Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse (June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American musical theater choreographer and director, and a film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction, and received the Academy Award for Best Director in 1972 for Cabaret.
Fosse was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Norwegian father and Irish mother, the youngest of six children. He teamed up with Charles Grass, another young dancer, and began a collaboration under the name, The Riff Brothers. They toured theatres throughout the Chicago area.
Eventually Fosse was hired for the show Tough Situation, which toured military and naval bases in the Pacific. He later said that he had perfected his technique as a performer, choreographer, and director while serving his tour of duty.
Fosse moved to Hollywood with the ambition of being the next Fred Astaire. His early screen appearances included Give A Girl A Break, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis and Kiss Me, Kate, all released in 1953. It was a short sequence that he choreographed in the last that brought him to the attention of Broadway producers.
Although Fosse's career in film was cut short by premature balding, which limited the roles he could take, he was reluctant to move from Hollywood to theatre. In 1954, he choreographed his first musical, The Pajama Game, followed by Damn Yankees in 1955. It was while he was working on the latter show that he first met Gwen Verdon.
Fosse developed a jazz dance style that was immediately recognizable, exuding a stylized, cynical sexuality. Other notable distinctions of his style included the use of inward knees, rounded shoulders and body isolations.
With Fred Astaire as an influence, he used props such as bowler hats, canes and chairs. His trademark use of hats was influenced by his own self-consciousness. He used gloves in his performances because he did not like his hands. His dance routines were intense and specific, yet had a simplicity to them.
Some of his most popular numbers include "Steam Heat" from The Pajama Game and "Big Spender" from Sweet Charity. The "Rich Man's Frug" scene in "Sweet Charity" is another example of his signature style. The filmed routines in Cabaret (1972) are particularly characteristic of Fosse, the vulgar energy of vaudeville and burlesque updated and coolly contained within a slick, conscious sophistication.
In 1986 he directed and choreographed the Broadway production, Big Deal, which he also wrote.
Fosse directed five feature films. His first, Sweet Charity in 1969, was an adaptation of his Broadway musical. His second film, Cabaret, won 8 Academy Awards, including Best Director. Fosse next directed Lenny in 1974, a biopic of the self-destructive comic Lenny Bruce. Lenny was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. In 1979, Fosse co-wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical All That Jazz, which won four Academy Awards. All That Jazz also earned Fosse his third Oscar nomination for Best Director, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture. In addition, All That Jazz won the Grand Prize at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. Fosse's final film, 1983's Star 80, was a controversial biopic of slain Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten. It evoked mixed critical reaction, although Richard Schickel of Time and Rex Reed gave it rave reviews, and it has acquired a strong cult following.
Fosse performed a memorable song and dance number in Stanley Donen's 1974 film version of The Little Prince. In 1977, Fosse had a small role in the romantic comedy Thieves.
Fosse was in Washington D.C. On September 23, 1987, for a revival of his musical Sweet Charity which was opening at the National Theater. He collapsed in his room at the Willard Hotel about 7 P.M. as the show was beginning nearby. He was taken to George Washington University where he died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
Bob Fosse was first married to fellow dancer Mary Ann Niles, then to dancer Joan McCracken from 1951 to 1959; he then married actress Gwen Verdon in 1960. They had one daughter, Nicole Providence Fosse, who is also a dancer. He separated from Gwen Verdon in the 1970s, but remained married to her until his death. In the interim, he was romantically involved with Ann Reinking and Jessica Lange.
Bob Fosse was an innovative choreographer and had multiple achievements in his life. For Damn Yankees, Fosse took a great deal of inspiration from the “father of theatrical jazz dance,” Jack Cole. He also took influence from Jerome Robbins. New Girl in Town also gave Fosse the inspiration to direct and choreograph his next piece because of the conflict of interest within the collaborators. During Redhead, Fosse utilized one of the first ballet sequences in a show that contained five different styles of dance; Fosse’s jazz, a cancan, a gypsy dance, a march, and an “old-fashioned English music hall number.” The Conquering Hero, was Fosse’s most challenging piece. During this show, it was made known that Fosse had epilepsy, because he had a seizure on the stage during a rehearsal.
His successes, however, continued to flourish after this, and he contributed even more innovative ideas to the world of Broadway choreography. He utilized the idea of subtext and gave his dancers something to think about during their numbers. He also began the trend of allowing lighting to influence his work and direct an audiences’ attention to certain things. During Pippin, Fosse made the first ever commercial for a Broadway show. And in 1957, both Verdon and Fosse were studying with Sanford Meisner to develop a better acting technique for themselves. Fosse believed that, “The time to sing is when your emotional level is too high to just speak anymore, and the time to dance is when your emotions are just too strong to only sing about how you feel.”
Fosse earned many awards for his works, including the Tony Award for Pippin and Sweet Charity, the Academy Award for Cabaret and the Emmy Award for Liza with a "Z". He was the first person to win all three awards in the same year (1973).
His semi-autobiographical film, All That Jazz (1979), won the Palme d'Or. It portrays a chain-smoking choreographer driven by his Type A personality.
In 1999, the revue Fosse won a Tony Award for best musical, and in 2001 the show earned Fosse (together with Ann Reinking) a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer.
Bob Fosse Way in Chicago.
Bill Henry's 1990 documentary of Fosse's work (Dance In America: Bob Fosse Steam Heat), produced for an episode of the PBS programme Dance in America: Great Performances, won an Emmy that year.
There was a resurgence of interest in Fosse's work following revivals of his stage shows and the film release of Chicago (2002). Rob Marshall's choreography for the film emulates the Fosse style but avoids using specific moves from the original.
April 27, 2007 Bob Fosse was inducted into the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The Los Angeles Dance Awards, founded in 1994, were called the "Fosse Awards", and are now called the American Choreography Awards.
A length of Paulina street in Chicago at roughly 4400 north received the honorary designation of Bob Fosse Way.
Fosse often choreographed routines with hats because, in his numbers, he tried to cover up things he did not like about himself; i.e., he started going bald at a young age. Also, he would never ask a dancer to do something he himself could not.
