Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers (born July 16, 1911, Independence, Missouri, U.S.—died April 25, 1995, Rancho Mirage, California) was an American stage and film dancer and actress who was noted primarily as the partner of Fred Astaire in a series of motion-picture musicals.

McMath was given the nickname Ginger, which was based on a cousin’s failed attempts to pronounce Virginia. Her parents divorced when she was still an infant, and she was raised by her mother, Lela Owens McMath. In 1920 Lela married John Rogers, and Ginger took his last name. She began her career, which was carefully orchestrated by her mother, performing in local shows in Texas while she was still a child. She then appeared with Eddie Foy’s vaudeville troupe before winning a Charleston contest at age 15. That success ultimately led her to the Broadway stage in 1929, when she performed in Top Speed. By the time she was 19 years old, Rogers had introduced George Gershwin’s “Embraceable You” and “But Not for Me” in the 1930 Broadway hit Girl Crazy. She then went to Hollywood and began performing in movies, typecast as a flippant blonde.

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Rogers made her motion-picture debut in Young Man of Manhattan (1930), in which she immortalized the catchphrase “Cigarette me, big boy.” Her gum cracking and good-natured wholesomeness typified 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 (both 1933), while her stately beauty and sophisticated charm fueled the on-screen chemistry with Fred Astaire in their films. Katharine Hepburn notably said, “He gives her class, and she gives him sex.” Rogers first performed with Astaire in Flying Down to Rio (1933), and their dance scenes—featuring an effortlessness and energy that became their trademarks—proved so popular that they continued the partnership in nine other films, notably The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), and The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), their last collaboration.

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Though best known for her dancing, Rogers preferred dramatic acting, and in 1940 she won an Academy Award for her leading role in Kitty Foyle, in which she portrayed a spirited working girl who ultimately chooses love over money. She also enjoyed a sure hand in light comedy and starred in such films as Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) and The Major and the Minor (1942), in which her character pretended to be a 12-year-old girl. Some of her other 70 films include Roxie Hart (1942), Lady in the Dark (1944), and Monkey Business (1952).

After appearing in her last film, Harlow (1965), Rogers maintained a busy theatre schedule, performing the title role in Hello Dolly! from 1965 to 1967 and introducing Mame to London audiences in 1969. In addition, Rogers occasionally appeared on television, with guest roles in such series as Here’s Lucy and The Love Boat. Her last acting role came in a 1987 episode of Hotel.

Rogers was a 1992 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievement. In her autobiography, Ginger: My Story (1991), she touched on her five failed marriages and explored her lifestyle as a Christian Scientist.