Ginger Rogers
Oscar-winning actress and dancer, Fred Astaire's partner in RKO's golden run of musicals.
Last updated
via Wikipedia: Ginger Rogers · see source
Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best remembered for the musicals she made with Fred Astaire at RKO in the 1930s, a partnership credited with reshaping the genre, and she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Kitty Foyle (1940). In a career of 73 films she moved easily between song-and-dance pictures, comedy and drama, and later worked on Broadway, radio and television. The AFI ranked her number 14 among the female stars of classic American cinema.
Lore & Background
Rogers was born in Independence, Missouri, the only child of reporter Lela Emogene Owens and engineer William Eddins McMath. A young cousin who struggled with "Virginia" gave her the nickname Ginger, and her surname came from her stepfather, John Logan Rogers.
The family settled in Fort Worth, Texas, where she picked up singing and dancing in the wings of the Majestic Theatre. In 1925 she won a Charleston contest, which sent her touring as Ginger Rogers and the Redheads on the Orpheum Circuit. She reached Broadway in Top Speed in 1929, broke through in Girl Crazy, and after a short Paramount contract found film success in 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933.
Did You Know?
- A theatre in Medford, Oregon, where she played in 1926, was renamed the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater.
- She was raised a Christian Scientist and kept the faith all her life.
- Her autobiography, Ginger: My Story, came out in 1991.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many films did she make with Fred Astaire?
Nine in the 1930s, plus a reunion in The Barkleys of Broadway in 1949.
Where was Ginger Rogers born?
Independence, Missouri, on July 16, 1911. She grew up in Kansas City and Fort Worth, Texas.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Ginger Rogers (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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