Date of Birth
10 May 1899,
Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Date of Death
22 June 1987, Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia)
Birth Name
Frederic Austerlitz Jr.
Height
5' 9" (1.75 m)
Mini Biography
The son of an Austrian immigrant, Fred Astaire entered show business at age 5. He was successful both in vaudeville and on Broadway in partnership with his sister, Adele Astaire. After Adele retired to marry in 1932, Astaire headed to Hollywood. Signed to RKO, he was loaned to MGM to appear in Dancing Lady (1933) before starting work on RKO's Flying Down to Rio (1933). In the latter film, he began his highly successful partnership with Ginger Rogers, with whom he danced in 9 RKO pictures. During these years, he was also active in recording and radio. On film, Astaire later appeared opposite a number of partners through various studios. After a temporary retirement in 1945-7, during which he opened Fred Astaire Dance Studios, Astaire returned to film to star in more musicals through 1957. He subsequently performed a number of straight dramatic roles in film and TV.
, because we weren't going on and getting better. Aside from that, I didn't dislike anything.
[on modern movies] They tend to overdo the vulgarity. I'm not embarrassed by the language itself, but it's embarrassing to be listening to it, sitting next to perfect strangers.
Of course, [Ginger Rogers] was able to accomplish sex through dance. We told more through our movements instead of the big clinch. We did it all in the dance.
I had some ballet training but didn't like it. It was like a game to me.
People think I was born in top hat and tails.
The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.
It's nice that all the composers have said that nobody interprets a lyric like Fred Astaire. But when it comes to selling records I was never worth anything particularly except as a collector's item.
[on his screen partnership with Ginger Rogers] Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually, she made things very fine for the both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success.
I suppose I made it look easy, but gee whiz, did I work and worry.
Dancing is a sweat job.
[to Jack Lemmon] You're at a level where you can only afford one mistake. The higher up you go, the more mistakes you're allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style.
I don't want to be the oldest performer in captivity . . . I don't want to look like a little old man dancing out there.
I have no desire to prove anything by it [dancing]. I never used it as an outlet or as a means of expressing myself. I just dance.
[on John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (1977)] He's not a dancer. What he did in those dance scenes was very attractive but he is basically not a dancer. I was dancing like that years ago, you know. Disco is just jitterbug.
[on Ginger Rogers] She may have faked a little, but we knew we had a good thing going.
[on tap dancer Eleanor Powell] Eleanor was an out-and-out dancer. She danced like a man. She slammed the floor and did it great and that's fine and suddenly she's on her toes in the ballet sequence -- it did look kinda funny.
[on Rita Hayworth] A great dancer but a different style to me.
[on Judy Garland] She was just simply wonderful. She danced beautifully, learned beautifully. She was very adept at whatever she did. Really in fine form. We were all set to do another picture together, but she got sick and that was the end of that.
[on actress/dancer Leslie Caron] A ballet dancer really, but technically good. I called her the sergeant major.
[on Gene Kelly] You know, that Kelly, he's just terrific. That's all there is to it. He dances like crazy, he directs like crazy. I adore this guy. I really am crazy about his work.
![... [ Fred Astaire, dancing ]](http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/sq/astaire.jpg "... [ Fred Astaire, dancing ]")
... [ Fred Astaire, dancing ]
Fred Astaire
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