Ginger Rogers
During her long career, she made a total of 73 films and is noted for her role as Fred Astaire's partner in a series of ten musical films. She achieved great success in a variety of film roles and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle. After winning a 1925 Charleston dance contest that launched a successful vaudeville career, she gained recognition as a Broadway actress for her stage debut in Girl Crazy. This led to a contract with Paramount Pictures, which ended after five films. Rogers had her first successful film role as a supporting actress in 42nd Street.
In the 1930s, Rogers' nine films with Fred Astaire gave RKO Pictures some of its biggest successes, most notably Top Hat and Swing Time. But after two commercial failures with Astaire, she branched out into dramatic and comedy films. Her acting was well received by critics and audiences, and she became one of the biggest box-office draws and highest paid actresses of the 1940s. Her performance in Kitty Foyle won her the Oscar for Best Actress.
Rogers' popularity peaked by the end of the decade. She reunited with Astaire in 1949 in the commercially successful The Barkleys of Broadway. After an unsuccessful period in the 1950s, she returned to Broadway in 1965, playing the lead role in Hello, Dolly!. More Broadway roles followed, along with her stage directorial debut in 1985 of an off-Broadway production of Babes in Arms. She also made television acting appearances until 1987. In 1992, Rogers was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors. She died of a heart attack in 1995, at age 83.
Rogers is associated with the phrase "backwards and in high heels", which is attributed to Bob Thaves' Frank and Ernest 1982 cartoon with the caption "Sure he [Astaire] was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did...backwards and in high heels". This phrase is sometimes incorrectly attributed to Ann Richards, who used it in her keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention.
A Republican and a devout Christian Scientist, Rogers married five times with all of them ending in divorce, and having no children. During her long career, Rogers made 73 films, and her musical films with Astaire are credited with revolutionizing the genre. Rogers was a major movie star during the "Golden Age" of Hollywood and is often considered an American icon. She ranks number 14 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of female stars of classic American cinema. Her autobiography Ginger: My Story was published in 1991.
Filmography (144 Appearances)
The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes
Fred Astaire donne le 'la'
Sem Título #1: Dance of Leitfossil
Talking Pictures
Astaire and Rogers Sing the Great American Songbook
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1930s: Dancing Away the Great Depression
Busby Berkeley: A Journey with a Star
Astaire and Rogers: Partners in Rhythm
"All -Singing All-Dancing" Before And After
Gold Diggers: FDR'S New Deal... Broadway Bound
Reunited at MGM: Astaire and Rogers Together Again
Complicated Women
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
The Casting Couch
That's Entertainment! III
Burt Reynolds' Conversations with...
Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC
The RKO Story: Tales From Hollywood
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Night of 100 Stars II
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
That's Dancing!
Hollywood '84
Glitter
Going Hollywood: The '30s
Hotel
Night of 100 Stars
The Kennedy Center Honors
The Love Boat
Bob Hope's World of Comedy
That's Entertainment, Part II
Hooray for Hollywood
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
That's Entertainment!
The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Great Performances
Brasileiros em Hollywood
Here's Lucy
The Dick Cavett Show
Omnibus
Mondo Hollywood
Harlow
Cinderella
The Hollywood Palace
Quick, Let's Get Married
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Vacation Playhouse
The Merv Griffin Show
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Mike Douglas Show
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
Oh, Men! Oh, Women!
Teenage Rebel
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
The First Traveling Saleslady
The Steve Allen Show
Tony Awards
Tight Spot
Black Widow
Beautiful Stranger
Forever Female
The Oscars
Monkey Business
Dreamboat
We're Not Married!
The Groom Wore Spurs
Storm Warning
The Jack Benny Program
Perfect Strangers
What's My Line?
The Barkleys of Broadway
The Ed Sullivan Show
It Had to Be You
Magnificent Doll
Heartbeat
George White's Scandals
Week-End at the Waldorf
I'll Be Seeing You
Tender Comrade
Lady in the Dark
Show-Business at War
Once Upon a Honeymoon
The Major and the Minor
Tales of Manhattan
Roxie Hart
Tom, Dick and Harry
Kitty Foyle
Lucky Partners
Primrose Path
Fifth Avenue Girl
Bachelor Mother
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
Carefree
Having Wonderful Time
Vivacious Lady
Stage Door
Screen Snapshots: Series 16, No. 12
Shall We Dance
Swing Time
Follow the Fleet
In Person
Top Hat
Star of Midnight
Roberta
Romance in Manhattan
The Gay Divorcee
Twenty Million Sweethearts
Change of Heart
Finishing School
Upperworld
Hollywood Newsreel
Flying Down to Rio
Sitting Pretty
Chance at Heaven
Rafter Romance
A Shriek in the Night
Don't Bet on Love
Professional Sweetheart
Gold Diggers of 1933
42nd Street
Broadway Bad
You Said a Mouthful
Hat Check Girl
Hollywood on Parade No. A-1
The Thirteenth Guest
Hollywood on Parade
The Tenderfoot
Carnival Boat
Suicide Fleet
The Tip-Off
Honor Among Lovers
Follow the Leader
Office Blues
Queen High
The Sap from Syracuse
Young Man of Manhattan
Campus Sweethearts
A Night in a Dormitory
A Day of a Man of Affairs