Fred Astaire - Biography

Last Editor: corwin215				Fred Astaire Biography -   Name : Fred Astaire Profession : Actor/ Singer/Dancer Birth name : Frederic Austerlitz Jr. Height : 5' 9" (1.75 m) Personal quotes : "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 Spouse : Robyn Smith (27 June 1980 - 22 June 1987) (his death) Phyllis Livingston Potter (12 July 1933 - 13 September 1954) (her death) 2 children Trade mark : Top Hat and Tails.

Fred Astaire Trivia -

Ranked #73 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] Interred at Oakwood Memorial Park, Chatsworth, California, USA, the same cemetery where long-time dancing partner, Ginger Rogers, is located. Children: son Fred Jr. (born 1936), daughter Ava (born 1942). 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 compilation 1974 movie, _That's Entertainment (1974)_ ) was in one routine, titled "The Babbitt and the Bromide" in the 1946 movie Ziegfeld Follies (1946). Appears on sleeve of The Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. One of the first Kennedy Center Honorees in 1978. Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (the sidewalk on Hollywood Boulevard) 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 _Imagine (1973)_ film, escorting Yoko through a doorway; after one successful take, he asked to try again, believing he could do a better job. In the year 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 8 months after his sister Adele Astaire. Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue" He and Ginger Rogers acted in 10 movies together: The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), Carefree (1938), Flying Down to Rio (1933), Follow the Fleet (1936), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Shall We Dance (1937), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Swing Time (1936) and Top Hat (1935) Although he spend 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 & 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 friend of actress Carol Lynley

Fred Astaire Detailed Biography -

Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. He is particularly associated with Ginger Rogers, with whom he made ten films. His unparalleled skill as a dancer leads many critics to cite him as the best dancer ever to come out of Hollywood. His father was an Austrian immigrant and a Catholic, though the family originally has Jewish roots; his mother was born in the U.S. to Lutheran German parents; Astaire became an Episcopalian during his youth. Astaire was a name taken by him and his sister Adele Astaire for their vaudeville act when they were about 5 years old. It is said to have come from an uncle surnamed "L'Astaire". Many sources state that the Astaire siblings appeared in a 1915 film entitled Fanchon, the Cricket, starring Mary Pickford, but this is a myth (although it is believed that they were present to watch the filming). During the 1920s, Fred and Adele appeared on Broadway and on the London stage in shows such as Lady Be Good, Funny Face and The Band Wagon, winning popular acclaim with the theater crowd on both sides of the Atlantic. They split in 1932, when she married her first husband, Lord Charles Cavendish, a son of the Duke of Devonshire. Fred went on to achieve success on his own on Broadway and in London with Gay Divorce, while considering offers from Hollywood. Famously, a Paramount Pictures screen test report on Astaire read simply: "Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Also dances." After a brief detour at MGM in 1933, where he appeared as himself dancing with Joan Crawford in the film Dancing Lady, he eventually ended up at RKO Studios, where he made the top musicals of that era, with Rogers as his costar. See also: Fred Astaire's Solo and Partnered Dances He was a virtuoso dancer, able to convey lighthearted adventuresomeness or deep emotion when called for. His technical control and sense of rhythm were astonishing; according to one anecdote, he was able, when called back to the studio to redo a dance number he had filmed several weeks earlier for a special effects number, to reproduce the routine with pinpoint accuracy, down to the last gesture. He drew from a variety of influences, including tap and other African-American styles, classical dance and the elevated style of Vernon and Irene Castle. He choreographed all his own routines, often with the assistance of other choreographers, primarily Hermes Pan. His perfectionism was legendary as was his modesty and consideration towards his fellow artists, however his relentless insistence on rehearsals and retakes was a burden to some. Although he viewed himself as an entertainer first and foremost, his consummate artistry won him the adulation of such 20th century dance legends as George Balanchine, The Nicholas Brothers, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Bob Fosse, Gregory Hines, Gene Kelly, Rudolph Nureyev, and Bill Robinson. Always modest about his singing abilities, he is considered by some to have introduced more standards from the Great American Songbook than any other singer, and composers such as Cole Porter wrote a number of songs especially for him, and quite a few are among evergreen ballroom foxtrots: "Night and Day", "Cheek to Cheek", "Let's Face the Music and Dance", "The Way You Look Tonight", "A Fine Romance", "They Can't Take that Away from Me", and "Change Partners". Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and the Gershwins contributed classic songs for his musicals, in large part because of his sincere, unmannered delivery of their songs.