Fred Astaire was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history.
Take the Money and Run is a 1969 American mockumentary comedy film directed by Woody Allen. Allen co-wrote the screenplay with Mickey Rose and stars alongside Janet Margolin. The film chronicles the life of Virgil Starkwell, an inept bank robber.
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is a 1939 American biographical musical comedy directed by H.C. Potter. The film stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, and Walter Brennan. The film is based on the stories My Husband and My Memories of Vernon Castle, by Irene Castle. The movie was adapted by Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Yost and Richard Sherman. This was Astaire and Rogers' ninth and last film together with RKO. Their final pairing was The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) at MGM.
Easter Parade is a 1948 American Technicolor musical film starring Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford and Ann Miller. The music by Irving Berlin includes some of Astaire and Garland's best-known songs, including "Easter Parade", "Steppin' Out with My Baby", and "We're a Couple of Swells".
Lovers and Other Strangers is a 1970 American romantic comedy film directed by Cy Howard, adapted from the 1968 Broadway play of the same name by Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna. The cast includes Richard S. Castellano, Gig Young, Cloris Leachman, Anne Jackson, Bea Arthur, Bonnie Bedelia, Michael Brandon, Harry Guardino, Anne Meara, Bob Dishy, Marian Hailey, Joseph Hindy, and, in her film debut, Diane Keaton. Sylvester Stallone was an extra in this movie.
Flying Down to Rio is a 1933 American pre-Code RKO musical film famous for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, although Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond received top billing and the leading roles. Among the featured players are Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore. The songs in the film were written by Vincent Youmans (music), Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu (lyrics), with musical direction and additional music by Max Steiner. During the initial year that a Best Original Song was given during 7th Academy Awards, the film obtained a nomination for MUSIC (Song) – "Carioca," Music by Vincent Youmans; Lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn [came in 3rd]. Ironically, the song lost to "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee, the subsequent film of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers after Flying Down to Rio.
A Damsel in Distress is a 1937 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, and was directed by George Stevens, the second Astaire musical directed by Stevens; the first was Swing Time.
Ziegfeld Follies is a 1945 American musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 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.
The Sky's The Limit is a 1943 romantic musical comedy film starring Fred Astaire and Joan Leslie, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The film was directed by Edward H. Griffith, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Astaire plays a Flying Tiger pilot on leave. Robert T. Smith, a real former Flying Tiger pilot on leave before joining the Army Air Forces, was the technical adviser on the film. The comedy is provided by Robert Benchley — his second appearance in an Astaire picture — and Eric Blore, a stalwart from the early Astaire-Rogers pictures.
Royal Wedding is a 1951 American musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, and starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Set in 1947 London at the time of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, the film follows an American brother-sister song and dance duo who, while performing, each fall in love–he, with a female dancer, and she, with an impoverished but well-connected nobleman. The film marked Donen's second directorial feature. It was released as Wedding Bells in the United Kingdom.
Yolanda and the Thief is a 1945 American Technicolor MGM musical-comedy film set in a fictional Latin American country. It stars Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer, Frank Morgan, and Mildred Natwick, with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Arthur Freed. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by Arthur Freed.
Three Little Words is a 1950 American musical film biography of the Tin Pan Alley songwriting partnership of Kalmar and Ruby. It stars Fred Astaire as lyricist Bert Kalmar and Red Skelton as composer Harry Ruby, along with Vera-Ellen and Arlene Dahl as their wives, with Debbie Reynolds in a small but notable role as singer Helen Kane and Gloria DeHaven as her own mother, Mrs. Carter DeHaven. The film, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was written by Academy-Award-winning screenwriter George Wells, directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Jack Cummings. Harry Ruby served as a consultant on the project, and he appears in a cameo role as a baseball catcher. The third in a series of MGM biopics about Broadway composers, it was preceded by Till the Clouds Roll By and Words and Music and followed by Deep in My Heart.
Carefree is a 1938 musical film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. With a plot similar to screwball comedies of the period, Carefree is the shortest of the Astaire-Rogers films, featuring only four musical numbers. Carefree is often remembered as the film in which Astaire and Rogers shared a long on-screen kiss at the conclusion of their dance to "I Used to Be Color Blind," all previous kisses having been either quick pecks or simply implied.
Shall We Dance, released in 1937, is the seventh of the ten Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical comedy 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.
Yellow Sky is a 1948 American Western film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, and Anne Baxter. The story is believed to be loosely adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest. The screenplay concerns a band of reprobate outlaws who flee after a bank robbery and encounter an old man and his granddaughter in a ghost town.
Silk Stockings is a 1957 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Rouben Mamoulian, based on the 1955 stage musical of the same name, which itself was an adaptation of the film Ninotchka (1939). It stars Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. The supporting cast includes Janis Paige, Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin, and George Tobias reprising his Broadway role. It was choreographed by Eugene Loring and Hermes Pan.
Carolyn De Fonseca was an American actress based in Rome. She worked extensively as a voice actress for the English-language dubbing of several hundred foreign films from the early 1960s and onwards. She was also the wife of actor/voice dubber Ted Rusoff, with whom she frequently worked. She died in 2009.
Anne Heywood is a British retired film actress, who is best known for her Golden Globe-nominated performance in The Fox.
Let's Dance is a 1950 American Technicolor musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Norman Z. McLeod starring Betty Hutton, Fred Astaire and Roland Young. It was produced and released by Paramount Pictures.
Fred Fleck, also known as Fred A. Fleck, Frederick Fleck, or Freddie Fleck, was an American assistant director and production manager. Born in New York City on June 4, 1892, he broke into the film business as an assistant director on the 1928 silent film, The Riding Renegade, directed by Wallace Fox. During his 30-year career, he would work on some notable films, with some notable directors. Some of those films include: the epic Hell's Angels (1930), directed by Howard Hughes; King Vidor's Bird of Paradise (1932); the Ginger Rogers' 1941 vehicle, Tom, Dick and Harry, directed by Garson Kanin; 1942's The Magnificent Ambersons, directed by Orson Welles, and starring Joseph Cotten and Anne Baxter; Born to be Bad (1950), starring Joan Fontaine and Robert Ryan; and Josef von Sternberg's Jet Pilot (1957), starring John Wayne. Fleck was also one of the aerial cameramen on George Archainbaud's classic 1932 film, The Lost Squadron.
