Bob Fosse

Bob Fosse (Robert Louis Fosse) , 1927-87, American choreographer and director, b. Chicago. Fosse first appeared on Broadway in Dance Me a Song (1950). He choreographed dances for The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), and Pippin (1972). He also directed and choreographed the film Sweet Charity (1966) and the supposedly autobiographical All That Jazz (1979). In 1972, he became the only director to win an Academy Award ( Cabaret ), a Tony Award ( Pippin ) and an Emmy Award ( "Liza with a Z" ) in the same year.

Fosse, [Robert Louis] Bob (1927–87), choreographer and director. Born in Chicago, he began dancing professionally at the age of fourteen and later appeared in the choruses of several Broadway musicals before choreographing The Pajama Game (1954). Fosse was immediately recognized as a fresh, imaginative talent, whose style leaned heavily on clever, angular groupings and showed a marked debt to urban street dancing. He later did the dances for, among others, Damn Yankees (1955), New Girl in Town (1957), How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1961), and Little Me (1962). Fosse served as both director and choreographer for Redhead (1959), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), Chicago (1977), Dancin' (1978), and Big Deal (1986). He sometimes returned to performing, as when he played the title role in a 1963 City Center revival of Pal Joey. The dance musical Fosse (1999) was a compilation of his work re‐created by others after his death. Biography: All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse, Martin Gottfried, 1990.