Barrie Chase | |
|---|---|
 Chase performing with Fred Astaire on An Evening with Fred Astaire in 1960. | |
| Born | October 20, 1933 Kings Point, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, dancer |
| Years active | 1952–72 |
| Spouse(s) | Gene Shacove (m. 19??; div. 19??) James Kaufman (m. 19??) |
| Children | 1 |
| Father | Borden Chase |
| Relatives | Frank Chase (brother) |
Barrie Chase (born October 20, 1933) is an American actress and dancer.
Born in Kings Point, New York on October 20, 1933, [1] Chase began formal dance lessons at age three, studying with the New York City Opera's ballet mistress. [2] She studied ballet, first with Adolph Bolm and later with Maria Bekefi. [2] She abandoned her intention to become a ballerina in New York to stay in Los Angeles and help support her mother, pianist Lee Keith, after her parents' divorce. She is the daughter of writer Borden Chase ( Red River ) and sister of screenwriter/actor Frank Chase. [3]
During the early 1950s, Chase danced on live television programs such as The Colgate Comedy Hour and The Chrysler Shower of Stars. While working as Jack Cole's assistant choreographer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, she was asked by Fred Astaire to be his dancing partner on An Evening with Fred Astaire . She made four appearances as Astaire's partner in his television specials between 1958 and 1968. The two danced on Hollywood Palace in 1966. During this period, Chase dated Astaire, a widower 34 years her senior. [4]
Chase appeared on the syndicated talk show version of The Donald O'Connor Show . Chase worked in the chorus of many Hollywood musicals, including Hans Christian Andersen (1952), Call Me Madam (1953), Deep in My Heart (1954), Brigadoon (1954), Kismet (1955), Pal Joey (1957), Les Girls (1957), and two Fred Astaire films, Daddy Long Legs (1955) and Silk Stockings (1957). She appeared in White Christmas (1954) as the chorus girl who speaks the line "Mutual, I'm sure."[ citation needed ] She appeared in a television episode of Have Gun Will Travel (1958).
Chase's other film roles included The George Raft Story (1961); the beating victim of a sadistic Robert Mitchum in the thriller Cape Fear (1962); and the dancing, bikini-clad paramour (restored footage revealed her character was in reality married) of Dick Shawn's dimwitted character Sylvester Marcus in the 1963 comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World . (Chase is the last surviving member of the film's large cast.) Subsequently, she played Farida in the film The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), starring James Stewart and Richard Attenborough, in a dream sequence. In 1965, she appeared in the episode "The Ballerina" on the TV series Bonanza , playing saloon dancer Kellie Conrad, who longed to be a ballerina. In 1967, she appeared as a Soviet ballerina in the episode "Fly, Ballerina, Fly" on the television series Mr. Terrific . [5]
Barrie became widowed in 2010 after her husband, Dr. James Kaufman, died of Alzheimer's Disease. She currently lives in Marina Del Rey, California. [6]
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940), and performed during the 1930s in RKO's musical films with Fred Astaire. Her career continued on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century.
Fred Astaire was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "greatest popular-music dancer of all time" He received an Honorary Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award.
The Band Wagon is a 1953 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. It tells the story of an aging musical star who hopes a Broadway show will revive his career. However, the play's director wants to make it a pretentious retelling of the Faust legend and brings in a prima ballerina who clashes with the star. Along with An American in Paris (1951) and Singin' in the Rain (1952), it is regarded as one of the finest Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals, although it was a box-office disappointment on first release.
Burns and Allen were an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen. They worked together as a successful comedy team that entertained vaudeville, film, radio, and television audiences for over forty years.
Vera-Ellen was an American dancer and actress. She is remembered for her solo performances as well as her work with partners Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and Donald O'Connor. She is best known for her starring roles in On the Town (1949) with Kelly and White Christmas (1954) with Kaye.
Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and who staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot.
Cyd Charisse was an American dancer and actress.
Blue Skies is a 1946 American musical comedy film directed by Stuart Heisler and starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, and Joan Caulfield. Based on a story by Irving Berlin, the film is about a dancer who loves a showgirl who loves a compulsive nightclub-opener who can't stay committed to anything in life for very long. Produced by Sol C. Siegel, Blue Skies was filmed in Technicolor and released by Paramount Pictures. The music, lyrics, and story were written by Irving Berlin, with most of the songs recycled from earlier works.
Hermes Pan was an American dancer and choreographer, principally remembered as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He worked on nearly two dozen films and TV shows with Astaire. He won both an Oscar and an Emmy for his dance direction.
A Damsel in Distress is a 1937 American English-themed Hollywood musical comedy film starring Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen and Joan Fontaine. Loosely based upon P.G. Wodehouse's 1919 novel of the same name and the 1928 stage play written by Wodehouse and Ian Hay, it has music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. The film was directed by George Stevens, who had also directed Astaire in Swing Time (1936).
Ziegfeld Follies is a 1945 American musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), primarily directed by Vincente Minnelli, with segments directed by Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, and George Sidney, the film's original director before Minnelli took over. Other directors that are claimed to have made uncredited contributions to the film are Merrill Pye, Norman Taurog, and Charles Walters. It stars many MGM leading talents, including Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, James Melton, Victor Moore, William Powell, Red Skelton, and Esther Williams.
Daddy Long Legs (1955) is a musical comedy film set in France, New York City, and the fictional college town of Walston, Massachusetts. The film was directed by Jean Negulesco, and stars Fred Astaire, Leslie Caron, Terry Moore, Fred Clark, and Thelma Ritter, with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The screenplay was written by Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron, loosely based on the 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster.
Charles Powell Walters was an American Hollywood director and choreographer most noted for his work in MGM musicals and comedies from the 1940s to the 1960s.
This is a comprehensive 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 the Chrysler Theatre which cover the period from 1958 to 1968. Further information on the dance routines may be obtained, where available, by clicking on the film links.
Belita Jepson-Turner, known professionally as Belita, was a British Olympic figure skater, dancer, and film actress.
Shall We Dance is a 1937 American musical comedy film directed by Mark Sandrich. It is the seventh of the ten Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers films. The story follows an American ballet dancer (Astaire) who falls in love with a tap dancer (Rogers); the tabloid press concocts a story of their marriage, after which life imitates art. George Gershwin wrote the symphonic underscore and Ira Gershwin the lyrics, for their second Hollywood musical.
An Evening with Fred Astaire is a one-hour live television special starring Fred Astaire, broadcast on NBC on October 17, 1958. It was highly successful, winning nine Emmy awards and spawning three further specials, and technically innovative, as it was the first major television show to be recorded on videotape in color. It was produced at NBC's Color City studios in Burbank, California.
Marjorie Celeste Champion was an American dancer and actress. At fourteen, she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios animated films. Later, she performed as an actress and dancer in film musicals, and in 1957 had a television show based on song and dance. She also did creative choreography for liturgy, and served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries, The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in the Ohio Valley.
Harriet Hoctor was a ballerina and actress. Composer George Gershwin composed a symphonic orchestral piece specifically for Hoctor in the film Shall We Dance (1937).
Claire Luce was an American stage and screen actress, dancer and singer. Among her few films were Up the River (1930), directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart in their feature film debuts, and Under Secret Orders, the English-language version of G. W. Pabst's French-language feature, Salonique, nid d'espions (1937).
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