Ginger Rogers
Encyclopedia
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century.
During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and was best-known as Fred Astaire
's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical film
s that revolutionized the genre. She achieved great success on her own in a variety of film roles and won the Academy Award for Best Actress
for her performance in Kitty Foyle
(1940). She ranks #14 on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Stars list of actress screen legends.
, the only child of William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Lela Emogene Owens (1891–1977). Ginger's parents separated soon after her birth, and she and her mother went to live with her grandparents, Walter and Saphrona (née Ball) Owens, in nearby Kansas City
. Rogers' parents fought over her custody. After her mother denied him visitation, her father reportedly absconded with his daughter twice. After her parents divorced, Rogers stayed with her grandparents while her mother wrote scripts for two years in Hollywood. Rogers was to remain close to her grandfather (much later, when she was a star in 1939, she bought him a home at 5115 Greenbush Avenue in Sherman Oaks, California so that he could be close to her while she was filming at the studios).
One of Rogers' young cousins, Helen, had a hard time pronouncing "Virginia", shortening it to "Ginga"; the nickname stuck. When "Ginga" was nine years old, her mother remarried, to John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the surname Rogers, although she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth, Texas
. Her mother became a theater critic for a local newspaper, the Fort Worth Record. She attended but did not graduate from Fort Worth's Central High School. As a teenager, Rogers thought of becoming a schoolteacher, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her early exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of the Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along with the performers on stage.
act of Eddie Foy came to Fort Worth and needed a quick stand-in. She then entered and won a Charleston dance
contest which allowed her to tour for six months, at one point in 1926 performing at an 18-month-old theater called The Craterian in Medford
, Oregon
. This theater honored her many years later by changing its name to the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater.
At 17, Rogers married Jack Culpepper, a singer/dancer/comedian/recording artist of the day who worked under the name Jack Pepper
(according to Ginger's autobiography, she knew Culpepper when she was a child, as her cousin's boyfriend). They formed a short-lived vaudeville double act known as "Ginger and Pepper". The marriage was over within months, and she went back to touring with her mother. When the tour got to New York City
, she stayed, getting radio singing jobs and then her Broadway theater debut in a musical called Top Speed
, which opened on Christmas Day
, 1929.
Within two weeks of opening in Top Speed
, Rogers was chosen to star on Broadway in Girl Crazy
by George Gershwin
and Ira Gershwin
, the musical play widely considered to have made stars of both her and Ethel Merman
. Fred Astaire
was hired to help the dancers with their choreography. Her appearance in Girl Crazy made her an overnight star at the age of 19. In 1930, she was signed by Paramount Pictures
to a seven-year contract.
Rogers would soon get herself out of the Paramount contract—under which she had made five feature films at Astoria Studios
in Astoria, Queens
—and move with her mother to Hollywood. When she got to California, she signed a three-picture deal with Pathé
. She made feature films for Warner Bros., Monogram, and Fox in 1932 and was named one of fifteen "WAMPAS Baby Stars
". She then made a significant breakthrough as "Anytime Annie" in the Warner Brothers film 42nd Street
(1933). She went on to make a series of films with Fox, Warner Bros. ("Gold Diggers of 1933"), Universal, Paramount, and RKO Radio Pictures and, in her second RKO picture, Flying Down to Rio
(1933), she worked for the first time with Fred Astaire
. (Note, however, that the Wikipedia entry for 'Embraceable You' claims that they worked together previously on the stage production of Girl Crazy).
Rogers was most famous for her partnership with Fred Astaire
. Together, from 1933 to 1939, they made nine musical films at RKO: 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), Carefree
(1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
(1939) (The Barkleys of Broadway
(1949) was produced later at MGM). They revolutionized the Hollywood musical, introducing dance routines of unprecedented elegance and virtuosity, set to songs specially composed for them by the greatest popular song composers of the day.
Arlene Croce
, Hannah Hyam and John Mueller
all consider Rogers to have been Astaire's finest dance partner, principally because of her ability to combine dancing skills, natural beauty, and exceptional abilities as a dramatic actress and comedienne, thus truly complementing Astaire, a peerless dancer who sometimes struggled as an actor and was not considered classically handsome. The resulting song and dance partnership enjoyed a unique credibility in the eyes of audiences. Of the 33 partnered dances
she performed with Astaire, Croce and Mueller have highlighted the infectious spontaneity of her performances in the comic numbers "I'll Be Hard to Handle
" from Roberta
(1935), "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket
" from Follow the Fleet
(1936) and "Pick Yourself Up
" from Swing Time
(1936). They also point to the use Astaire made of her remarkably flexible back in classic romantic dances such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
" from Roberta (1935), "Cheek to Cheek
" from Top Hat
(1935) and "Let's Face the Music and Dance
" from Follow the Fleet (1936). For special praise, they have singled out her performance in "Waltz in Swing Time" from Swing Time (1936), which is generally considered to be the most virtuosic partnered routine ever committed to film by Astaire. She generally avoided solo dance performances: Astaire always included at least one virtuoso solo routine in each film, while Rogers performed only one: "Let Yourself Go
" from Follow the Fleet (1936).
Although the dance routines were choreographed by Astaire and his collaborator Hermes Pan
, both have acknowledged Rogers's input and have also testified to her consummate professionalism, even during periods of intense strain, as she tried to juggle her many other contractual film commitments with the punishing rehearsal schedules of Astaire, who made at most two films in any one year. In 1986, shortly before his death, Astaire remarked, "All the girls I ever danced with thought they couldn't do it, but of course they could. So they always cried. All except Ginger. No no, Ginger never cried". John Mueller summed up Rogers's abilities as follows: "Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began...the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable". According to Astaire, when they were first teamed together in "Flying Down to Rio", "Ginger had never danced with a partner before. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong." Astaire also had this to say to Raymond Rohauer, curator at the New York Gallery of Modern Art: "Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success."
Rogers also introduced some celebrated numbers from the Great American Songbook
, songs such as Harry Warren
and Al Dubin
's "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)
" from Gold Diggers of 1933
(1933), "Music Makes Me" from Flying Down to Rio
(1933), "The Continental
" from The Gay Divorcee
(1934), Irving Berlin
's "Let Yourself Go
" from Follow the Fleet (1936), the Gershwins'
"Embraceable You
" from Girl Crazy
and "They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus)
" from Shall We Dance (1937). Furthermore, in song duets with Astaire, she co-introduced Berlin's "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket
" from Follow the Fleet (1936), Jerome Kern
and Dorothy Fields
's "Pick Yourself Up
" and "A Fine Romance
" from Swing Time
(1936) and the Gershwins' "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
" from Shall We Dance (1937).
After 15 months apart and with RKO facing bankruptcy, the studio hired Fred and Ginger for another movie called Carefree, but it lost money. Next came The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, but the serious plot and tragic ending resulted in the worst box office receipts of any of their films. This was driven not by diminished popularity, but by the hard 1930s economic reality. The production costs of musicals, always significantly more costly than regular features, continued to increase at a much faster rate than admissions. Everyone agreed it was time to stop.
Both before and immediately after her dancing and acting partnership with Fred Astaire ended, Rogers starred in a number of successful dramas and comedies. Stage Door
(1937) demonstrated her dramatic capacity, as the loquacious yet vulnerable girl next door, a tough minded, theatrical hopeful, opposite Katharine Hepburn. In Roxie Hart
(1942), based on the same play which served as the template for the musical Chicago
, Ginger played a wise-cracking wife on trial for a murder her husband committed. In the neo-realist Primrose Path
(1940), directed by Gregory La Cava, she played a prostitute's daughter trying to avoid the fate of her mother. Further highlights of this period included Tom, Dick, and Harry
, a 1941 comedy where she dreams of marrying three different men; I'll Be Seeing You, with Joseph Cotten; La Cava's 5th Avenue Girl (1939), where she played an out-of-work girl sucked into the lives of a wealthy family; and especially the sharp and highly successful comedies: Bachelor Mother
(1939), where she played Polly Parrish, a shop girl who is falsely thought to have abandoned her baby; and Billy Wilder's first Hollywood feature film: The Major and the Minor
(1942), in which she played a woman who masquerades as a 12-year-old to get a cheap train ticket and finds herself obliged to continue the ruse for an extended period. This film featured a performance by Rogers's own real mother, Lela, playing her film mother.
In 1941, Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress
for her role in 1940's Kitty Foyle
. She enjoyed considerable success during the early 1940s, and was RKO's hottest property during this period. Becoming a free agent, she made hugely successful films with other studios in the mid-'40s, including Tender Comrade (1943), Lady in the Dark
(1944), and Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), and became the highest-paid performer in Hollywood. However, by the end of the decade, her film career had peaked. Arthur Freed
reunited her with Fred Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway
in 1949.
Rogers' film career entered a period of gradual decline in the 1950s, as parts for older actresses became more difficult to obtain, but she still scored with some solid films. She starred in Storm Warning (1950) with Ronald Reagan and Doris Day, the noir, anti Ku Klux Klan film by Warner Brothers, and in Monkey Business
(1952) with Cary Grant
and Marilyn Monroe
, directed by Howard Hawks. In the same year, she also starred in We're Not Married!
, also featuring Marilyn Monroe
, and in Dreamboat
. She played the female lead in Tight Spot
(1955), a mystery thriller, with Edward G. Robinson. After a series of unremarkable films she scored with a great popular success, playing Dolly Levi in the long-running Hello, Dolly!
on Broadway in 1965.
In later life, Rogers remained on good terms with Astaire: she presented him with a special Academy Award in 1950, and they were co-presenters of individual Academy Awards in 1967, during which they elicited a standing ovation when they came on stage in an impromptu dance. In 1969, she had the lead role in another long-running popular production of Mame, from the book by Jerome Lawrence
and Robert Edwin Lee
, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman
, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in the West End
of London
, arriving for the role on the Liner QE2 from New York
. Her docking there occasioned the maximum of pomp and ceremony at Southampton
. She became the highest paid performer in the history of the West End up to that time. The production ran for 14 months and featured a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth the Second. The Kennedy Center
honored Ginger Rogers in December 1992. This event, which was shown on television, was somewhat marred when Astaire's widow, Robyn Smith, who permitted clips of Astaire dancing with Rogers to be shown for free at the function itself, was unable to come to terms with CBS Television for broadcast rights to the clips (all previous rights holders having donated broadcast rights gratis).
From the 1950s onwards, Rogers would make occasional appearances on television. In the later years of her career, she made guest appearances in three different series by Aaron Spelling
; The Love Boat
(1979), Glitter
(1984), and Hotel
(1987), which would be her final screen appearance as an actress.
, was a founder of the successful "Hollywood Playhouse" for aspiring actors and actresses on the RKO set, and was a founder of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals
. Mother and daughter had an extremely close professional relationship as well. Lela Rogers was credited with many pivotal contributions to her daughter's early successes in New York and in Hollywood, not to mention contract negotiations with RKO.
In her classic 1930s musicals with Astaire, Ginger Rogers, co-billed with him, was paid less than Fred, the creative force behind the dances, who also received 10% of the profits. But she was also paid less than many of the supporting "farceurs" billed beneath her, in spite of her much more central role in the films' great financial success. This was personally grating to her, and had effects upon her relationships at RKO, especially with director Mark Sandrich
, whose purported disrespect of Rogers prompted a sharp letter of reprimand from producer Pandro Berman, which she deemed important enough to publish in her autobiography. Rogers fought hard for her contract and salary rights, and for better films and scripts.
Rogers' first marriage was at age 17 to her dancing partner Jack Pepper
(real name Edward Jackson Culpepper) on March 29, 1929. They divorced in 1931, having separated soon after the wedding. In 1934 she married actor Lew Ayres
(1908–1996). They divorced seven years later. Rogers sued Sylvia of Hollywood
for $100K for defamation. Sylvia, Hollywood's fitness guru and radio personality, had claimed that Rogers was on Sylvia's radio show when, in fact, she was not.
In 1943, Rogers married her third husband, Jack Briggs, a Marine
. Upon his return from World War II, Briggs showed no interest in continuing his incipient Hollywood career. They divorced in 1949. In 1953 she married Jacques Bergerac
, a French actor 16 years her junior, whom she met on a trip to Paris. A lawyer in France, he came to Hollywood with her and became an actor. They divorced in 1957. Her fifth and final husband was director and producer William Marshall. They married in 1961, and divorced in 1971, after his bouts with alcohol, and the financial collapse of their joint film production company in Jamaica.
Rogers was lifelong friends with actresses Lucille Ball
and Bette Davis
. Rogers starred in one of the earliest films co-directed and co-scripted by a woman, Wanda Tuchock's Finishing School (1934). In 1985, Rogers fulfilled a long-standing wish to direct by directing the musical Babes in Arms
off-Broadway in Tarrytown, New York
, when she was 74 years old. She appeared with Ball in an episode of Here's Lucy
on November 22, 1971, in which Rogers danced the Charleston
for the first time in many years.
Rogers maintained a close friendship with her cousin, writer/socialite Phyllis Fraser
, but was not Rita Hayworth
's natural cousin as has been reported. Hayworth's maternal uncle, Vinton Hayworth, was married to Rogers's maternal aunt, Jean Owens.
In 1977, Rogers's mother died. Rogers remained at the 4-Rs (Rogers's Rogue River Ranch) until 1990, when she sold the property and moved to nearby Medford
, Oregon
. Her last public appearance was on March 18, 1995 when she received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award. For many years, Rogers regularly supported, and held in-person presentations, at the Craterian Theater, in Medford, Oregon, where she had performed in 1926 as a vaudevillian. The theater was comprehensively restored in 1997, and posthumously renamed in her honor, as the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater.
and summers in Medford. She died in Rancho Mirage on April 25, 1995 of congestive heart failure
at the age of 83. She was cremated and her ashes interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery
in Chatsworth, California, with her mother's remains.
.Along with her mother, and such contemporaries as Gary Cooper
, Clark Gable
, Barbara Stanwyck
, Rogers was a founding member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a Hollywood anti-Communist group.
She was raised a Christian Scientist, and was a lifelong adherent. She devoted a great deal of time in her autobiography to the importance of her faith throughout her career.
stipulated in his will
that no film representations of him were ever to be made.
During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and was best-known as Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
s that revolutionized the genre. She achieved great success on her own in a variety of film roles and won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her performance in Kitty Foyle
Kitty Foyle (film)
Kitty Foyle, subtitled The Natural History of a Woman, is a 1940 film starring Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Ernest Cossart and Gladys Cooper.-Plot:...
(1940). She ranks #14 on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Stars list of actress screen legends.
Early life
Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, MissouriIndependence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
, the only child of William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Lela Emogene Owens (1891–1977). Ginger's parents separated soon after her birth, and she and her mother went to live with her grandparents, Walter and Saphrona (née Ball) Owens, in nearby Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. Rogers' parents fought over her custody. After her mother denied him visitation, her father reportedly absconded with his daughter twice. After her parents divorced, Rogers stayed with her grandparents while her mother wrote scripts for two years in Hollywood. Rogers was to remain close to her grandfather (much later, when she was a star in 1939, she bought him a home at 5115 Greenbush Avenue in Sherman Oaks, California so that he could be close to her while she was filming at the studios).
One of Rogers' young cousins, Helen, had a hard time pronouncing "Virginia", shortening it to "Ginga"; the nickname stuck. When "Ginga" was nine years old, her mother remarried, to John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the surname Rogers, although she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
. Her mother became a theater critic for a local newspaper, the Fort Worth Record. She attended but did not graduate from Fort Worth's Central High School. As a teenager, Rogers thought of becoming a schoolteacher, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her early exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of the Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along with the performers on stage.
Vaudeville and Broadway
Rogers' entertainment career was born one night when the traveling vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
act of Eddie Foy came to Fort Worth and needed a quick stand-in. She then entered and won a Charleston dance
Charleston (dance)
The Charleston is a dance named for the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one...
contest which allowed her to tour for six months, at one point in 1926 performing at an 18-month-old theater called The Craterian in Medford
Medford, Oregon
Medford is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 US Census, the city had a total population of 74,907 and a metropolitan area population of 207,010, making the Medford MSA the 4th largest metro area in Oregon...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. This theater honored her many years later by changing its name to the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater.
At 17, Rogers married Jack Culpepper, a singer/dancer/comedian/recording artist of the day who worked under the name Jack Pepper
Jack Pepper
Jack Pepper was an American vaudeville dancer, singer, comedian, musician, and later in life a Dallas, Texas nightclub manager....
(according to Ginger's autobiography, she knew Culpepper when she was a child, as her cousin's boyfriend). They formed a short-lived vaudeville double act known as "Ginger and Pepper". The marriage was over within months, and she went back to touring with her mother. When the tour got to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, she stayed, getting radio singing jobs and then her Broadway theater debut in a musical called Top Speed
Top Speed
Top Speed is a 1930 American musical comedy film released by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers.-Production:The film was completed as a full musical...
, which opened on Christmas Day
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, 1929.
Within two weeks of opening in Top Speed
Top Speed
Top Speed is a 1930 American musical comedy film released by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers.-Production:The film was completed as a full musical...
, Rogers was chosen to star on Broadway in Girl Crazy
Girl Crazy
Girl Crazy is a 1930 musical with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book by Guy Bolton and John McGowan. Ethel Merman made her stage debut in this musical production....
by George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
and Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
, the musical play widely considered to have made stars of both her and Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's...
. Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
was hired to help the dancers with their choreography. Her appearance in Girl Crazy made her an overnight star at the age of 19. In 1930, she was signed by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
to a seven-year contract.
1929-1933
Rogers' first movie roles were in a trio of short films made in 1929—Night in the Dormitory, A Day of a Man of Affairs, and Campus Sweethearts.Rogers would soon get herself out of the Paramount contract—under which she had made five feature films at Astoria Studios
Kaufman Astoria Studios
The Kaufman Astoria Studios is an historic movie studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens.-History:It was originally built by Famous Players-Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district. Many features and short...
in Astoria, Queens
Astoria, Queens
Astoria is a neighborhood in the northwestern corner of the borough of Queens in New York City. Located in Community Board 1, Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Sunnyside , and Woodside...
—and move with her mother to Hollywood. When she got to California, she signed a three-picture deal with Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
. She made feature films for Warner Bros., Monogram, and Fox in 1932 and was named one of fifteen "WAMPAS Baby Stars
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
". She then made a significant breakthrough as "Anytime Annie" in the Warner Brothers film 42nd Street
42nd Street (film)
-Cast:*Warner Baxter as Julian Marsh, director*Bebe Daniels as Dorothy Brock, star*George Brent as Pat Denning, Dorothy's old vaudeville partner*Ruby Keeler as Peggy Sawyer, the newcomer*Guy Kibbee as Abner Dillon, the show's backer...
(1933). She went on to make a series of films with Fox, Warner Bros. ("Gold Diggers of 1933"), Universal, Paramount, and RKO Radio Pictures and, in her second RKO picture, Flying Down to Rio
Flying Down to Rio
Flying Down to Rio is a 1933 RKO musical film noted for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Astaire and Rogers were not the stars of the film, however, Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond were top-billed. Among the featured players Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore are...
(1933), she worked for the first time with Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
. (Note, however, that the Wikipedia entry for 'Embraceable You' claims that they worked together previously on the stage production of Girl Crazy).
1933-1939: Astaire and Rogers
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
. Together, from 1933 to 1939, they made nine musical films at RKO: Flying Down to Rio
Flying Down to Rio
Flying Down to Rio is a 1933 RKO musical film noted for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Astaire and Rogers were not the stars of the film, however, Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond were top-billed. Among the featured players Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore are...
(1933), The Gay Divorcee
The Gay Divorcee
The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 American film based on the musical play Gay Divorce written by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth S. Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein, with screenplay by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman, from an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners...
(1934), Roberta
Roberta (1935 film)
Roberta is a 1935 musical film by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. It was an adaptation of a 1933 Broadway theatre musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller...
(1935), Top Hat
Top Hat
Top Hat is a 1935 screwball comedy musical film in which Fred Astaire plays an American dancer named Jerry Travers, who comes to London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick . He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont to win her affection...
(1935), Follow the Fleet
Follow the Fleet
Follow the Fleet is a 1936 Hollywood musical comedy film with a nautical theme and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Lucille Ball and Betty Grable also appear, in small supporting roles...
(1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree
Carefree (film)
Carefree is a 1938 musical film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. With a plot similar to screwball comedies of the period, Carefree is the shortest of the Astaire-Rogers films, featuring only four musical numbers...
(1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is an American biographical musical comedy, released in 1939 and directed by H.C. Potter. The film stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, and Walter Brennan....
(1939) (The Barkleys of Broadway
The Barkleys of Broadway
The Barkleys of Broadway is a 1949 musical film from the Arthur Freed unit at MGM that reunited Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers after ten years apart...
(1949) was produced later at MGM). They revolutionized the Hollywood musical, introducing dance routines of unprecedented elegance and virtuosity, set to songs specially composed for them by the greatest popular song composers of the day.
Arlene Croce
Arlene Croce
Arlene Croce founded Ballet Review magazine in 1965. She was a dance critic for The New Yorker magazine from 1973 to 1998. Prior to her long career as a dance writer, she also wrote film criticism for Film Culture and other magazines. The keynote of her criticism can be grasped from her ability to...
, Hannah Hyam and John Mueller
John Mueller
John E. Mueller is a political scientist in the field of international relations as well as a scholar of the history of dance. He is recognized for his ideas concerning "the banality of ethnic war" and the theory that major world conflicts are quickly becoming obsolete.-Career:He received his A.B...
all consider Rogers to have been Astaire's finest dance partner, principally because of her ability to combine dancing skills, natural beauty, and exceptional abilities as a dramatic actress and comedienne, thus truly complementing Astaire, a peerless dancer who sometimes struggled as an actor and was not considered classically handsome. The resulting song and dance partnership enjoyed a unique credibility in the eyes of audiences. Of the 33 partnered dances
Fred Astaire's solo and partnered dances
This is a complete guide to over one hundred and fifty of Fred Astaire's solo and partnered dances compiled from his thirty-one Hollywood musical comedy films produced between 1933 and 1968, his four television specials and his television appearances on The Hollywood Palace and Bob Hope Presents...
she performed with Astaire, Croce and Mueller have highlighted the infectious spontaneity of her performances in the comic numbers "I'll Be Hard to Handle
I'll Be Hard to Handle
"I'll Be Hard to Handle" is a 1932 song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics written by Bernard Dougall.It was written for the Broadway musical Roberta , where it was introduced by Lyda Roberti....
" from Roberta
Roberta (1935 film)
Roberta is a 1935 musical film by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. It was an adaptation of a 1933 Broadway theatre musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller...
(1935), "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket
I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket
"I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1936 film Follow the Fleet, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Notable recordings:...
" from Follow the Fleet
Follow the Fleet
Follow the Fleet is a 1936 Hollywood musical comedy film with a nautical theme and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Lucille Ball and Betty Grable also appear, in small supporting roles...
(1936) and "Pick Yourself Up
Pick Yourself Up
"Pick Yourself Up" is a popular song composed in 1936 by Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It has a verse and chorus, as well as a third section, though the third section is often omitted in recordings...
" from Swing Time
Swing Time
Swing Time is a 1936 RKO musical comedy film set mainly in New York City and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore and Georges Metaxa, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields...
(1936). They also point to the use Astaire made of her remarkably flexible back in classic romantic dances such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for their 1933 operetta Roberta. It was originally recorded by Gertrude Niesen, on 13 October 1933 on the Victor label 24454. It was performed by Irene Dunne for the 1935 film adaptation,...
" from Roberta (1935), "Cheek to Cheek
Cheek to Cheek
"Cheek to Cheek" is a song written by Irving Berlin, and first performed by Fred Astaire in the movie Top Hat . Astaire's 1935 recording with the Leo Reisman Orchestra was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000....
" from Top Hat
Top Hat
Top Hat is a 1935 screwball comedy musical film in which Fred Astaire plays an American dancer named Jerry Travers, who comes to London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick . He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont to win her affection...
(1935) and "Let's Face the Music and Dance
Let's Face the Music and Dance
"Let's Face the Music and Dance" is a song written in 1936 by Irving Berlin for the film Follow the Fleet, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire and featured in a celebrated dance duet with Astaire and Ginger Rogers...
" from Follow the Fleet (1936). For special praise, they have singled out her performance in "Waltz in Swing Time" from Swing Time (1936), which is generally considered to be the most virtuosic partnered routine ever committed to film by Astaire. She generally avoided solo dance performances: Astaire always included at least one virtuoso solo routine in each film, while Rogers performed only one: "Let Yourself Go
Let Yourself Go (Irving Berlin song)
"Let Yourself Go" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1936 film Follow the Fleet, where it was introduced by Ginger Rogers.-Notable recordings:*Fred Astaire *Tony Bennett - Bennett/Berlin...
" from Follow the Fleet (1936).
Hermes Pan (choreographer)
Hermes Pan was an American dancer and choreographer, principally celebrated as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:...
, both have acknowledged Rogers's input and have also testified to her consummate professionalism, even during periods of intense strain, as she tried to juggle her many other contractual film commitments with the punishing rehearsal schedules of Astaire, who made at most two films in any one year. In 1986, shortly before his death, Astaire remarked, "All the girls I ever danced with thought they couldn't do it, but of course they could. So they always cried. All except Ginger. No no, Ginger never cried". John Mueller summed up Rogers's abilities as follows: "Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began...the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable". According to Astaire, when they were first teamed together in "Flying Down to Rio", "Ginger had never danced with a partner before. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong." Astaire also had this to say to Raymond Rohauer, curator at the New York Gallery of Modern Art: "Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success."
Rogers also introduced some celebrated numbers from the Great American Songbook
Great American Songbook
The Great American Songbook is a hypothetical construct that seeks to represent the best American songs of the 20th century principally from Broadway theatre, musical theatre, and Hollywood musicals, from the 1920s to 1960, including dozens of songs of enduring popularity...
, songs such as Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...
and Al Dubin
Al Dubin
Alexander "Al" Dubin was an American lyricist. He became known through his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren.-Life and works:...
's "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)
The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)
"The Gold Diggers' Song " is a song from the 1933 film Gold Diggers of 1933, sung in the opening sequence by Ginger Rogers and chorus. The lyrics were written by Al Dubin and the music by Harry Warren...
" from Gold Diggers of 1933
Gold Diggers of 1933
Gold Diggers of 1933 is a pre-code Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin , staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley...
(1933), "Music Makes Me" from Flying Down to Rio
Flying Down to Rio
Flying Down to Rio is a 1933 RKO musical film noted for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Astaire and Rogers were not the stars of the film, however, Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond were top-billed. Among the featured players Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore are...
(1933), "The Continental
The Continental (song)
"The Continental" is a song written by Con Conrad with lyrics by Herb Magidson, and was introduced by Ginger Rogers in the 1934 film, The Gay Divorcee. "The Continental" won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song to be awarded. Major record hits at the time of introduction included Jolly...
" from The Gay Divorcee
The Gay Divorcee
The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 American film based on the musical play Gay Divorce written by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth S. Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein, with screenplay by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman, from an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners...
(1934), Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
's "Let Yourself Go
Let Yourself Go (Irving Berlin song)
"Let Yourself Go" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1936 film Follow the Fleet, where it was introduced by Ginger Rogers.-Notable recordings:*Fred Astaire *Tony Bennett - Bennett/Berlin...
" from Follow the Fleet (1936), the Gershwins'
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
"Embraceable You
Embraceable You
"Embraceable You" is a popular song, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song was originally written in 1928 for an unpublished operetta named East is West. It was eventually published in 1930 and included in the Broadway musical Girl Crazy. where it was performed by...
" from Girl Crazy
Girl Crazy
Girl Crazy is a 1930 musical with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book by Guy Bolton and John McGowan. Ethel Merman made her stage debut in this musical production....
and "They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus)
They All Laughed (song)
"They All Laughed" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, written for the 1937 film Shall We Dance where it was introduced by Ginger Rogers as part of a song and dance routine with Fred Astaire.-Notable recordings:...
" from Shall We Dance (1937). Furthermore, in song duets with Astaire, she co-introduced Berlin's "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket
I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket
"I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1936 film Follow the Fleet, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Notable recordings:...
" from Follow the Fleet (1936), Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
and Dorothy Fields
Dorothy Fields
Dorothy Fields was an American librettist and lyricist.She wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films...
's "Pick Yourself Up
Pick Yourself Up
"Pick Yourself Up" is a popular song composed in 1936 by Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It has a verse and chorus, as well as a third section, though the third section is often omitted in recordings...
" and "A Fine Romance
A Fine Romance (song)
"A Fine Romance" is a popular song composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Dorothy Fields, published in 1936.The song was written for the musical film, Swing Time, where it was co-introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers...
" from Swing Time
Swing Time
Swing Time is a 1936 RKO musical comedy film set mainly in New York City and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore and Georges Metaxa, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields...
(1936) and the Gershwins' "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
"Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" is a song written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin for the 1937 film Shall We Dance where it was introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as part of a celebrated dance duet on roller skates...
" from Shall We Dance (1937).
After 1939
Both before and immediately after her dancing and acting partnership with Fred Astaire ended, Rogers starred in a number of successful dramas and comedies. Stage Door
Stage Door
Stage Door is a RKO film, adapted from the play by the same name, that tells the story of several would-be actresses who live together in a boarding house at 158 West 58th Street in New York City. The film stars Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier,...
(1937) demonstrated her dramatic capacity, as the loquacious yet vulnerable girl next door, a tough minded, theatrical hopeful, opposite Katharine Hepburn. In Roxie Hart
Roxie Hart
Roxanne "Roxie" Hart is a fictional showgirl in various adaptations of the same story. She first appeared in the 1926 play Chicago written by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins was inspired by the real-life unrelated 1924 murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, which she covered for...
(1942), based on the same play which served as the template for the musical Chicago
Chicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
, Ginger played a wise-cracking wife on trial for a murder her husband committed. In the neo-realist Primrose Path
Primrose Path (film)
Primrose Path is a 1940 film about a young woman determined not to follow the profession of her mother and grandmother, prostitution. It stars Ginger Rogers and Joel McCrea. The film was based on the play of the same name by Robert L...
(1940), directed by Gregory La Cava, she played a prostitute's daughter trying to avoid the fate of her mother. Further highlights of this period included Tom, Dick, and Harry
Tom, Dick, and Harry
Tom Dick & Harry is a Bollywood comedy film released on May 12, 2006. It stars Dino Morea, Jimmy Shergill, Anuj Sawhney, Celina Jaitley, Kim Sharma, Gulshan Grover and Shakti Kapoor...
, a 1941 comedy where she dreams of marrying three different men; I'll Be Seeing You, with Joseph Cotten; La Cava's 5th Avenue Girl (1939), where she played an out-of-work girl sucked into the lives of a wealthy family; and especially the sharp and highly successful comedies: Bachelor Mother
Bachelor Mother
Bachelor Mother is an American comedy film directed by Garson Kanin, and starring Ginger Rogers , David Niven, and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna based on a Academy Award nominated story by Felix Jackson...
(1939), where she played Polly Parrish, a shop girl who is falsely thought to have abandoned her baby; and Billy Wilder's first Hollywood feature film: The Major and the Minor
The Major and the Minor
The Major and the Minor is a 1942 American comedy film starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland. It was the first American film directed by Billy Wilder, and launched his "incomparable" directing career...
(1942), in which she played a woman who masquerades as a 12-year-old to get a cheap train ticket and finds herself obliged to continue the ruse for an extended period. This film featured a performance by Rogers's own real mother, Lela, playing her film mother.
In 1941, Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her role in 1940's Kitty Foyle
Kitty Foyle (film)
Kitty Foyle, subtitled The Natural History of a Woman, is a 1940 film starring Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Ernest Cossart and Gladys Cooper.-Plot:...
. She enjoyed considerable success during the early 1940s, and was RKO's hottest property during this period. Becoming a free agent, she made hugely successful films with other studios in the mid-'40s, including Tender Comrade (1943), Lady in the Dark
Lady in the Dark
Lady in the Dark is a musical with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart. It was produced by Sam Harris. The protagonist, Liza Elliott, is the unhappy female editor of a fashion magazine, Allure, who is undergoing psychoanalysis...
(1944), and Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), and became the highest-paid performer in Hollywood. However, by the end of the decade, her film career had peaked. Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
reunited her with Fred Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway
The Barkleys of Broadway
The Barkleys of Broadway is a 1949 musical film from the Arthur Freed unit at MGM that reunited Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers after ten years apart...
in 1949.
Rogers' film career entered a period of gradual decline in the 1950s, as parts for older actresses became more difficult to obtain, but she still scored with some solid films. She starred in Storm Warning (1950) with Ronald Reagan and Doris Day, the noir, anti Ku Klux Klan film by Warner Brothers, and in Monkey Business
Monkey Business (1952 film)
Monkey Business is a screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Hugh Marlowe. To avoid confusion with the famous Marx Brothers movie of the same name, this film is sometimes referred to as Howard Hawks' Monkey...
(1952) with Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
and Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, directed by Howard Hawks. In the same year, she also starred in We're Not Married!
We're Not Married!
We're Not Married! is a romantic comedy film released by 20th Century Fox. The featured was directed by Edmund Goulding, and released on July 11, 1952....
, also featuring Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, and in Dreamboat
Dreamboat
"Dreamboat" is a popular music song, the words and music to which were written by Jack Hoffman, ....
. She played the female lead in Tight Spot
Tight Spot
Tight Spot is an American film noir directed by Phil Karlson and written by William Bowers, based on the play Dead Pigeon, by Leonard Kantor. It stars Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Brian Keith, Lorne Greene, and Eve McVeagh...
(1955), a mystery thriller, with Edward G. Robinson. After a series of unremarkable films she scored with a great popular success, playing Dolly Levi in the long-running Hello, Dolly!
Hello, Dolly! (musical)
Hello, Dolly! is a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955....
on Broadway in 1965.
In later life, Rogers remained on good terms with Astaire: she presented him with a special Academy Award in 1950, and they were co-presenters of individual Academy Awards in 1967, during which they elicited a standing ovation when they came on stage in an impromptu dance. In 1969, she had the lead role in another long-running popular production of Mame, from the book by Jerome Lawrence
Jerome Lawrence
Jerome Lawrence was an American playwright and author.-Life and career:Lawrence was born Jerome Lawrence Schwartz in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Sarah , a poet, and Samuel Schwartz, a printer. He worked for several small newspapers as a reporter/editor before moving into radio as a writer for CBS....
and Robert Edwin Lee
Robert Edwin Lee
Robert Edwin Lee was an American playwright and lyricist. With his writing partner, Jerome Lawrence, Lee worked for Armed Forces Radio during World War II; Lawrence and Lee became the most prolific writing partnership in radio, with such long-running series as Favorite Story among others.-Life and...
, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman
Jerry Herman
Jerry Herman is an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He has been nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage...
, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, arriving for the role on the Liner QE2 from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Her docking there occasioned the maximum of pomp and ceremony at Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
. She became the highest paid performer in the history of the West End up to that time. The production ran for 14 months and featured a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth the Second. The Kennedy Center
Kennedy Center Honors
The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture. The Honors have been presented annually since 1978 in Washington, D.C., during gala weekend-long events which culminate in a performance for—and...
honored Ginger Rogers in December 1992. This event, which was shown on television, was somewhat marred when Astaire's widow, Robyn Smith, who permitted clips of Astaire dancing with Rogers to be shown for free at the function itself, was unable to come to terms with CBS Television for broadcast rights to the clips (all previous rights holders having donated broadcast rights gratis).
From the 1950s onwards, Rogers would make occasional appearances on television. In the later years of her career, she made guest appearances in three different series by Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
; The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
(1979), Glitter
Glitter (TV series)
Glitter was an American television drama series screened on the ABC network during the 1984-1985 season.The series was produced by Aaron Spelling and was set behind the scenes of a top entertainment magazine titled "Glitter" and attempted to combine the urgency of journalism and business politics...
(1984), and Hotel
Hotel (TV series)
Hotel is an American prime time drama series which aired on ABC from September 21, 1983 to May 5, 1988 in the timeslot following Dynasty....
(1987), which would be her final screen appearance as an actress.
Personal life
Rogers was an only child, and maintained a close relationship with her mother throughout her life. Lela Rogers (1891–1977) was a newspaper reporter, scriptwriter, and movie producer. She was also one of the first women to enlist in the Marine CorpsUnited States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, was a founder of the successful "Hollywood Playhouse" for aspiring actors and actresses on the RKO set, and was a founder of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals
Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals
The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals was an American organization of high-profile, politically conservative members of the Hollywood film industry...
. Mother and daughter had an extremely close professional relationship as well. Lela Rogers was credited with many pivotal contributions to her daughter's early successes in New York and in Hollywood, not to mention contract negotiations with RKO.
In her classic 1930s musicals with Astaire, Ginger Rogers, co-billed with him, was paid less than Fred, the creative force behind the dances, who also received 10% of the profits. But she was also paid less than many of the supporting "farceurs" billed beneath her, in spite of her much more central role in the films' great financial success. This was personally grating to her, and had effects upon her relationships at RKO, especially with director Mark Sandrich
Mark Sandrich
Mark Sandrich was a Jewish American film director, writer and producer.Sandrich was an engineering student at Columbia University when he began in the film business by accident. While visiting a friend on a film set, he saw that the director had a problem in setting up a shot; Sandrich offered...
, whose purported disrespect of Rogers prompted a sharp letter of reprimand from producer Pandro Berman, which she deemed important enough to publish in her autobiography. Rogers fought hard for her contract and salary rights, and for better films and scripts.
Rogers' first marriage was at age 17 to her dancing partner Jack Pepper
Jack Pepper
Jack Pepper was an American vaudeville dancer, singer, comedian, musician, and later in life a Dallas, Texas nightclub manager....
(real name Edward Jackson Culpepper) on March 29, 1929. They divorced in 1931, having separated soon after the wedding. In 1934 she married actor Lew Ayres
Lew Ayres
Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr...
(1908–1996). They divorced seven years later. Rogers sued Sylvia of Hollywood
Sylvia of Hollywood
Sylvia Ulback , known as Sylvia of Hollywood, was an early Hollywood fitness guru. Between 1926 and 1932, "Madame Sylvia", as she was also known, specialised in keeping movie stars camera-ready through stringent massage, diet and exercise.-Early life:Sylvia was born Symnove Johanne Waaler in Oslo ...
for $100K for defamation. Sylvia, Hollywood's fitness guru and radio personality, had claimed that Rogers was on Sylvia's radio show when, in fact, she was not.
In 1943, Rogers married her third husband, Jack Briggs, a Marine
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
. Upon his return from World War II, Briggs showed no interest in continuing his incipient Hollywood career. They divorced in 1949. In 1953 she married Jacques Bergerac
Jacques Bergerac
Jacques Bergerac is a former French actor with a brief Hollywood film career.Originally a lawyer, Bergerac met and married Ginger Rogers with whom he appeared in Twist of Fate . He then went on to appear as Armand Duval in a television production of Camille for Kraft Television Theatre, opposite...
, a French actor 16 years her junior, whom she met on a trip to Paris. A lawyer in France, he came to Hollywood with her and became an actor. They divorced in 1957. Her fifth and final husband was director and producer William Marshall. They married in 1961, and divorced in 1971, after his bouts with alcohol, and the financial collapse of their joint film production company in Jamaica.
Rogers was lifelong friends with actresses Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
and Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
. Rogers starred in one of the earliest films co-directed and co-scripted by a woman, Wanda Tuchock's Finishing School (1934). In 1985, Rogers fulfilled a long-standing wish to direct by directing the musical Babes in Arms
Babes in Arms
Babes in Arms is a 1937 musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart and book by Rodgers and Hart. It concerns a teen-age boy who puts on a show with his friends to avoid being sent to a work farm.- Production history:...
off-Broadway in Tarrytown, New York
Tarrytown, New York
Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line...
, when she was 74 years old. She appeared with Ball in an episode of Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy is Lucille Ball's third network television sitcom. It ran on CBS from 1968 to 1974.-Background:Though The Lucy Show was still hugely popular during the previous season, finishing in the top five of the Nielsen Ratings , Ball opted to end that series at the end of that season and create...
on November 22, 1971, in which Rogers danced the Charleston
Charleston (dance)
The Charleston is a dance named for the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one...
for the first time in many years.
Rogers maintained a close friendship with her cousin, writer/socialite Phyllis Fraser
Phyllis Fraser
Phyllis Fraser Cerf Wagner was an American actress, journalist, and children's book publisher, and the co-founder of Beginner Books.-Early life:...
, but was not Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
's natural cousin as has been reported. Hayworth's maternal uncle, Vinton Hayworth, was married to Rogers's maternal aunt, Jean Owens.
In 1977, Rogers's mother died. Rogers remained at the 4-Rs (Rogers's Rogue River Ranch) until 1990, when she sold the property and moved to nearby Medford
Medford, Oregon
Medford is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 US Census, the city had a total population of 74,907 and a metropolitan area population of 207,010, making the Medford MSA the 4th largest metro area in Oregon...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. Her last public appearance was on March 18, 1995 when she received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award. For many years, Rogers regularly supported, and held in-person presentations, at the Craterian Theater, in Medford, Oregon, where she had performed in 1926 as a vaudevillian. The theater was comprehensively restored in 1997, and posthumously renamed in her honor, as the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater.
Death
Rogers would spend winters in Rancho MirageRancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage is a resort city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal population can exceed 20,000. In between Cathedral City and Palm Desert, it is one of the eight cities of the Coachella...
and summers in Medford. She died in Rancho Mirage on April 25, 1995 of congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
at the age of 83. She was cremated and her ashes interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery
Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery
The Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 22601 Lassen Street, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California. It has been used as a cemetery since 1924, and there was a Native American graveyard next to the cemetery before a fire destroyed the old wooden crosses that marked the site. The Old...
in Chatsworth, California, with her mother's remains.
Politics
She was a lifelong conservative and a member of the Republican PartyRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
.Along with her mother, and such contemporaries as Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
, Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
, Rogers was a founding member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a Hollywood anti-Communist group.
She was raised a Christian Scientist, and was a lifelong adherent. She devoted a great deal of time in her autobiography to the importance of her faith throughout her career.
Portrayals of Rogers
No films have been made about Ginger Rogers, possibly because her best-known co-star Fred AstaireFred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
stipulated in his will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
that no film representations of him were ever to be made.
- Likenesses of Astaire and Rogers, apparently painted over from the Cheek to Cheek dance in Top Hat, are in the Lucy in the Skies section of The BeatlesThe BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
film Yellow Submarine (1968).
- Rogers' image is one of many famous women's images of the 1930s and 40s featured on the bedroom wall in the Anne FrankAnne FrankAnnelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
House in AmsterdamAmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, a gallery of magazine cuttings pasted on the wall created by Anne and her sister Margot while hiding from the Nazis. When the house became a museum, the gallery the Frank sisters created was preserved under glass. Rogers' image is one of the larger and more prominent, which clearly indicates her global and mass appeal amongst the youth of the time.
- A musical about the life of Rogers, entitled Backwards in High Heels, premiered in Florida in early 2007.
- Rogers was the heroine of a novel, Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak (1942, by Lela E. Rogers), in which "the heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.
Features
| Title | Date | Director | Co-Starring | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Young Man of Manhattan Young Man of Manhattan Young Man of Manhattan is a 1930 film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Monta Bell, and starring Claudette Colbert, Norman Foster, Ginger Rogers and Charles Ruggles... |
1930 | Monta Bell | Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures... , Norman Foster Norman Foster (director) Norman Foster was an American film director and actor.Born John Hoeffer in Richmond, Indiana, Foster originally became a cub reporter on a local newspaper in Indiana before going to New York in the hopes of getting a better newspaper job but there were no vacancies... |
The line, "Cigarette me, big boy" became a popular catchphrase during the 1930s after audiences heard Ginger Rogers repeat it throughout the movie. |
| Queen High Queen High Queen High is the title of an early musical-comedy produced by Paramount Pictures in 1930.Based upon a stage musical by Buddy DeSylva, Lewis Gensler, and Laurence Schwab, the storyline loosely concerns a rivalry between two businessmen that results in a game of poker... |
1930 | Fred Newmeyer | ||
| The Sap from Syracuse | 1930 | A. Edward Sutherland | Jack Oakie Jack Oakie Jack Oakie was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television.-Early life:... |
|
| Follow the Leader | 1930 | Norman Taurog | ||
| Honor Among Lovers Honor Among Lovers Honor Among Lovers is a 1931 drama film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Dorothy Arzner. The film stars Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Monroe Owsley, Charles Ruggles and Ginger Rogers.-Plot:... |
1931 | Dorothy Arzner | Claudette Colbert | |
| The Tip Off | 1931 | Albert Rogell | ||
| Suicide Fleet | 1931 | Albert Rogell | ||
| Carnival Boat | 1932 | Albert Rogell | ||
| The Tenderfoot | 1932 | Ray Enright | Joe E. Brown | |
| The Thirteenth Guest The Thirteenth Guest The Thirteenth Guest were a four piece Jazz/Rock/Fusion band from Glasgow formed 1979 and disbanded in 1981 when the members all went their respective ways.... |
1932 | Albert Ray | ||
| Hat Check Girl | 1932 | Sidney Lanfield Sidney Lanfield Sidney Lanfield was a film director known for directing comedy films and later television programs.The one-time musician's first directing job was for the Fox Film Corporation in 1930; he went on to direct a number of films for 20th Century Fox... |
Sidney Lanfield was the most frequent director on the Addams Family 1960s television show. | |
| You Said a Mouthful | 1932 | Lloyd Bacon | Joe E. Brown | |
| 42nd Street 42nd Street (film) -Cast:*Warner Baxter as Julian Marsh, director*Bebe Daniels as Dorothy Brock, star*George Brent as Pat Denning, Dorothy's old vaudeville partner*Ruby Keeler as Peggy Sawyer, the newcomer*Guy Kibbee as Abner Dillon, the show's backer... |
1933 | Lloyd Bacon | Warner Baxter Warner Baxter Warner Leroy Baxter was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona , for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1928–1929 Academy Awards. Warner Baxter started his movie career in silent movies... , Ruby Keeler Ruby Keeler Ruby Keeler, born Ethel Hilda Keeler, was an actress, singer, and dancer most famous for her on-screen coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Brothers, particularly 42nd Street . From 1928 to 1940, she was married to singer Al Jolson... , Dick Powell Dick Powell Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:... |
|
| Broadway Bad | 1933 | Sidney Lanfield | ||
| Gold Diggers of 1933 Gold Diggers of 1933 Gold Diggers of 1933 is a pre-code Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin , staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley... |
1933 | Mervyn LeRoy | Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell | |
| Professional Sweetheart | 1933 | William A. Seiter William A. Seiter William A. Seiter was an American film director. He was born in New York City. After attending Hudson River Military Academy, Seiter broke into films in 1915 as a bit player at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, doubling a cowboy... |
Norman Foster | |
| A Shriek in the Night A Shriek in the Night A Shriek in the Night is a 1933 American comedy horror film starring Ginger Rogers, Lyle Talbot, and Harvey Clark.-Plot Outline:Rival newspaper reporters Pat Morgan and Ted Kord find themselves unravelling the mystery behind the death of a millionaire philanthropist who fell from his penthouse... |
1933 | Albert Ray | ||
| Don't Bet on Love | 1933 | Murray Roth | Lew Ayres Lew Ayres Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr... |
Ginger Rogers and Lew Ayres were married for seven years following this film. |
| Sitting Pretty Sitting Pretty (1933 film) This article is about the 1933 motion picture. For other articles about other uses of the phrase "Sitty Pretty", see the disambiguation page Sitting Pretty .... |
1933 | Harry Joe Brown | Jack Oakie Jack Oakie Jack Oakie was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television.-Early life:... , Jack Haley Jack Haley John Joseph "Jack" Haley was an American stage, radio, and film actor best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man and Kansas farmworker Hickory in The Wizard of Oz.-Career:... |
|
| Flying Down to Rio Flying Down to Rio Flying Down to Rio is a 1933 RKO musical film noted for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Astaire and Rogers were not the stars of the film, however, Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond were top-billed. Among the featured players Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore are... |
1933 | Thornton Freeland | Dolores Del Rio Dolores del Río Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood... , Gene Raymond Gene Raymond Gene Raymond was an American film, television, and stage actor of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to acting, Raymond was also a composer, writer, director, producer, and decorated military pilot.-Stage and movie career:... , Fred Astaire Fred Astaire Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute... |
The first of the Astaire-Rogers pairing. This is the only movie where Rogers is billed above Astaire. |
| Chance at Heaven | 1933 | William A. Seiter | Joel McCrea Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:... |
|
| Rafter Romance Rafter Romance Rafter Romance is a 1933 RKO romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter. The film, which was based on the novel of the same name by John Wells, stars Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster and features George Sidney, Laura Hope Crews, Guinn Williams and Robert Benchley.-Plot:Mary Carroll is a... |
1934 | William A. Seiter | Norman Foster | |
| Finishing School Finishing School (film) Finishing School is a 1934 romantic drama film starring Frances Dee as a young woman who gets into trouble after being sent to a finishing school by her neglectful parents.This film was condemned by the Legion of Decency.-Plot:... |
1934 | Wanda Tuchock and George Nicholas | Beulah Bondi Beulah Bondi Beulah Bondi was an American actress.Bondi began her acting career as a young child in theater, and after establishing herself as a stage actress, she reprised her role in Street Scene for the 1931 film version... |
|
| Twenty Million Sweethearts Twenty Million Sweethearts Twenty Million Sweethearts is a 1934 American musical comedy film directed by Ray Enright. The film stars Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers.The film was remade in 1949, starring Doris Day and Jack Carson as My Dream Is Yours.-Plot:... |
1934 | Ray Enright | Dick Powell | |
| Change of Heart Change of Heart (1934 film) Change of Heart is a 1934 American drama film starring Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, James Dunn, and Ginger Rogers. The movie, about a quartet of college chums who all move to 1934 New York City, was written by James Gleason and Sonya Levien from Kathleen Norris's novel, Manhattan Love Song and... |
1934 | John G. Blystone | Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia... |
|
| Upperworld | 1934 | Roy Del Ruth | Mary Astor Mary Astor Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost... |
|
| The Gay Divorcee The Gay Divorcee The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 American film based on the musical play Gay Divorce written by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth S. Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein, with screenplay by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman, from an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners... |
1934 | Mark Sandrich Mark Sandrich Mark Sandrich was a Jewish American film director, writer and producer.Sandrich was an engineering student at Columbia University when he began in the film business by accident. While visiting a friend on a film set, he saw that the director had a problem in setting up a shot; Sandrich offered... |
Fred Astaire | |
| Romance in Manhattan Romance in Manhattan Romance in Manhattan is an American comedy/romance film directed by Stephen Roberts, starring Francis Lederer and Ginger Rogers, and released by RKO Radio Pictures.- Plot :... |
1934 | Stephen Roberts | ||
| Roberta Roberta Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The musical is based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller... |
1935 | William A. Seiter | Irene Dunne Irene Dunne Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama... , Fred Astaire, Randolph Scott Randolph Scott Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few... |
Lucille Ball Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy... has an uncredited appearance as a model. She had lines deleted since her character was supposed to be a French model and she could not perfect the accent. |
| Star of Midnight Star of Midnight Star of Midnight is an American mystery-comedy film released by RKO Pictures in 1935. William Powell was loaned out in this movie from MGM to star with Ginger Rogers.-Plot:... |
1935 | Stephen Roberts | William Powell William Powell William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles... |
|
| Top Hat Top Hat Top Hat is a 1935 screwball comedy musical film in which Fred Astaire plays an American dancer named Jerry Travers, who comes to London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick . He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont to win her affection... |
1935 | Mark Sandrich | Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball | |
| In Person | 1935 | William A. Seiter | George Brent George Brent George Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish... |
|
| Follow the Fleet Follow the Fleet Follow the Fleet is a 1936 Hollywood musical comedy film with a nautical theme and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Lucille Ball and Betty Grable also appear, in small supporting roles... |
1936 | Mark Sandrich | Fred Astaire, Randolph Scott, Lucille Ball | |
| Swing Time Swing Time Swing Time is a 1936 RKO musical comedy film set mainly in New York City and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Helen Broderick, Victor Moore, Eric Blore and Georges Metaxa, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields... |
1936 | George Stevens | Fred Astaire | |
| Shall We Dance | 1937 | Mark Sandrich | Fred Astaire | |
| Stage Door Stage Door Stage Door is a RKO film, adapted from the play by the same name, that tells the story of several would-be actresses who live together in a boarding house at 158 West 58th Street in New York City. The film stars Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier,... |
1937 | Gregory La Cava | Katharine Hepburn Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies... , Adolphe Menjou Adolphe Menjou Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born... , Gail Patrick Gail Patrick Gail Patrick was an American film actress.Born Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick, she appeared in 62 movies between 1932 and 1948, usually as the leading lady's extremely formidable rival; some of these roles include the second wife in My Favorite Wife with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, Anna May Wong's... , Lucille Ball |
|
| Having Wonderful Time Having Wonderful Time Having Wonderful Time is a 1938 romantic comedy film released by RKO Radio Pictures.-Plot summary :A bored New York office girl , goes to a camp in the Catskill Mountains called Camp Kare Free, for rest and to get away from the noise, busy, city life and finds a handsome waiter , and they fall in... |
1938 | Alfred Santell | Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Lucille Ball, Red Skelton Red Skelton Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing... |
This used much of the same cast as Stage Door. |
| Vivacious Lady Vivacious Lady Vivacious Lady is a 1938 American black-and-white romantic comedy film starring Ginger Rogers and James Stewart, produced and directed by George Stevens, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The screenplay was written by P.J. Wolfson and Ernest Pagano and adapted from a short story by I. A. R. Wylie... |
1938 | George Stevens | James Stewart James Stewart James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart... , Charles Coburn Charles Coburn Charles Douville Coburn was an American film and theater actor.-Biography:Coburn was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Scots-Irish Americans Emma Louise Sprigman and Moses Douville Coburn. Growing up in Savannah, he started out doing odd jobs at the local Savannah Theater, handing out programs,... , Hattie McDaniel Hattie McDaniel Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind .... |
|
| Carefree Carefree (film) Carefree is a 1938 musical film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. With a plot similar to screwball comedies of the period, Carefree is the shortest of the Astaire-Rogers films, featuring only four musical numbers... |
1938 | Mark Sandrich | Fred Astaire, Jack Carson Jack Carson John Elmer "Jack" Carson was a Canadian-born U.S.-based film actor.Jack Carson was one of the most popular character actors during the 'golden age of Hollywood', with a film career spanning the 1930s, '40s and '50s... , Hattie McDaniel |
|
| The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is an American biographical musical comedy, released in 1939 and directed by H.C. Potter. The film stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, and Walter Brennan.... |
1939 | H. C. Potter | Fred Astaire | |
| Bachelor Mother Bachelor Mother Bachelor Mother is an American comedy film directed by Garson Kanin, and starring Ginger Rogers , David Niven, and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna based on a Academy Award nominated story by Felix Jackson... |
1939 | Garson Kanin | David Niven David Niven James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther... , Charles Coburn |
|
| Fifth Avenue Girl | 1939 | Gregory La Cava | ||
| Primrose Path Primrose Path (film) Primrose Path is a 1940 film about a young woman determined not to follow the profession of her mother and grandmother, prostitution. It stars Ginger Rogers and Joel McCrea. The film was based on the play of the same name by Robert L... |
1940 | Gregory La Cava | Joel McCrea | |
| Lucky Partners | 1940 | Lewis Milestone | Ronald Colman Ronald Colman Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he... , Jack Carson |
|
| Kitty Foyle Kitty Foyle (film) Kitty Foyle, subtitled The Natural History of a Woman, is a 1940 film starring Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Ernest Cossart and Gladys Cooper.-Plot:... |
1940 | Sam Wood | Dennis Morgan Dennis Morgan Dennis Morgan was an American actor-singer. Born as Earl Stanley Morner, he used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting his professional name.... , James Craig James Craig (actor) James Craig was an American actor.After graduating from the Rice Institute, Craig began appearing in films in 1937, most often in B-movies and serials... |
Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress the first year that the Academy was not announcing the winners before the ceremony. She beat Bette Davis Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional... , Joan Fontaine Joan Fontaine Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.... , Martha Scott Martha Scott Martha Ellen Scott was an American actress best known for her roles as mother of the lead character in numerous films and television shows.-Early life:... , and former co-star Katharine Hepburn Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies... . |
| Tom, Dick, and Harry Tom, Dick, and Harry Tom Dick & Harry is a Bollywood comedy film released on May 12, 2006. It stars Dino Morea, Jimmy Shergill, Anuj Sawhney, Celina Jaitley, Kim Sharma, Gulshan Grover and Shakti Kapoor... |
1942 | Garson Kanin | Burgess Meredith Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director... |
|
| Roxie Hart Roxie Hart Roxanne "Roxie" Hart is a fictional showgirl in various adaptations of the same story. She first appeared in the 1926 play Chicago written by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins was inspired by the real-life unrelated 1924 murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, which she covered for... |
1942 | William A. Wellman | Adolphe Menjou | |
| Tales of Manhattan Tales of Manhattan Tales of Manhattan is a 1942 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier. Thirteen writers, including Ben Hecht, Alan Campbell, Ferenc Molnár, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Donald Ogden Stewart worked on the six stories in this film.-Cast:... |
1942 | Julien Duvivier | Henry Fonda Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins... , Cesar Romero Cesar Romero Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years... , Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars... , Gail Patrick |
|
| The Major and the Minor The Major and the Minor The Major and the Minor is a 1942 American comedy film starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland. It was the first American film directed by Billy Wilder, and launched his "incomparable" directing career... |
1942 | Billy Wilder Billy Wilder Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age... |
Ray Milland Ray Milland Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting... |
Rogers campaigned hard for Billy Wilder and as a result this became his debut film. This remains one of Rogers' favorite movies. Near the end of the movie her real life mother, Lela Rogers, played her character's mother. |
| Once Upon a Honeymoon Once Upon a Honeymoon Once Upon a Honeymoon is a 1956 musical sponsored film about a couple wishing for a new home. It starts off with a group of angels who decide to help a couple have a honeymoon. The husband tries to write a song, while the wife daydreams about a new home, and imagines what it would be like to have... |
1942 | Leo McCarey | Cary Grant Cary Grant Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship... |
|
| Tender Comrade | 1943 | Edward Dmytryk | ||
| Lady in the Dark Lady in the Dark (film) Lady in the Dark is a 1944 Technicolor musical film directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Ginger Rogers. It was nominated for three Academy Awards; for Best Cinematography, Best Music and Best Art Direction .... |
1944 | Mitchell Leisen | Ray Milland, Warner Baxter Warner Baxter Warner Leroy Baxter was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona , for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1928–1929 Academy Awards. Warner Baxter started his movie career in silent movies... |
|
| I'll Be Seeing You | 1944 | William Dieterle | Joseph Cotten Joseph Cotten Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair... , Shirley Temple |
|
| Week-End at the Waldorf Week-End at the Waldorf Week-End at the Waldorf is a 1945 American comedy drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. The screenplay by Samuel and Bella Spewack is based on Guy Bolton's adaptation of the Vicki Baum novel Menschen im Hotel, which was filmed as Grand Hotel in 1932.-Plot:The film focuses on various guests... |
1945 | Robert Z. Leonard | Lana Turner Lana Turner Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy... |
Remake of the 1932 film Grand Hotel Grand Hotel (film) Grand Hotel is a 1932 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by William A. Drake and Béla Balázs is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum... portraying the ballerina whom was first played on screen by Greta Garbo Greta Garbo Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable... . |
| Heartbeat | 1946 | Sam Wood | Adolphe Menjou | |
| Magnificent Doll | 1946 | Frank Borzage | David Niven, Burgess Meredith | |
| It Had to Be You It Had to Be You (1947 film) It Had to Be You is a 1947 romantic comedy film starring Ginger Rogers and Cornel Wilde.-Cast:* Ginger Rogers as Victoria Stafford * Cornel Wilde as George McKesson/Johnny Blaine* Ron Randell as Oliver H.P. Harrington... |
1947 | Don Hartman and Rudolph Mate | Cornel Wilde | |
| The Barkleys of Broadway The Barkleys of Broadway The Barkleys of Broadway is a 1949 musical film from the Arthur Freed unit at MGM that reunited Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers after ten years apart... |
1949 | Charles Walters | Fred Astaire | Originally Rogers' role was meant for Judy Garland Judy Garland Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage... who had recently starred in the successful musical Easter Parade Easter Parade Easter Parade is a 1948 American musical film starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, featuring music by Irving Berlin, including some of Astaire and Garland's best-known songs, such as "Steppin' Out With My Baby" and "We're a Couple of Swells."... with Astaire. However she had to drop out of the project due to health issues and Rogers was sought as a last minute replacement. This is the only Astaire-Rogers film not released by RKO and the only one filmed in color (although the "I Used to Be Color Blind" number in Carefree was originally filmed in Technicolor). |
| Perfect Strangers | 1950 | Bretaigne Windust | Dennis Morgan | |
| Storm Warning | 1950 | Stuart Heisler | Ronald Reagen, Doris Day Doris Day Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,... |
|
| The Groom Wore Spurs The Groom Wore Spurs - Cast :*Ginger Rogers as "A.J." Furnival*Jack Carson as Ben Castle*Joan Davis as Alice Dean*Stanley Ridges as Harry Kallen*John Litel as Uncle George*James Brown as Steve Hall*Victor Sen Yung as Ignacio*Mira McKinney as Mrs. Forbes*Gordon Nelson as Ricky... |
1951 | Richard Whorf | Jack Carson | |
| We're Not Married | 1952 | Edmund Goulding | Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s.... , Zsa Zsa Gabor Zsa Zsa Gabor Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that... , Victor Moore Victor Moore Victor Frederick Moore was an American actor of stage and screen, as well as a comedian, writer, and director.-Personal life:... |
|
| Monkey Business Monkey Business (1952 film) Monkey Business is a screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Hugh Marlowe. To avoid confusion with the famous Marx Brothers movie of the same name, this film is sometimes referred to as Howard Hawks' Monkey... |
1952 | Howard Hawks Howard Hawks Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era... |
Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn | |
| Dreamboat Dreamboat "Dreamboat" is a popular music song, the words and music to which were written by Jack Hoffman, .... |
1952 | Claude Binyon | ||
| Forever Female | 1953 | Irving Rapper | William Holden William Holden William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974... |
|
| Black Widow Black Widow (1954 film) Black Widow is a 1954 mystery color film noir, written, produced and directed by Nunnally Johnson and starring Van Heflin, Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney, and George Raft.-Plot:... |
1954 | Nunnally Johnson | Gene Tierney Gene Tierney Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven .Other notable roles include... |
|
| Twist of Fate | 1954 | David Miller | This was released in Great Britain as "Beautiful Stranger." Rogers' husband at the time, Jacques Bergerac, appeared in the film. | |
| Tight Spot Tight Spot Tight Spot is an American film noir directed by Phil Karlson and written by William Bowers, based on the play Dead Pigeon, by Leonard Kantor. It stars Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Brian Keith, Lorne Greene, and Eve McVeagh... |
1955 | Phil Karlson | Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo... |
|
| The First Traveling Saleslady The First Traveling Saleslady The First Traveling Saleslady was a 1956 American film starring Ginger Rogers and Carol Channing. The cast includes James Arness, and a young Clint Eastwood . Commercially unsuccessful, it was among the films that helped to close RKO Pictures.-External links:... |
1956 | Arthur Lubin | Clint Eastwood Clint Eastwood Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide... |
|
| Teenage Rebel Teenage Rebel Teenage Rebel is a 1956 drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Ginger Rogers. It was nominated for two Academy Awards; for Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction Teenage Rebel is a 1956 drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Ginger Rogers. It was nominated for two... |
1956 | Edmund Goulding | ||
| Oh! Men, Oh! Women | 1957 | Nunnally Johnson | David Niven | |
| The Confession | 1965 | William Dieterle | Ray Milland | Also known as "Quick, Let's Get Married." |
| Harlow (Magna film) Harlow (Magna film) Harlow is a 1965 biographical film about the life of film star Jean Harlow, with Carol Lynley in the title role. It was released shortly before Paramount Pictures own film on the same subject. This was Ginger Rogers' last film appearance.-Cast:... |
1965 | Alex Segal | Carol Lynley Carol Lynley Carol Lynley is an American actress and former child model.-Life and career:Lynley was born Carole Ann Jones in New York City, the daughter of Frances , a waitress, and Cyril Jones. Her father was Irish and her mother, a native of New England, was of English, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Native... |
Roger's last film. |
Short subjects
- A Day of a Man of Affairs (1929)
- A Night in a Dormitory (1930)
- Campus Sweethearts (1930)
- Office Blues (1930)
- Hollywood on Parade (1932)
- Screen Snapshots (1932)
- Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 (1933)
- Hollywood Newsreel (1934)
- Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 3 (1936)
- Show Business at WarShow Business at WarShow Business at War is a short film made in 1943 to tout the United States film industry's contribution to the war effort. Several studios collaborated on the production and approximately 70 stars, producers, directors and studio executives appeared in it....
(1943) - Battle Stations (Narrator, 1944)
- Screen Snapshots: The Great Showman (1950)
- Screen Snapshots: Hollywood's Great Entertainers (1954)
Television
- The DuPont Show with June AllysonThe DuPont Show with June AllysonThe DuPont Show with June Allyson is an American anthology drama series which aired on CBS from September 21, 1959 to April 3, 1961 with rebroadcasts continuing until June 12, 1961...
, as Kay Neilson in "The Tender Shoot" (October 18, 1959) - What's My Line?What's My Line?What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
(1954, 1957, 1963) - The Jack Benny ProgramThe Jack Benny ProgramThe Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.-Cast:*Jack Benny - Himself...
(1957) - The Pat Boone Chevy ShowroomThe Pat Boone Chevy ShowroomThe Pat Boone Chevy Showroom is a half-hour variety show that aired on ABC from October 3, 1957 to June 23, 1960, starring the young singer Pat Boone and a host of top-name guest stars. The program was of course sponsored by Chevrolet...
(1959) - CinderellaCinderella (TV)Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is a musical written for television, with music by Richard Rodgers and a book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based upon the fairy tale Cinderella, particularly the French version Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de Vair, by Charles Perrault...
(1965) - Here's Lucy (1971)(episode 4.11)
- The Love BoatThe Love BoatThe Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
(1979) (episodes 3.10 and 3.11) - GlitterGlitter (TV series)Glitter was an American television drama series screened on the ABC network during the 1984-1985 season.The series was produced by Aaron Spelling and was set behind the scenes of a top entertainment magazine titled "Glitter" and attempted to combine the urgency of journalism and business politics...
(1984) (episode 1.3) - HotelHotel (TV series)Hotel is an American prime time drama series which aired on ABC from September 21, 1983 to May 5, 1988 in the timeslot following Dynasty....
(1987) (episode 5.1) (final screen role)