*" Wonderful Baby ", a tribute to Fred Astaire that Astaire himself recorded.

In " No Strings ( reprise )", Rogers, after storming upstairs to complain, returns to her room at which point Astaire, still intent on dancing, nominates himself her " sandman ", sprinkling sand from a cuspidor and lulling her, Horton and eventually himself to sleep with a soft and gentle sand dance, to a diminuendo reprise of the melody, in a scene which has drawn considerable admiration from dance commentators, and has been the subject of affectionate screen parodies.

" However, this did not affect RKO's plans for Astaire, first lending him for a few days to MGM in 1933 for his Hollywood debut, where he appeared as himself dancing with Joan Crawford in the successful musical film Dancing Lady.

Astaire was a songwriter of note himself, with " I'm Building Up to an Awful Letdown " ( written with lyricist Johnny Mercer ) reaching number four in the Hit Parade of 1936.

He portrayed himself in the Fred Astaire film, Second Chorus ( 1940 ), which featured Shaw and his orchestra playing " Concerto for Clarinet.

Astaire, with Hermes Pan's help, creates fabulous numbers – for himself and his partner.

Gehry originally named the house as Fred and Ginger ( after the famous dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers – the house resembles a pair of dancers ) but this nickname is now very rarely used ; moreover, Gehry himself was later " afraid to import American Hollywood kitsch to Prague ", so refused his own idea.

Pan continued to collaborate with Astaire right up until the latter's last musical picture, Finian's Rainbow ( 1968 ), which was a disaster on a number of fronts, not least for Pan himself.

* " You Were Never Lovelier ": A Kern melody, sung by Astaire to Hayworth, with a celebratory dance reprise at the film ’ s end, initiated by an armour-suited Astaire falling off a horse, and shedding his knight ’ s armour, only to reveal himself in white tie and tails.

In it, Astaire parodies himself by dancing with a hatstand and appears to parody his rival and friend Gene Kelly by inserting a mock bodybuilding episode during which he kicks aside some Indian clubs in a reference to Kelly's routine with The Nicholas Brothers in The Pirate.

Among those receiving such special treatment ( some more than once ) were Groucho Marx, Laurence Olivier, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn ( without an audience ), Bette Davis, Orson Welles, Noël Coward ( who appeared on the same show along with Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Tammy Grimes, and Brian Bedford ), John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Astaire, Woody Allen, Gloria Swanson, Jerry Lewis, Lucille Ball, Zero Mostel (" on some shows I've had just one guest, but tonight I have Zero ") and David Bowie.

*" I've Got My Eyes on You "-words and music by Cole Porter, sung and danced by Fred Astaire

*" I've Got My Eyes on You ( instrumental and choral reprise )-danced by Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell and George Murphy

Also during the third season, Fred Astaire played Alistair Mundy, Alexander's father, also a master gentleman-thief, who says bemusedly, at the start of each episode in which he appears, " I've heard of stealing from the government, but for the government?

Astaire had never met Berlin before this film, although he had danced on stage to some of his tunes as early as 1915.

Due to the enormous labour involved in sewing each ostrich feather to the dress, Astaire — who normally approved his partner's gowns and suggested modifications if necessary during rehearsals — saw the dress for the first time on the day of the shoot, and was horrified at the way it shed clouds of feathers at every twist and turn, recalling later: " It was like a chicken attacked by a coyote, I never saw so many feathers in my life.

As Horton leaves to investigate, Astaire continues to hammer his way around the suite, during which he feigns horror at seeing his image in a mirror – a reference to his belief that the camera was never kind to his face.

According to Astaire, when they were first teamed together in Flying Down to Rio, " Ginger had never danced with a partner before.

" According to Astaire, " Ginger had never danced with a partner before Down to Rio ".

For her part, Rogers described Astaire's uncompromising standards extending to the whole production, " Sometimes he'll think of a new line of dialogue or a new angle for the story ... they never know what time of night he'll call up and start ranting enthusiastically about a fresh idea ... No loafing on the job on an Astaire picture, and no cutting corners.

Politically, Astaire was a conservative and a lifelong Republican Party supporter, though he never made his political views publicly known.

Astaire remained a male fashion icon even into his later years, eschewing his trademark top hat, white tie and tails ( for which he never really cared ) in favor of a breezy casual style of tailored sports jackets, colored shirts, cravats and slacks — the latter usually held up by the idiosyncratic use of an old tie in place of a belt.

Although he was labeled " box office poison " in 1938 by an exhibitor publication ( he shared this dubious distinction with Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Fred Astaire and Katharine Hepburn ), he never lacked for work.

* Michel Lucas aka " Tango " ( played by Laurent Piemontesi ), according to the chief of police " the banlieue's Fred Astaire ", who works as a metalworker and never misses a chance to pull an elegant stunt

Hollywood sometimes built elaborate funhouse sets with devices never seen in a real funhouse, as in the 1937 Fred Astaire musical, A Damsel in Distress, and the 1939 Joe E. Brown film, Beware Spooks !.

whereas Astaire and Pan never used such diagrams in their work.

Here, Astaire conveys a sunny yet nostalgic romanticism but later, when the music is danced to as part of " Never Gonna Dance ", the pair will create a mood of sombre poignancy.

With Astaire one feels, with each succeeding picture, that surely his dancing has reached perfection and marks the end of invention of new steps: and yet he seems to go forward with ease and apparent nonchalence.

* " Things Are Looking Up ": Astaire sings one of Gershwin's " most beautiful, yet underappreciated ballads ", followed by a romantic dance through the woods with Fontaine, where George Stevens artfully uses trees to hide Fontaine's terpsichorean shortcomings.

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.

" That same night, Bubbles mentioned that Astaire had brought him into the rehearsal hall to work on " Bojangles of Harlem " and John's chops are right there in the number.

Later, in the 1930s, the on-screen dance pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers influenced all forms of dance in the USA and elsewhere.

Also from the Homeless Brother album, " Wonderful Baby " was a number 1 on the AOR chart in 1975 and was later recorded by Fred Astaire.

Following the success of You're a Big Boy Now, Coppola was offered the reins of the movie version of the Broadway musical Finian's Rainbow, starring Petula Clark, in her first American film, and veteran Fred Astaire.

In Ziegfeld Follies ( 1946 ) – which was produced in 1944 but not released until 1946 – Kelly collaborated with Fred Astaire – for whom he had the greatest admiration – in the famous " The Babbitt and the Bromide " challenge dance routine.

He withdrew from the film and encouraged Fred Astaire to come out of retirement to replace him.

It was a measure of his powers of persuasion that he managed to coax the 77-year-old Astaire – who had insisted that his contract rule out any dancing, having long since retired – into performing a series of song and dance duets, evoking a powerful nostalgia for the glory days of the American musical film.

While Fred Astaire had revolutionized the filming of dance in the 1930s by insisting on full-figure photography of dancers while allowing only a modest degree of camera movement, Kelly freed up the camera, making greater use of space, camera movement, camera angles and editing, creating a partnership between dance movement and camera movement without sacrificing full-figure framing.

" In particular, he wanted to create a completely different image from that associated with Fred Astaire, not least because he believed his physique didn't suit such refined elegance: " I used to envy his cool aristocratic style, so intimate and contained.

* Bob Fosse, a noted jazz choreographer who created a new form of jazz dance that was inspired by Fred Astaire and the burlesque and vaudeville styles.

She is one of the few dancers or actresses who has danced with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Rudolf Nureyev.

She also starred in the successful musicals Lili ( 1953 ), with Mel Ferrer ; Daddy Long Legs ( 1955 ), with Fred Astaire, and Gigi ( 1958 ) with Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier.

Fred Astaire was also coaxed out of retirement for Easter Parade and made a permanent comeback.

An avid dancer, Abdul was inspired towards a show business career by Gene Kelly in the classic film Singin ' in the Rain as well as Debbie Allen, Fred Astaire, and Bob Fosse.

* 1896 – Adele Astaire, American dancer ( d. 1981 )

During development at the University of Plymouth, in conjunction with BAE Systems and Sumitomo Precision Products, the iBot was nicknamed Fred Upstairs ( after Fred Astaire ) because it can climb stairs: hence the name Ginger, after Astaire's regular film partner, Ginger Rogers, for a successor product.

Waltzes were the staple of many American musicals and films, including " Waltz in Swing Time " sung by Fred Astaire.

Paramount Pictures ' Bob Hope was Caught In The Draft, Warner Brothers told Phil Silvers and Jimmy Durante You're In The Army Now, Columbia Pictures put Fred Astaire in the army declaring You'll Never Get Rich, Hal Roach gave his new comedy team of William Tracy and Joe Sawyer Tanks a Million and 20th Century Fox had the former Hal Roach team of Laurel & Hardy going Great Guns.

Many celebrities appear, including Oscar Levant, Fred Astaire, Otto Klemperer, Lily Pons, and members of the original cast of Porgy and Bess.

** Fred Astaire, American actor and dancer ( b. 1899 )

* January 25 – Adele Astaire, American actress ( b. 1896 )

Other films include The Hucksters ( 1947 ) with Clark Gable, Show Boat ( 1951 ), The Snows of Kilimanjaro ( 1952 ) with Gregory Peck, Lone Star ( 1952 ) with Clark Gable, Mogambo ( 1953 ) with Clark Gable and Grace Kelly, 1954's The Barefoot Contessa with Humphrey Bogart ( which some consider to be Gardner's " signature film " since it mirrored her real life custom of going barefoot ), Bhowani Junction ( 1956 ), The Sun Also Rises with Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn ( in which she played party-girl Brett Ashley ) ( 1957 ), and the film version of Nevil Shute's best-selling On the Beach with Peck and Fred Astaire.

He hosted the 1981 American Film Institute tribute to Fred Astaire, which was his final appearance in Hollywood.

Early tappers like Fred Astaire provided a more ballroom look to tap dancing, while Gene Kelly used his extensive ballet training to make tap dancing incorporate all the parts of the ballet.