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Mini Biography

Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911. Her family moved to Texas when she was a toddler because her father had found employment there. It wasn't long before Ginger's parents separated and she and her mother moved into a hotel. Her father, twice, kidnapped her, but both times she was returned to her mother. He received very little in visitation rights and Ginger only saw him sporadically thereafter. He died when she was 11 years old. She, then, moved with her mother to her grandparents in Kansas City, Missouri where Mrs. McMath managed to get Ginger in some advertising films. Now she was developing a taste for the cinema. Ginger's mother left her child in the care of her parents while she went in search of a job as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and later to New York City. Mrs. McMath found herself with an income good enough to where she could send for Ginger. Later, the two packed up and moved to Fort Worth, Texas where Ginger attended high school and appeared in the school productions, while her mother remarried. The theater became Ginger's passion. At the age of 14, she was also appearing in vaudeville acts which she did until she was 17. Now she had discovered true acting. She went to New York where she appeared in the Broadway production of "Top Speed." She did a superb job which began to encourage her to seek work in feature films. A screen test turned out well and she was off to the movies. Her first film was in 1929 in A Night in a Dormitory (1930). It was a bit part, but it was a start. Later that year, Ginger appeared, briefly in two more films, A Day of a Man of Affairs (1929) and Campus Sweethearts (1930). The following year she began to get better parts in films such as Office Blues (1930) and The Tip-Off (1931). But the movie that enamored her to the public was Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). She did not have top billing but her beauty and voice was enough to have the public want more. One song she popularized in the film was the now famous, "We're in the Money". In 1934, she starred with Dick Powell in Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934). It was a well received film about the popularity of radio. Ginger's real stardom occurred when she was teamed with Fred Astaire where they were one of the best cinematic couples ever to hit the silver screen. This is where she achieved real stardom. They were first paired in 1933's Flying Down to Rio (1933) and later in 1935's Roberta (1935) and Top Hat (1935). Ginger also appeared in some very good comedies such as Bachelor Mother (1939) and 5th Ave Girl (1939) both in 1939. Also that year she appeared with Astaire in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). The film made money but was not anywhere successful as they had hoped. After that studio executives at RKO wanted Ginger to strike out on her own. She made several dramatic pictures but it was 1940's Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940) that allowed her to shine. Playing a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks, she played the lead role well, so well in fact, that she won an Academy Award for her portrayal. Ginger followed that project with the delightful comedy, Tom Dick and Harry (1941) the following year. It's a story where she has to choose which of three men she wants to marry. Through the rest of the 1940s and early 1950s she continued to make movies but not near the caliber before World War II. After Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957) in 1957, Ginger didn't appear on the silver screen for seven years. By 1965, she had appeared for the last time in Harlow (1965/II). Afterward, she appeared on Broadway and other stage plays traveling in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. After 1984, she retired and wrote an autobiography in 1991 entitled, "Ginger, My Story" which is a very good book. On April 25, 1995, Ginger died of natural causes in Rancho Mirage, California. She was 83.

Spouse

Trade Mark

Often starred with Fred Astaire

Trivia

Daughter of Lela E. Rogers

Was a Christian Scientist.

Was given the name "Ginger" by her little cousin who couldn't pronounce "Virginia" correctly.

Brought her first cousin Helen Nichols to Hollywood, renamed her Phyllis Fraser, and guided her through a few films. Phyllis Fraser married and then became known as Phyllis Cerf.

Interred at Oakwood Memorial Park, Chatsworth, California, USA, the same cemetery as long-time dancing/acting partner Fred Astaire is located.

At age 19, she briefly dated famed, founding editor of New Yorker magazine Harold Ross, then 37.

Sort-of cousin of Rita Hayworth. Ginger's aunt married Rita's uncle.

She didn't drink: she had her very own ice cream soda fountain

Directed her first stage musical, "Babes In Arms", at age 74.

Was fashion consultant for the J.C. Penney chain from 1972-75.

A keen artist, Ginger did many paintings, sculptures and sketches in her free time but could never bring herself to sell any of them.

Was Hollywood's highest paid star of 1942.

Author Graham Greene always said he would have liked Ginger to play the role of Aunt Augusta in the film version of his novel "Travels With My Aunt" ([when the film--Travels with My Aunt (1972)--was made in 1972 the role was played by Maggie Smith).

The well-known quote often attributed to her--"My first picture was [Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940)]. It was my mother who made all those films with 'Fred Astaire'"--was actually fabricated for a 1966 article in "Films In Review".

Always the outdoor sporty type, she was a near-champion tennis player, a topline shot and loved going fishing.

She made her final public appearance on 3/18/95 (just five weeks before her death) when she received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award.

Was badly affected by illness in her last years after suffering two strokes that had left her wheelchair-bound and visibly overweight, while her voice had become a shrunken rasp.

Measurements: 34-23 1/2-34 1/2 (late 1950s), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Related to Random House publisher and "What's My Line?" (1950) panelist Bennett Cerf through marriage, when he married Ginger's cousin Phyllis Fraser, who later became known as Phyllis Cerf.

Was asked to replace Judy Garland in both Harlow (1965/II) (which was filmed in eight days) and Valley of the Dolls (1967). She turned down "Dolls" because she hated the script; she did, however, do the quickie version of "Harlow" as Harlow's mother and, unlike the movie, garnered good reviews.

Aunt of Christopher Cerf and Jonathan Cerf.

Was a life-long Republican.

Turned down lead roles in To Each His Own (1946) and The Snake Pit (1948). Both of these roles went on to be played to great acclaim by Olivia de Havilland.

Her first teaming with Fred Astaire, Flying Down to Rio (1933), was her 20th film appearance but only Astaire's second.

In a 1991 TV interview when asked why the Fred Astaire / Rogers union wasn't known as "Ginger & Fred" rather than "Fred & Ginger" (as Ginger had been in films longer), she replied, "It's a man's world".

Her tied-to-the=hip relationship with her domineering mother, Lela E. Rogers, proved eternal. They're buried side by side at Oakwood Memorial Park. The grave of Ginger's screen partner, Fred Astaire, is just yards away.

Was named #14 Actress on The AFI 50 Greatest Screen Legends

Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"

She and Fred Astaire acted in 10 movies together: The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), Carefree (1938), Flying Down to Rio (1933), Follow the Fleet (1936), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Shall We Dance (1937), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Swing Time (1936) and Top Hat (1935)

She owned a lingerie factory in Rock Island Tennessee, called Form Fit Rogers.

A distant cousin of Lucille Ball, according to Lucie Arnaz.

She was of Welsh and Scottish heritage.

During the last years of her life she retired in Oregon and bought a ranch in the Medford area because she liked the climate. She donated money to the community and funded the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in downtown Medford, which was named after her.

In Italy, most of her films were dubbed by either Lidia Simoneschi or Wanda Tettoni. She was occasionally dubbed by Andreina Pagnani; Dhia Cristiani; Rosetta Calavetta and Giovanna Scotto.

Has a street named after her in Rancho Mirage, California, her final winter home. Ginger Rogers Road is located in the Mission Hills Golf Course. It crosses Bob Hope Drive, between Gerald Ford Drive and Dinah Shore Drive and 2 blocks from Frank Sinatra Drive.

She was a radical right-wing Republican, a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a Christian Scientist and a vocal supporter of the Hollywood blacklist.

Salary for 1938, $219,500.

One of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom in the "Secret Annex" while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Holland.

Her great-great-grandfather was a doctor who discovered quinine, the cure for malaria.

Personal Quotes

My mother told me I was dancing before I was born. She could feel my toes tapping wildly inside her for months.

When two people love each other, they don't look at each other, they look in the same direction.

[1983] They're not going to get my money to see the junk that's made today.

The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first.

[in the early 1930s] I don't know which I like best. I love the applause on the stage. But pictures are so fascinating - you reach many millions through them. And you make more money, too.

When you're happy, you don't count the years.

Hollywood is like an empty wastebasket.

[on her partnership with Fred Astaire] After all, it's not as if we were Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. We did have careers apart from each other.

The most important thing in anyone's life is to be giving something. The quality I can give is fun, joy and happiness. This is my gift.

[on working with Katharine Hepburn] She is snippy, you know, which is a shame. She was never on my side.

[1987] It'd be fun to have a chum around, but it's very hard to have a chum unless you're married to him. And I don't believe in today's concept for living with someone unmarried.

Even when one is of a certain age to make one's own decisions, there are many times when it is great to be able to go back and talk it over with the people one loves - one's family.

[her explanation for bringing excess luggage to London in 1969 for her year-long stint on stage as "Mame"] I believe in dressing for the occasion. There's a time for sweater, sneakers and Levis and a time for the full-dress jazz. As for the little touches, well, a year is quite a long time and they make one feel at home.

[on her screen partnership with Fred Astaire] We had fun and it shows. True, we were never bosom buddies off the screen; we were different people with different interests. We were only a couple on film.

I'm most grateful to have had that joyous time in motion pictures. It really was a Golden Age of Hollywood. Pictures were talking, they were singing, they were coloring. It was beginning to blossom out: bud and blossom were both present.

In everything that I do I learn and try to put it to use. I have learned to go through life not into it. It's like a boat. You mustn't let the water in or you're sunk. Of course, I've made mistakes and I have had failures, but I do not dwell on them because people don't care about garbage. When I make a mistake it's like a bad leaf on a lettuce - I throw it out into the wastebasket.

I don't care what the critics say. My fabulous mom will give me a good review if nobody else does.

You bring out a lot of your own thoughts and attitudes when acting. I think a great deal of it has to do with the inner you. You know, there's nothing damnable about being a strong woman. The world needs strong women. There are a lot of strong women you do not see who are guiding, helping, mothering strong men. They want to remain unseen. It's kind of nice to be able to play a strong woman who is seen.

It was tough being a woman in the theatrical business in those days.

[speaking in 1975] The '30s were such a pretty time. I know it was a bad time for an awful lot of people, but not for me. I remember the whole atmosphere, the ambiance of the '30s with a glow because success was knocking at my door. I got to California in '32, just in time to do Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), where I sang "We're In the Money". It was a whole new life for me. I was excited about it. It was happy and beautiful and gay and interesting. I was surrounded by marvelous people, all the top people of our industry.

I think the motion pictures talked themselves out of business when they sold their backlogs [to TV networks]. They sold what they thought were old clothes. It turns out some of them had better material in them than their new ones.

[on being asked in 1943 what a girl needs to be a movie star] Intelligence, adaptability and talent. And by talent I mean the capacity for hard work. Lots of girls come here with little but good looks. Beauty is a valuable asset, but it is not the whole cheese.

Rhythym is born in all of us. To be a desirable dancing partner you don't have to do all the intricate fancy steps that happen to be in vogue. All you have to do is be a good average dancer and anybody who spends the time and effort can accomplish this.

I believe in living each day as it comes, to the best of my ability. When it's done, I put it away, remembering that there will be a tomorrow to take it's place. If I have any philosophy, that's it. To me it's not a fatalistic attitude.

[on Fred Astaire, 1976] I adore the man. I always have adored him. It was the most fortunate thing that ever happened to me, being teamed with Fred: he was everything a little starry-eyed girl from a small town ever dreamed of.

{on Howard Hughes] Howard was one of the best dancers I ever knew, and fascinating to be with. Terribly bright and intelligent. But he was immersed in his work.

Salary

Doris Day and Ginger Rogers

The late, great Ginger Rogers summed ...