Fred Astaire

Born on May 10, 1899 in Omaha (Nebraska, USA), Frederick Austerlitz (real name of the dancer) was the son of Austrian emigrants. Since he was little he demonstrated his ability to dance, since at the age of four he left the parents of the other students speechless at school functions.

She studied dance and choreography at the Alvien School of Dance. When she finished her, she went to Broadway, where she succeeded forming a duet with her sister Adele, with whom she got along perfectly. They debuted in 1917 with the show “Over the Top”, followed by many others. Adele herself ended up marrying the English aristocrat Lord Charles Cavendish in 1931, after which she left show business. Mismatched, young Fred had the idea of ​​moving to Hollywood to seek his fortune. However, he did not raise passions at first. When he showed up for his first casting, the evaluator noted: “He can’t act. He can’t sing. A little bald. He knows how to dance a little.”

Even so, they ended up giving him a secondary role, inDancer’s Soul , a film starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford , in 1932. That same year he married Phyllis Livingston Potter. They had two children, Fred Jr., born in 1936, and Ava, born in 1942.

InFlying to Rio de Janeiro , from 1933, with Dolores del Río, was secondary, but had its own musical number with a little-known young woman by the name of Ginger Rogers . “When I met Ginger, she had never danced with a partner before. She wasn’t good at tap dancing, was vulgar, and didn’t know how to do much of anything… But Ginger was talented, and she improved rapidly while accompanying me. She ended up being so good that after a while anyone who danced with me seemed bad to me”, declared the dancer.

The Astaire and Rogers act caused a stir among the public, and RKO executives realized the magic of the pairing. Immediately they put them as protagonists ofThe Merry Divorcee , directed by Mark Sandrich , who was destined to become the more regular filmmaker for both of their films. The plot – a famous dancer traveling through Europe meets again and again by chance a woman who is traveling with her aunt – was as simple as it was funny, and served as an excuse for the dazzling musical numbers. It earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, although it had to settle for Best Song for “The Continental,” even though the film also featured the once-in-a-lifetime “Night and Day.”

The public responded so well that RKO started an entire Astaire and Rogers series, made up of seven other hilarious tapes:Top hat –with another of his most remembered numbers, the one from the song “Cheek to Cheek”–Roberta ,Let’s follow the fleet , Swing Time ,crazy rhythm ,Amanda (1938) andThe Irene Castle Story . In the entire 1930s, Astaire only had time to star in one film without Rogers, George Stevens ‘ Miss Disgrace , inwhich he was accompanied by Joan Fontaine .

He also left a good taste in the mouth when he appeared with Rita Hayworth inSince that kiss , and with Lucille Bremer in Yolanda and the thief , a great musical by specialist Vincente Minnelli . He was very successful withholiday inn andBlue Sky , his two films with Bing Crosby , he danced with Judy Garland in Eastern Parade , and he would meet once more with Ginger Rogers income back to me

It is said that Astaire was a very demanding professional, who terrified everyone on the set, from the director to the make-up artists, because he did not allow anyone to make a mistake. But thanks to his obsession with perfectionism, his numbers were masterful.

From the age of 50, he shoots fewer films, but these are getting better. With Jane Powell he does the brilliantRoyal Weddings , by Stanley Donen , while the woman with the most stunning legs in the American musical, Cyd Charisse , was by his side in the legendaryBroadway Melodies , again by Minnelli, and inThe Beauty of Moscow , by Rouben Mamoulian . He was a millionaire who sponsors a young orphan ( Leslie Caron ) in Jean Negulesco ‘s charming Daddy Long Legs .

But above all, he played a photographer, who discovers in a bookstore a young woman with the talent to become a model, none other than Audrey Hepburn, inA face with an angel . “His touch was like silk and his advice still dances in my ears. I have never met anyone with such sweetness that every morning when I get up, I cling to that goodness to cover the evil that surrounds me,” he said of him. Audrey Hepburn , who despite the age difference agreed to work with him because he was one of her great idols since she aspired to become a dancer.

Francis Ford Coppola put him as the protagonist of his tribute to classic musicalsThe Valley of the Rainbow , which was not very successful. Astaire once tried to stray from the genre, for example inThe final hour , about the survivors of a nuclear catastrophe, where he shared the bill with Gregory Peck , Ava Gardner and Anthony Perkins , or inThe Mysterious Lady in Black , a comedy with Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak . For her supporting role in the spectacularThe flaming colossus received the only Oscar nomination of his entire career, although in 1950 he had received an honorary statuette, for his contributions to musical cinema.

He had been widowed in 1954, when the aforementioned Phyllis died of cancer. She remarried in 1980, when she was 81, to Robyn Smith, then 35, and she was a keen horse enthusiast, a passion she shared with Astaire. The last appearance of her on screen was in the horror filmHistoria macabre , from 1981. He died on June 22, 1987 at his Los Angeles residence from pneumonia.