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.
Early life and career
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 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 Astaires 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 The 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." He
eventually ended up at RKO Studios, where he made
the top musicals of that era, with Rogers as his costar.
Dancing and singing prowess
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, Mikhail
Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, 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", "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.
Rogers and Astaire
His second film, Flying Down to Rio,
paired him with Ginger Rogers for the first time.
That partnership, and the choreography of Astaire
and Hermes Pan, helped make dancing an important element
of the Hollywood film musical. His films with Rogers
included The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935) and
Carefree (1938). Their partnership elevated them both
to stardom: as Katharine Hepburn reportedly said,
"He gives her class and she gives him sex appeal."
Astaire is credited with two important
innovations in early film musicals. First, his insistence
that the (almost stationary) camera film a dance routine
in a single shot, if possible, while holding the dancers
in full view at all times. He famously quipped: "Either
the camera dances or I do". Second, he was adamant
that all song and dance routines be seamlessly integrated
into the plotlines of the film. Typically, an Astaire
picture would include a solo performance by Astaire
- which he termed his "sock solo", a partnered
comedy dance routine and a partnered romantic dance
routine
Other teamings
He also teamed up with other stars,
notably with Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn (1942) and
Blue Skies (1946). He was also nearly outdanced in
Broadway Melody of 1940 by one of his first post-Rogers
dance partners, Eleanor Powell. Other partners during
this period included Rita Hayworth and Joan Leslie.
Later career
After announcing his retirement in
1946, he soon returned to the screen to replace the
injured Gene Kelly in Easter Parade (1948) opposite
Judy Garland and for The Band Wagon (1953) with Cyd
Charisse. Astaire went on to make several more musicals
in the 1950s, including Funny Face (1957) with Audrey
Hepburn and Silk Stockings (1958) with Charisse. He
made two musicals with Vera-Ellen : Three Little Words
(1950) and The Belle of New York (1952). His legacy
at this point was thirty musicals in a twenty-five
year period. Afterwards, Astaire announced that he
was retiring from dancing in film to concentrate on
dramatic acting, scoring rave reviews for the nuclear
war drama On the Beach (1959).
Astaire did not give up dancing completely,
and made a series of highly-rated specials for television
into the early 1960s, each featuring Barrie Chase
with whom Astaire enjoyed an Indian summer of dance
creativity. One of these programs, 1958's An Evening
with Fred Astaire, won nine Emmy Awards, including
"Best Single Performance by an Actor" and
"Most Outstanding Single Program of the Year."
It was also noteworthy for being the first major broadcast
to be prerecorded on color videotape.Astaire's final
musical film was Finian's Rainbow (1968), in which
he shed his white tie and tails to play an Irish rogue
who believes if he buries a crock of gold in the shadows
of Fort Knox it will multiply. His last on-screen
dance partner was Petula Clark, who portrayed his
skeptical daughter. He admitted to being as nervous
about singing with her as she confessed to being apprehensive
about dancing with him.
Astaire continued to act into the
1970s, appearing in films such as The Towering Inferno
(1974) for which he received his only Academy Award
nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actor.
He appeared in the first two That's Entertainment!
documentaries in the mid-1970s, in the second performing
a song-and-dance routine with Gene Kelly. In 1976,
he recorded a disco-styled rendition of Carly Simon's
"Attitude Dancing". In 1978, Fred Astaire
co-starred with Helen Hayes in a well-received television
film, A Family Upside Down, in which they play an
elderly couple coping with failing health. Astaire
won an Emmy Award for his performance. He made a well-publicized
guest appearance on the science fiction TV series
Battlestar Galactica in 1979. His final film was the
1981 adaptation of Peter Straub's Ghost Story.
He received an honorary Academy Award
in 1950 "for his unique artistry and his contributions
to the technique of musical pictures." He also
won Emmys in 1961 and 1978.
He received Kennedy Center Honors
in 1978, the first year they were awarded. The American
Film Institute awarded him their "Lifetime Achievement
Award" for 1981.Always immaculately turned out,
he remained something of a male fashion icon even
in his later years, eschewing his trademark top hat,
white tie and tails (which he always despised) in
favour of a breezy casual style of tailored sports
jackets, coloured shirts, cravates and slacks - the
latter usually held up by the idiosyncratic use of
an old tie in place of a belt.
Personal life
Astaire married for the first time
in 1933, to Phyllis Potter (née Phyllis Livingston
Baker, 1908-1954), a Boston-born New York socialite
and former wife of Eliphalet Nott Potter III (1906-1981).
In addition to Phyllis's son, Eliphalet IV, known
as Peter, the Astaires had two children, Fred Jr.
(born 1936, he appeared with hisfather in the movie
Midas Run but became a charter pilot and rancher instead
of an actor), and Ava, Mrs. Richard McKenzie (born
1942).
Astaire married again in 1980, to
Robyn Smith, an actress turned jockey. She was nearly
50 years his junior. It is uncertain whether the second
Mrs. Astaire was born Robin Miller in 1944 or Melody
Palm in 1942.Fred Astaire died in 1987 from pneumonia
at the age of 88, and was interred in the Oakwood
Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California.
Filmography
Dancing Lady (1933)
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) (*)
A Damsel in Distress (1937)
Carefree (1938) (*)
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) (*)
Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
Second Chorus (1940)
You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
Holiday Inn (1942)
You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
The Sky's the Limit (1943)
Yolanda and the Thief (1945)
Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
Blue Skies (1946)
Easter Parade (1948)
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) (*)
Three Little Words (1950)
Let's Dance (1950)
Royal Wedding (1951)
The Belle of New York (1952)
The Band Wagon (1953)
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
Funny Face (1957)
Silk Stockings (1957)
On the Beach (1959)
The Pleasure of His Company (1961)
The Notorious Landlady (1962)
Paris - When it Sizzles (1964)
Finian's Rainbow (1968)
Midas Run (1969)
Imagine (1973) (documentary)
Just One More Time (1974) (short subject)
That's Entertainment! (1974)
The Towering Inferno (1974)
The Lion Roars Again (1975) (short subject)
That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)
The Amazing Dobermans (1976)
The Purple Taxi (1977)
Ghost Story (1981)
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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