, the son of an Austrian immigrant, Frederick Austerlitz, who went into the beer business. As a very young child, Fred saw older sister Adele taking dancing lessons with other little girls and, he related in his book: "I should have been inspired by this, but the truth is I cannot remember that I had any reaction at all. Dancing was merely something my sister did, something that all little girls did. I let it go at that and the hell with it." Nevertheless, when he was 4 1/2 years old, his mother took Fred and Adele to New York—while their father remained in Omaha—and enrolled both in dancing school. At a recital when he was only 5, he was dressed in top hat and tails to do a bride-and-groom dance with Adele atop a mock wedding cake. "There it was," he was to recall.

"The evil idea was planted way back there." They turned professional with their wedding cake number in Keyport, N.J., where they were paid $50, then performed in the vaudeville houses of Perth Amboy, Passaic and Shamokin around the New Jersey-Pennsylvania area. Through their father, who had a friend with the Orpheum vaudeville circuit, they managed to get signed for 20 weeks at $150 a week and started appearing in bigger cities—Denver, Seattle, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis. "We could now be classed as more or less seasoned vaudevillians," Astaire wrote later in his autobiography, "even though we were barely 9 and 7 years old." One theater manager reported to circuit headquarters, "The girl seems to have talent, but the boy can do nothing." They went through bad years. Adele outgrew Fred and they were no longer cute kids. Bookings dropped off. There were cancellations. Once, they were replaced by a dog act. "We played every rat trap and chicken coop in the Middle West," Astaire recalled.

But during those struggling years, they met Aurelia Coccia, who, with his wife, had a big-time dancing act. He taught the Astaire kids a tango, a waltz and other rhythms and instilled some showmanship in them. They began to catch on and they were booked into the Palace in Chicago, where they stopped the show. During their 1915-16 tour, however, a Boston Record reviewer wrote: "Fred and Adele Astaire, brother and sister, gave a fine exhibition of whirlwind dancing, although it could be wished that the young man give up some of the blase air which he carries constantly with him. He is too young for it and it deceives no one." That turned out to be their final vaudeville tour. They were offered a contract for a Shubert musical, "Over the Top," and went to Broadway. It was a mediocre show, but the Astaires were well-received and the New York run was followed by a fairly long road tour.

After that, they did "The Passing Show of 1918." Astaire's draft classification card arrived, but World War I ended before he had to report for military duty, so his career went on without interruption. He and Adele appeared in "Apple Blossoms" in 1919 and "The Love Letter," an operetta that flopped. "For Goodness Sake," however, was a hit and was taken to London (under the title "Stop Flirting") where Astaire and his sister became great favorites of the Prince of Wales and members of the British royal families. The Astaires took other shows from Broadway to London, including "Lady Be Good!" (with music by George Gershwin) and "Funny Face." Sister Retires But after "The Band Wagon" finished its New York run and went on the road in 1932, Adele decided she had had enough of show business. She retired to marry Cavendish, who died in 1971. After Adele left, Astaire appeared on Broadway in "The Gay Divorce" (which became "The Gay Divorcee" in its later film version) with Claire Luce (not the former ambassador).

The show got bad reviews and brought observations that Astaire needed his sister as a partner. "I decided to make a stab at Hollywood and the movies," Astaire wrote. "Having had so many years on the stage, I was looking for a change and a chance to prove something brand-new for myself professionally. Frankly, I didn't think I had too much of a chance, but I would try." Signed by RKO, he was lent to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to do a number with Joan Crawford in the 1933 film "Dancing Lady." Then RKO teamed him with Ginger Rogers to dance in the Dolores Del Rio-Gene Raymond film, "Flying Down to Rio." Rogers already had been in Hollywood for a couple of years and had made several films. Perhaps her most memorable role to date had been a bit in "Young Man of Manhattan," in which she sat on a table with her legs crossed and said, "Cigarette me, big boy." Their teaming in "Flying Down to Rio," the picture they stole from its stars, Del Rio and Raymond, was the beginning of a major chapter of Hollywood history.

Helen Lawrence observed in a 1976 Esquire magazine profile of Astaire that he and Rogers "danced the Carioca forehead to forehead like two battling stags" in the movie. That was not the way it struck millions of American film-goers. They saw in the couple's dancing a new, fresh kind of romantic expression. "No dancers ever reached a wider public," wrote dance critic Arlene Croce in "The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book" in 1972, "and the stunning fact is that Astaire and Rogers, whose love scenes were their dances, became the most popular team the movies have ever known." Their dancing, Croce said, was "a vehicle of serious emotion between a man and a woman.

It never happened in movies again." Dance director Hermes Pan, who helped Astaire work out many of his film numbers, said in one of the public television documentaries on Astaire in the late 1970s: "There has never been the same electricity that happened when Fred and Ginger danced together." Producer Pandro Berman, who oversaw their RKO films, noted that Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin and the other major American songwriters of the time "all wanted to write for Fred and Ginger." In "The Gay Divorcee," the pair danced "The Continental" and did what Croce called an "incomparable dance of seduction" to Cole Porter's "Night and Day." In Jerome Kern's "Roberta," they danced to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." In Berlin's "Top Hat," they danced "Cheek to Cheek." In Berlin's "Follow the Fleet," their big number was "Let's Face the Music and Dance." Their other films included "Swing Time" in 1936, "Shall We Dance" in 1937, "Carefree" in 1938 and--what they assumed at the time

 would be their last together—"The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle" in 1939.

It was 10 years later that MGM brought them together one more time for "The Barkleys of Broadway." Judy Garland was to have been Astaire's partner, but she became ill and Rogers stepped in. There were rumors that Astaire and Rogers fought on the set, but both denied it. In Ginger Rogers, Croce wrote, "Astaire met a kind of genial resistance. She brought out his toughness and also his true masculine gallantry. . . . " As early as 1935, when the Motion Picture Herald listed them just below Shirley Temple , Will Rogers and Clark Gable in the top 10 moneymakers, both Astaire and Rogers suspected the public would one day grow weary of them together. Even before they made "Carefree" and "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle," Rogers went off to do "Stage Door" with Katharine Hepburn. Astaire appeared with Joan Fontaine , a non-dancer, in "A Damsel in Distress." The latter film was such a disappointment at the box office that Astaire thought about retiring.

"Not that I was considered through or anything of the sort," he wrote in his autobiography, "but it so happens that when you go through a lull like that, the general feeling is you're going to lull yourself right through the cellar floor." When the Castle film received good reviews, Astaire said, "Well, that was it. We had accomplished what we hoped for—a high-level climax to the series." Rogers went on to straight dramatic parts, winning an Academy Award for "Kitty Foyle." Astaire began to make films with a succession of partners and in 1950 won a special Academy Award for his contributions to films. He teamed with Eleanor Powell in "Broadway Melody of 1940" and with Paulette Goddard in "Second Chorus." He and Bing Crosby made "Holiday Inn" in 1941. Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, his film dancing partners included Rita Hayworth ("You'll Never Get Rich" and "You Were Never Lovelier"), Joan Leslie, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland, Vera-Ellen, Betty Hutton, Leslie Caron ("Daddy Long Legs") and Cyd Charisse.

In the middle of all that, in 1945, after making "Blue Skies" with Crosby, Astaire abruptly retired. That lasted only two years, but it gave him time to get involved with setting up a successful chain of dance studios and with paying attention to his race horses. The studio business, he observed, was not easy because "not a lot of people showed up for lessons" at the outset. Finally he decided to get back into the movies because he needed the rest. He had not danced in nearly two years, but he got a call from MGM and replaced Gene Kelly in "Easter Parade" after Kelly broke an ankle. In that film he worked with Judy Garland. Then Ginger Rogers replaced Garland in "The Barkleys of Broadway." It was when he was about to start making "Daddy Long Legs" with Leslie Caron in September, 1954, that Astaire's wife, Phyllis, died. The studio offered to delay the film, but Astaire went ahead. "It was fortunate that I had work to do," he wrote later. He made "Funny Face" with Audrey Hepburn and then "Silk Stockings" with Cyd Charisse.

At that point, Astaire's career took a new turn. He was tired of making musicals. He tried a straight comedy role on a "General Electric Theater" television show and then another. He was signed by Stanley Kramer to play a straight role in "On the Beach," taken from the Nevil Shute best seller about worldwide nuclear disaster. "My professional outlook suddenly became interesting," he said in his autobiography, " . . . everything new." He even made some records. In 1958, Astaire produced and appeared in an extremely successful television special, "An Evening With Fred Astaire," in which he danced with Barrie Chase. He repeated the feat in 1959 and did another one in 1960. Chase was said by some critics to have been his best dancing partner since Adele. The 1959 special won nine Television Academy Emmy awards. "Astaire Time" in 1960 won another. Astaire, whose funeral will be private at his request, wrote that the success of his first TV special in 1958 "astounded" him.

He said he had never experienced such "a unanimous reaction of approval both from the audience and from the press." But he simply quit dancing, preferring to be a straight actor in such films as "The Towering Inferno." In 1976, Astaire said, "Dancing is in the past for me. I'm interested in straight acting now." Asked about his dancing, he said, "I don't know how it all started and I don't want to know. I have no desire to prove anything by it. I have never used it as an outlet or as a means of expressing myself. "I just dance."

Question: Which dancer had success on stage with his sister Adele before achieving fame in films with Ginger Rogers?
Answer: Fred Astaire