Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire, born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10, 1899, in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, and choreographer whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He died on June 22, 1987.

Astaire's parents were Johanna, born in the United States to Lutheran German immigrants from East Prussia and Alsace, and Friedrich Austerlitz, who was born in Linz, Upper Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and arrived at Ellis Island on October 26, 1893, before settling in Omaha to work for the Storz Brewing Company. Astaire's mother recognized early talent in both her children and planned a brother-and-sister vaudeville act. Though Astaire initially resisted dance lessons, he began imitating his older sister Adele at the Chambers Dance Academy in Omaha, and also studied piano, accordion, and clarinet. When their father lost his job, the family relocated to New York City in January 1905, where Fred and Adele trained at the Alvieni Master School of the Theatre and Academy of Cultural Arts. Their mother suggested the surname Astaire, feeling that Austerlitz carried unwanted associations with the famous battle. The siblings' debut act, called Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty, opened in Keyport, New Jersey in November 1905. They subsequently played the Orpheum Circuit across the Midwest, West, and parts of the South. From vaudeville dancer Aurelio Coccia, the pair learned the tango, waltz, and other ballroom dances associated with Vernon and Irene Castle. By age 14, Astaire had taken on the musical responsibilities for their act, and in 1916 he first met George Gershwin, then working as a song plugger for Jerome H. Remick's music publishing company.

Astaire's Broadway career ran from 1917 to 1932. He and Adele broke into Broadway in 1917 with Over the Top, a patriotic revue, and went on to appear in a succession of productions including Apple Blossoms, The Passing Show of 1918, Jerome Kern's The Bunch and Judy in 1922, and the George and Ira Gershwin musicals Lady, Be Good! in 1924 and Funny Face in 1927. He also appeared in the musical Divorce and The Band Wagon in 1931. During this period the siblings performed on the London stage as well as Broadway, earning acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. While in London, Astaire studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music alongside Noël Coward, and in 1926 served as one of the judges at the Charleston Championship of the World competition at the Royal Albert Hall, where Lew Grade was declared the winner. Critic Robert Benchley wrote in 1930 that Fred was the greatest tap dancer in the world. The Broadway partnership between Fred and Adele ended in 1932 when Adele married Lord Charles Cavendish, the second son of the 9th Duke of Devonshire.

As a dancer, Astaire drew from tap, classical dance, and the elevated style of Vernon and Irene Castle, describing his own eclectic approach as outlaw style. His trademark influenced the American Smooth style of ballroom dance. His most celebrated screen partnership was with Ginger Rogers, with whom he co-starred in ten Hollywood musicals, among them Top Hat in 1935, Swing Time in 1936, and Shall We Dance in 1937. His film career also included Holiday Inn in 1942, Easter Parade in 1948, The Band Wagon in 1953, Funny Face in 1957, and Silk Stockings in 1957. For his role in The Towering Inferno in 1974, directed by Irwin Allen and John Guillermin, Astaire received his only competitive Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, and won both the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Among the honors Astaire received were an Honorary Academy Award in 1950, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1960, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1973, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1980. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1972, and the Television Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the fifth-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema in its 100 Years... 100 Stars list. Over the course of his career he also received three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award.