Fred Astaire

Biography
Fred Astaire , born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of seventy-six years, during which he made thirty-one musical films. He is particularly associated with Ginger Rogers, with whom he made ten films. George Balanchine and Rudolph Nureyev rated him the greatest dancer of the twentieth century, and he is generally acknowledged to have been the most influential dancer in the history of film and television musicals. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the ...( show more

) American Film Institute.

Always immaculately turned out, Astaire remained something of a male fashion icon even into his later years, eschewing his trademark top hat, white tie, and tails (which he always despised) in favor of a breezy casual style of tailored sports jackets, colored shirts, cravates, and slacks — the latter usually held up by the idiosyncratic use of an old tie in place of a belt. Fred was also inspired by Bill "Bojangles" Robinson to do tap dancing as well. Astaire married for the first time in 1933, to the 25-year-old Phyllis Potter (née Phyllis Livingston Baker, 1908-1954), a Boston-born New York socialite and former wife of Eliphalet Nott Potter III (1906-1981), after pursuing her ardently for roughly two years. Phyllis's death from lung cancer, at the age of 46, would end 21 years of a blissful marriageand leave Astaire devastated. At the time he would attempt to quit Daddy Long Legs, his current project, making an unprecedented offer to the studio to pay all production costs to date out of pocket — but he ultimately decided to continue with the picture as a means of distracting from his grief (and also because Phyllis had wanted him to make it). Henceforth he remained as busy as possible. In addition to Phyllis's son, Eliphalet IV, known as Peter, the Astaires had two children, Fred Jr. (born 1936, he appeared with his father in the movie Midas Run but became a charter pilot and rancher instead of an actor), and Ava, Mrs. Richard McKenzie (born 1942) who remains actively involved in promoting her late father's heritage. Described by his friend David Niven as "a pixie — timid, always warm-hearted, with a penchant for schoolboy jokes," Astaire was a lifelong golf and horse-racing enthusiast, whose horse Triplicate won the 1946 Hollywood Gold Cup. He remained physically active well into his eighties and remarried in 1980, to Robyn Smith, an actress turned champion jockey almost 45 years his junior. Ms. Smith was a jockey for Alfred G. Vanderbilt II. Fred Astaire died in 1987 from pneumonia at the age of 88 and was interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California. One last request of his was to thank his fans for their years of support. Astaire has never been portrayed on film. Astaire always refused permission for such portrayals, saying, "However much they offer me -- and offers come in all the time -- I shall not sell." His will included a clause requesting that no such portrayal ever take place; Astaire commented, "It is there because I have no particular desire to have my life misinterpreted, which it would be."

Fred and Adele Astaire. ca. 1906. His father, Frederic "Fritz" Emmanuel Austerlitz, was an Austrian immigrant (a brewer by trade) and a Catholic; his mother Johanna "Ann" Geilus was born in the United States to Lutheran German parents; Astaire became an Episcopalian in 1912.:84 After arriving in New York City, Frederic moved to Omaha, Nebraska hoping to find work in his trade and he landed a job with the Storz Brewing Company. Shortly thereafter he met and married Ann. Adele was their first born and she quickly revealed herself to be an instinctive dancer and singer. Early on, Ann dreamed of escaping Omaha by virtue of her children's talents. She envisioned a "brother-and-sister act", which was fairly common to vaudeville at the time. Although he refused dance lessons at first, Fred Jr. easily mimicked his sister's steps. Soon he took up the piano, the accordion, and the clarinet. When their father became suddenly unemployed, the family moved to New York City to launch the show business career of the children. Adele and Fred Jr. had a teasing rivalry but fortunately they quickly acknowledged their individual strengths — his being durability and hers greater overall talent. Astaire was a name taken by him and his sister in 1905, when they were taking instruction in dance, speaking, and singing in preparation for developing an act. Family legend attributes it to an uncle surnamed "L'Astaire". Finally, their first act took shape and was called Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty. In it, Fred wore a top hat and tails in the first half and a lobster outfit in the second. The goofy act debuted in Keyport, New Jersey in a "tryout theater", and the local paper wrote, "the Astaires are the greatest child act in vaudeville." After a short time, as a result of their father's salesmanship, Fred and Adele landed a major contract and they played the famed Orpheum circuit throughout the United States, including Omaha. Soon Adele grew to at least three inches taller than Fred and the pair began to look incongruous. The family decided to take a two-year break from show business, also to avoid trouble from the Gerry Society and the child labor laws of the time. Their career resumed with mixed fortunes, though with increasing skill and polish, as they began to incorporate tap dancing into their routines. From Aurelia Coccia, they learned the tango, waltz, and other ballroom dances popularized by Vernon and Irene Castle. Some sources state that the Astaire siblings appeared in a 1915 film entitled Fanchon, the Cricket, starring Mary Pickford, but the Astaires have consistently denied this.:103 While on the hunt for new music and dance ideas, Fred Astaire first met George Gershwin, who was working as a song plugger in Jerome H. Remick's, in 1916. Their chance meeting was to have profound consequences for the subsequent careers of both artists. Astaire was always on the lookout for new steps he spotted on the circuit and was starting to demonstrate his ceaseless quest for novelty and perfection. Finally, they broke into Broadway with Over The Top (1917), a patriotic revue.

Fred Astaire with his sister Adele in 1921 They followed up with several more shows and of their work in The Passing Show of 1918, Heywood Broun wrote "In an evening in which there was an abundance of good dancing, Fred Astaire stood out...He and his partner, Adele Astaire, made the show pause early in the evening with a beautiful loose-limbed dance." By this time, Astaire's dancing skill was beginning to outshine his sister's, though she still set the tone of their act and her sparkle and humor drew much of the attention, due in part to Fred's careful preparation and strong supporting choreography. During the 1920s, Fred and Adele appeared on Broadway and on the London stage in shows such as George and Ira Gershwin's Lady Be Good (1924) and Funny Face (1927), and later in The Band Wagon (1931), winning popular acclaim with the theater crowd on both sides of the Atlantic. After the close of Funny Face, the Astaires went to Hollywood for a screen test (now lost) at Paramount studios but were not considered suitable for films. They split in 1932, when Adele married her first husband, Lord Charles Cavendish, a son of the Duke of Devonshire. Fred Astaire went on to achieve success on his own on Broadway and in London with Gay Divorce, while considering offers from Hollywood. The end of the partnership was traumatic for Astaire but stimulated him to expand his range. Free of the brother-sister constraints of the former pairing, and with a new partner Claire Luce, he created a romantic partnered dance to Cole Porter's "Night and Day," which had been written for Gay Divorce. This number was credited with the success of the stage play and, when recreated in the film version of the play The Gay Divorcee (1934), ushered in a new era in filmed dance.:23,26,61 Recently, film footage taken by Fred Stone, of Astaire performing in Gay Divorce with Luce's successor Dorothy Stone in New York in 1933 was uncovered by dancer and historian Betsy Baytos, and now represents the earliest extant performance footage of Astaire.

Astaire with Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1940. In 1939, Astaire left RKO to freelance and pursue new film opportunities. He teamed up with other stars, notably with Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn (1942) and later Blue Skies (1946). He was almost outdanced in Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) by one of his first post-Rogers dance partners, Eleanor Powell, whom Astaire was greatly intimidated by, due to her unique and sensual terpsichorean display. Other partners during this period included Paulette Goddard in Second Chorus (1940), Rita Hayworth in You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942), Joan Leslie in The Sky's the Limit (1943), and Lucille Bremer in Yolanda and the Thief (1945) and Ziegfeld Follies (1946). Ziegfeld Follies also contains a memorable teaming of Astaire with Gene Kelly. After announcing his retirement with Blue Skies in 1946, Astaire concentrated on his horse-racing interests and went on to found the Fred Astaire Dance Studios in 1947 — which he subsequently sold in 1966.

Date of Birth
10 May, 1899

Place of Birth
Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.

Filmography

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Actor

That's Entertainment! III (1994) ... Himself (clips from "Easter Parade" / "Band Wagon" etc.) (archive footage) (uncredited)
South of Reno (1988) ... Clip from 'Second Chorus' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hollywood The Golden Years: The RKO Story (1987) ... Himself
Cocoon (1985) ... Himself, film clip from 'The Gay Divorcee' (archive footage) (uncredited)
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey (1985) ... Himself
That's Dancing! (1985) ... Himself (archive footage)
Ghost Story (1981) ... Ricky Hawthorne

Producer

Second Chorus (1941)

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