Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Johanna (Geilus) and Fritz Austerlitz, a brewer. Fred entered show business at age 5. He was successful both in vaudeville and on Broadway in partnership with his sister, Adele Astaire. After Adele retired to marry in 1932, Astaire headed to Hollywood. Signed to RKO, he was loaned to MGM to appear in Dancing Lady (1933) before starting work on RKO's Flying Down to Rio (1933). In the latter film, he began his highly successful partnership with Ginger Rogers, with whom he danced in 9 RKO pictures. During these years, he was also active in recording and radio. On film, Astaire later appeared opposite a number of partners through various studios. After a temporary retirement in 1945-7, during which he opened Fred Astaire Dance Studios, Astaire returned to film to star in more musicals through 1957. He subsequently performed a number of straight dramatic roles in film and TV. In this article, we will talk about Fred Astaire's Biography including Net Worth, Age, Birthday, Height, Weight, Family, Children etc.
Fred Astaire Biography
To know his complete profile, check the following table.
| Name | : | Fred Astaire |
| Birth Name/Full Name | : | Frederic Austerlitz Jr. |
| Nickname (s) | : | - |
| Other Name (s) | : | - |
| Gender | : | Male |
| Date of Birth | : | May 10, 1899 |
| Birthplace | : | Omaha, Nebraska, USA |
| Citizenship | : | American |
| Height | : | 1.75 m |
| Weight | : | - kg |
| Profession (s) | : | Actor , Additional Crew , Producer |
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Fred Astaire Age in 2023 and Birthday Info
In this section, we will add Fred Astaire's birthday-related information. Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska, USA on May 10, 1899.He died on in Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia). Check the below table for more information.
| Date of Birth | : | May 10, 1899 |
| Birth Place | : | Omaha, Nebraska, USA |
| Country | : | United States |
| Date of Death | : | 1987-6-22 |
| Death Place | : | Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia) |
| Aged | : | 88 years |
| Next Birthday | : | 10 May, 2024 |
| Horoscope(Zodic Sign) | : | Taurus |
Fred Astaire Height and Weight
Now we are going to add Fred Astaire's Height (In Meter, Centi Meter, and Feet-Inches) and Weight (In Kilogram and Pounds). As weight changes frequently, we may not have the current weight of Fred Astaire. The height of Fred Astaire is 1.75 m. Check the below table to see in more units.
| Height in Meter | : | 1.75 m. |
| Height in Centimeter | : | 175 cm. |
| Height in Feet-inches | : | 5'9" |
| Weight in Kilogram | : | - kg |
| Weight in Pounds | : | - lb |
Fred Astaire Family (Spouse, Children, Parents, Siblings, Relatives)
In this section, we will add Fred Astaire's complete family information including his martial status, husbandorwife, children, parents, relatives, and siblings.
| Marital Status | : | Married |
| Spouse (s) | : | Robyn Smith (27 June 1980 - 22 June 1987) (his death) , Phyllis Livingston Potter (12 July 1933 - 13 September 1954) (her death) (2 children) |
| Children (s) | : | Ava Astaire-McKenzie , Fred Astaire Jr. |
| Parents (Father and Mother) | : | Austerlitz, Frederic , Austerlitz (Geilus), Johanna |
| Relatives | : | Adele Astaire (sibling) |
Fred Astaire Social Accounts (Facebbok, Instagram, Twitter, Website)
In this section, we will add Fred Astaire's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and personal website.
| : | Fred Astaire Facebook | |
| : | Fred Astaire Instagram | |
| : | Fred Astaire Twitter | |
| Personal Website | : | Fred Astaire Webiste |
Fred Astaire Net Worth in 2023
You might be interested to know what was the net worth of Fred Astaire at time when he died. The net worth of Fred Astaire was $10 million. We do not guarantee the net worth of Fred Astaire is the exact amount. This is based on several sources on the internet.
Fred Astaire Facts and Trivia
Here is the list of top facts about Fred Astaire.
- Ranked #73 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
- Following his death, he was interred at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California, where longtime dancing partner, Ginger Rogers, is located.
- The evaluation of Astaire's first screen test: "Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little."
- Astaire disguised his very large hands by curling his middle two fingers while dancing.
- First met lifelong best friend Irving Berlin on the set of Top Hat (1935).
- After Blue Skies (1946), New York's Paramount Theater generated a petition of 10,000 names to persuade him to come out of retirement.
- Born at 9:16pm-CST
- The only time he and Gene Kelly ever danced together on screen (other than the linking-segments in the 1976 compilation movie, That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)) was in one routine, titled "The Babbitt and the Bromide" in the 1946 movie Ziegfeld Follies (1945).
- Appears on the cover of The Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.
- He was one of the first Kennedy Center Honorees in 1978.
- Don McLean's song "Wonderful Baby" was written with Astaire in mind; Astaire reportedly loved the song, and recorded it for an album.
- Made a cameo appearance in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's film Imagine (1972), escorting Yoko through a doorway; after one successful take, he asked to try again, believing he could do a better job.
- In 2000, the following album was released as a tribute to him: "Let Yourself Go: Celebrating Fred Astaire". All songs were performed by Stacey Kent.
- He was voted the 19th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
- His legs were insured for one million dollars.
- Famously wore a necktie around his waist instead of a belt, an affectation he picked up from his friendship with actor Douglas Fairbanks but often mistakenly attributed to Astaire alone.
- He was voted the 23rd Greatest Movie Star of All Time by Premiere magazine.
- Named the #5 Greatest Actor on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends by the American Film Institute.
- Born only 18 months after his sister Adele Astaire.
- Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"
- He and Ginger Rogers appeared in 10 movies together: Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) and The Barkleys of Broadway (1949).
- Although he spent most of his childhood touring on the vaudeville circuit, he would occasionally settle down with his family and their neighbors and friends, who were almost all families of Austrian immigrants.
- Aside from starring in the film Funny Face (1957), he also starred in the original 1927 Broadway version of the George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin musical "Funny Face". Although he was the male lead in the show, he did not play the same character he does in the film, and the storyline of the original stage musical was entirely different from the one in the film. Both play and film used many of the same songs. The studio may have felt that the original plot of "Funny Face" could not be properly adapted into a movie as it was an "ensemble" musical with people dropping out and parts changing all the time. Apparently the studio bought the rights to the title just so they could use the song. The plot of this movie is actually that of the unsuccessful Broadway musical "Wedding Bells" by Leonard Gershe. His character in the film is based on photographer Richard Avedon, who in fact, set up most of the photography shown in the film. The soggy Paris weather played havoc with the shooting of the wedding dress dance scene. Both Astaire and Audrey Hepburn were continually slipping in the muddy and slippery grass.
- While all music and songs were known to be dubbed (recorded before filming), his tap dancing was dubbed also. He "over-dubbed" his taps - recording them live as he danced to the previously recorded taps.
- Wore his trademark top hat and tails in his very first movie appearance, Dancing Lady (1933).
- Good friends with actress Carol Lynley.
- Fred's father was born in Austria. Fred's paternal grandparents, Salomon Stefan Austerlitz and Lucie Hellerová, were Czech Jews who had converted to Catholicism. Fred's mother was born in Nebraska, to David Geilus and Wilhelmine Klaatke, Lutheran immigrants from Germany.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 36-38. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
- Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2002 (inaugural class).
- For Daddy Long Legs (1955), Leslie Caron told Fred that she wanted to create her own costumes for the film. Fred Astaire told her: "Okay, but no feathers, please", recalling the troubles he had with one of Ginger Rogers' elaborate ostrich feathered gowns in a dance from Top Hat (1935). A feather broke loose from Ginger Rogers' dress and stubbornly floated in mid air around Astaire's face. The episode was recreated to hilarious effect in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer portrayed by Judy Garland.
- Tony Martin, the husband of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star/dancer Cyd Charisse, said he could tell who she had been dancing with that day on the set. If she came home covered with bruises on her, it was the very physically-demanding Gene Kelly, if not it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire.
- Owned Blue Valley Ranch, a Thoroughbred horse breeding farm in the San Fernando Valley. He maintained a racing stable of four or five horses which competed at racetracks in California. His most famous racehorse was Triplicate, winner of the 1946 Hollywood Gold Cup.
- Profiled in "American Classic Screen Interviews" (Scarecrow Press) (2010).
- When Ginger Rogers received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1992, Robyn Smith, widow of Fred Astaire, withheld all rights to clips of Rogers' scenes with Astaire, demanding payment. The Kennedy Center refused and Rogers received her honor without the retrospective show.
- Founder of Ava Records, named for his daughter, Ava Astaire-McKenzie.
- Joining ASCAP in 1942, he collaborated with Johnny Mercer and Gladys Shelly. His popular song compositions include "I'm Building Up to an Awful Let-Down", "Blue Without You", "If Swing Goes, I Go Too", "Just Like Taking Candy from a Baby", "Just One More Dance, Madame", "I'll Never Let You Go", "Oh, My Achin' Back" and "Sweet Sorrow".
- Has the lowest name ID Fred Astaire on IMDb Fred Astaire.
- Politically, Astaire was a conservative and a lifelong Republican Party supporter, though he never made his political views publicly known. Along with Bing Crosby, George Murphy, Ginger Rogers and others, he was a charter (founding) member of the Hollywood Republican Committee.
- Universal Pictures offered Astaire the chance to direct the musical comedy Up in Central Park (1948), but he declined. William A. Seiter directed instead.
- He was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month. [December 2013]
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6756 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.
- Became a father for the first time at age 36 when his first wife Phyllis Potter gave birth to their son Fred Astaire Jr. on January 21, 1936.
- Became a father for the second time at age 42 when his first wife Phyllis Potter gave birth to their daughter Ava Astaire-McKenzie on March 28, 1942.
- Died 18 years to the day after his Easter Parade (1948) co-star, Judy Garland. Garland on June 22, 1969 and Astaire on June 22, 1987.
- First wife Phyllis Potter (née Phyllis Livingston Baker) passed away from lung cancer at age 46 while Astaire was filming Daddy Long Legs (1955).
- He was stepfather to Eliphalet IV (known as Peter), the son of his first wife, Phyllis, and her first husband, Eliphalet Nott Potter III.
- He wrote in his autobiography, Steps in Time, that he met Ginger Rogers in New York, before they went to Hollywood. They were both stage performers then, he was partnered with his sister, Adele. He wrote that he and Rogers went to a nightclub in New York where they danced together. He met her mother, Lela Rogers, and he, Lela, and Ginger would "chat about theater business".
- He first saw Robyn Smith, who would become his second wife, when she was a jockey in a horserace.
- He was powerless to prevent the reuse of the footage from Follow the Fleet (1936) in Pennies from Heaven (1981) and utterly detested the film, though he did praise the dancing of Christopher Walken.
- He was considered for Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music (1965).
- Starred in three Oscar Best Picture nominees: The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935) and The Towering Inferno (1974).
- Never starred in a film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
- He named Swing Time (1936) as his favourite of the films he made with Ginger Rogers.
- He was originally offered the role of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), but turned it down. The role went to James Cagney, who won an Oscar for it.
- He was interested in playing Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), but was deemed too old for the role.
- Was close with Randolph Scott, David Niven, Clark Gable and Gregory Peck.
- Always wore a toupee unless he was wearing a hat, which is why he so often wore hats in his films.
- He was really 5 foot 7 and wore 2-inch heels (very visible in most of his films) to heighten to 5 foot 9. Even then, most of his dance partners towered over him if they wore high heels.
- He has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936) and The Band Wagon (1953).
- On August 23, 2019, he was honored with a day of his film work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.
- The day when Fred Astaire was born was Wednesday.
FAQ
Below you can find the most frequently asked questions about Fred Astaire in the context of this article.
What was the Net Worth of Fred Astaire?
The net worth of Fred Astaire was $10 million.
Where is the birthplace of Fred Astaire?
The birthplace of Fred Astaire is Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
How old was Fred Astaire?
Fred Astaire 88 years old.
How tall was Fred Astaire?
The height of Fred Astaire was 1.75 m.
was Fred Astaire married?
The marital status of Fred Astaire was Married
Conclusion
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