The choreography by Lar Lubovitch received the TDF's Astaire Award, but the musical closed after 51 previews and only five performances.

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.

Astaire continued to act into the 1970s, appearing on television as the father of Robert Wagner's character of Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief and in films such as The Towering Inferno ( 1974 ), in which he danced with Jennifer Jones and for which he received his only Academy Award nomination, in the category of Best Supporting Actor.

She made her final public appearance in 1981 at a televised American Film Institute tribute to Fred Astaire, where she received a standing ovation.

She received top billing alongside Fred Astaire in the MGM musicals Three Little Words and The Belle of New York ( 1952 ).

Fred Astaire received a Golden Laurel nomination for " Top Male Musical Performance ".

He received top billing over Pat O ' Brien in the TV-movie The Over-the-Hill Gang in 1969 and Fred Astaire in The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again the following year.

Wilson initially ascribed opposition from the media to the list as " antisemitism " because of the extraordinary number of Jews who received honours: Delfont, Grade, Weidenfeld, Astaire, Miller, Kagan and the Prime Minister's doctor Joe Stone who received a peerage were all Jews, and Wilson was a well known philosemite.

For his work on that show, he received the 1993-94 Astaire Award from the Theater Development Fund.

He played the character " Eddie " in the show Movin ' Out for which he received the 2003 Tony and Drama Desk nominations for Best Male Dancer and Lead Actor in a Musical and won the 2003 TDF / Astaire Award for Best Male Dancer in a Musical and the Theater World Award.

Flying Down to Rio is a 1933 RKO musical film noted for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, although Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond received top-billing.

Kaye starred in several movies with actress Virginia Mayo in the 1940s, and is well known for his roles in films such as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ( 1947 ), The Inspector General ( 1949 ), On the Riviera ( 1951 ) co-starring Gene Tierney, Knock on Wood ( 1954 ), White Christmas ( 1954, in a role originally intended for Fred Astaire, then Donald O ' Connor ), The Court Jester ( 1956 ), and Merry Andrew ( 1958 ).

Musical stars such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were among the most popular and highly respected personalities in Hollywood during the classical era ; the Fred and Ginger pairing was particularly successful, resulting in a number of classic films, such as Top Hat ( 1935 ), Swing Time ( 1936 ) and Shall We Dance ( 1937 ).

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

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.

There ensued a lifelong friendship with Berlin contributing to more Astaire films ( six in total ) than any other composer.

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.

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.

No films have been made about Ginger Rogers, possibly because her best-known co-star Fred Astaire stipulated in his will that no film representations of him were ever to be made.

Astaire and Rogers made ten films together, including The Gay Divorcee, Roberta ( 1935 ), Top Hat ( 1935 ), Follow the Fleet ( 1936 ), Swing Time ( 1936 ), Shall We Dance ( 1937 ), and Carefree ( 1938 ).

While both films earned respectable gross incomes, they both lost money due to increased production costs and Astaire left RKO.

After watching Fred Astaire in films at age eight, he trained in dance in Tottenham and then Brixton.

He is especially known for his work in the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Some of his noteworthy films include The Front Page ( 1931 ), Trouble in Paradise ( 1932 ), Alice in Wonderland ( 1933 ), The Gay Divorcee ( 1934 ), Top Hat ( 1935, one of several Astaire / Rogers films in which Horton appeared ), Danger-Love at Work ( 1937 ), Lost Horizon ( 1937 ), Holiday ( 1938 ), Here Comes Mr. Jordan ( 1941 ), Arsenic and Old Lace ( 1944 ), Pocketful of Miracles ( 1961 ), and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ( 1963 ).

Other wartime films with an AVG angle included The Sky's the Limit ( 1942, starring Fred Astaire ); God is My Co-pilot, ( 1943, with Dennis Morgan as Robert Lee Scott, Raymond Massey as Chennault, and John Ridgely as Tex Hill ); Hers to Hold ( 1943, with Joseph Cotten ); and China's Little Devils ( 1945 ).

The first dancer featured on film as a partner of both the stars Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, Hayworth appeared in a total of 61 films over 37 years.

She returned in triumph to Columbia Pictures and was cast in the musical You'll Never Get Rich ( 1941 ) opposite Fred Astaire, in one of the highest-budgeted films Columbia had ever made.

" In 1970 she remarked that the only films she could watch without laughing were the dance musicals she made with Fred Astaire.

He moved to MGM starting in 1944, writing for musical films such as The Harvey Girls and The Barkleys of Broadway, many starring Fred Astaire.

His stage work in the musical Gay Divorcee with Fred Astaire earned him a role in films.

Both films were created by the same team that next produced Flying Down to Rio, which started the successful careers of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Her roles usually focused on her abilities as a dancer, and she was paired with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly ; her films include Singin ' in the Rain ( 1952 ), The Band Wagon ( 1953 ) and Silk Stockings ( 1957 ).

Cohn even wanted to cast Fred Astaire, Al Jolson, and Rita Hayworth and have them perform in blackface, something that the Gershwin estate was violently opposed to.

) According to film historian Robert Osborne, in specially-filmed introductions produced for Turner Classic Movies, it was Astaire who suggested to Kelly that the two take advantage of this potentially last-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform together, something Kelly had actually wished for out loud during his narration of the first That's Entertainment!

He went on in the late 1930s to direct several Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies, not only with the two actors together, but on their own.

Elsewhere in the commentary, he claims that, in scenes with both dialogue and music, the actors simply mouth the words and record them in post-production, so they won't interfere with the music ; that Marty's dog is animatronic ; that the sweat on various actors is " movie sweat ", gathered from the flanks of Palomino horses ; that Fred Astaire and Rosemary Clooney were at one time intended for the film ; and that a fly buzzing about is not real, but the product of computer generated imagery.

This has been the prevalent view in the United States since the 1920s, where actors such as Fred Astaire popularized the look of the unbroken black line from neck to feet which lengthened their silhouettes on-camera.

Other Rankin / Bass voice actors have included Andy Griffith, Burl Ives, Casey Kasem, Fred Astaire, Red Skelton, Danny Kaye, Boris Karloff, Jimmy Durante, Danny Thomas, Ethel Merman, Vincent Price, Bob McFadden, Robie Lester, Linda Gary, Mickey Rooney, Morey Amsterdam, Marlo Thomas, Greer Garson, Angela Lansbury, June Foray, Don Messick, Jackie Vernon, Allen Swift, Robert Morse, Mia Farrow, and Shelley Winters.

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.

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.

" According to choreographer Hermes Pan, Astaire lost his temper and yelled at Rogers, who promptly burst into tears, whereupon her mother, Lela, " came charging at him like a mother rhinoceros protecting her young.

" Astaire introduces the film's tap motif when he blasts a tap barrage at the somnolent members of a London Club.

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.

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.

The first backbends occur at the end of a sequence where Astaire sends Rogers into a spin, collects her upstage and maneuvers her into a linked-arm stroll forward, repeats the spin but this time encircles her while she turns and then takes her in his arms.

Rogers, having conducted the dance in a state of dreamlike abandon now glances uneasily at Astaire before walking away, as if reminded that their relationship cannot proceed.

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 ).

" Astaire also had this to say to Raymond Rohauer, curator at the New York Gallery of Modern Art: " Ginger was brilliantly effective.

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 ).

Although Astaire refused dance lessons at first, he easily mimicked his older sister's step and took up piano, accordion and clarinet.

While Follies was a hit, Yolanda bombed at the box office and Astaire, ever insecure and believing his career was beginning to falter, surprised his audiences by announcing his retirement during the production of Blue Skies ( 1946 ), nominating " Puttin ' on the Ritz " as his farewell dance.

The Astaire Story later won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, a special Grammy award to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have " qualitative or historical significance.

* 2008: Conference to honor the life and work of Fred Astaire at Oriel College, University of Oxford, June 21 – 24.

Phyllis's death from lung cancer, at the age of 46, ended 21 years of a blissful marriage and left Astaire devastated.

* Fred Astaire biography at AlsoDances. Net

* Astaire or Kelly: A Generation Apart at Indian Auteur

Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to " Sweet Georgia Brown ", followed in January 1960 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls.

Ghost Story, starring Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr and Craig Wasson, was filmed in part at Stetson University and the Holiday House.