Astaire, Fred

Astaire, Fred [né Frederick Austerlitz] (1899–1987), dancer and actor. He and his sister Adele (1898–1981) comprised the preeminent Broadway dance team of the 1920s. They were born in Omaha and achieved recognition in vaudeville before making their Broadway debut in Over the Top (1917). There followed appearances in The Passing Show of 1918, Apple Blossoms (1919), and The Love Letter (1921). The Astaires became virtual stars in two 1922 shows, For Goodness Sake and The Bunch and Judy, then, after a season in London, earned lasting recognition as the stars of Lady, Be Good! (1924). Another success, Funny Face (1927), followed, but Smiles (1930) was a failure. Their last joint success was The Band Wagon (1931), in which they sang and danced “Hoops” and “I Love Louisa.” When the revue closed, Adele retired to marry an English lord, so her brother appeared alone in what proved to be his last Broadway show, Gay Divorce (1932). The musical gave him the chance to introduce one final great song, “Night and Day.” The rest of his career was spent in Hollywood, where his early films with Ginger Rogers at RKO and his later work at Paramount and especially MGM made him one of filmdom's greatest stars. Although neither Fred nor Adele was especially good‐looking, they were both slim, agile dancers, whose routines were characterized by a streamlined stylishness and a delightfully impish wit. Writing of their work in Smiles, the Boston Evening Transcript's famous critic, Henry Taylor Parker, observed, “They are quite unsentimental. Whether they speak, dance or would sing, their touch is light, dry, sophisticated.” Until her departure, Adele Astaire was generally considered the better of the two, universally praised not only for her dancing but also for her brilliant gifts as a comedienne. The pair's trademark was a run‐around, in which they danced in ever widening arcs until, before their audience realized it, they had danced themselves off stage. Autobiography (Fred): Steps in Time, 1959; biography: Fred Astaire: A Wonderful Life, B. Adler, 1987.