Person    | Male  Born 10/5/1899  Died 22/6/1987

Fred Astaire

Categories: Cinema, Dance, Music / songs, Seriously Famous

Countries: USA

Dancer, singer, actor. Born and died America. Brother and sister, Frederick and Adele Austerlitz, started as children as vaudeville performers. Between 1917 and 1932 they appeared in musical shows on Broadway and in London as Fred and Adele Astaire. Adele retired to marry the second son of the Duke of Devonshire and Fred went on to a successful solo career, sometimes with Ginger Rogers. Films include Top Hat, 1935 and Swing Time, 1936.

The 1951 film Royal Wedding is set in London (but filmed in relentlessly sunny Hollywood) during the real 1947 royal wedding. The plot incorporates a number of points from Astaire's real life: his partnership with Adele; her marriage into the aristocracy, and even the difficulty of dancing on a ship in rough weather, but probably not the rotating room.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Fred Astaire

Commemorated ati

Meard Street

2022: We were contacted by David Bieda who wrote: "Meard Street plaque. I’d l...

Read More

Other Subjects

Dame Judi Dench, CH

Dame Judi Dench, CH

Actor. Born Judith Olivia Dench in Heworth, York. Made her stage debut with the Old Vic company in 1957. Over the decades, she has performed with the Royal Shakespeare and the National Theatre comp...

Person, Cinema, Seriously Famous, Theatre, TV & Radio

1 memorial
The Lady Vanishes

The Lady Vanishes

Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Filmed at Gainsborough Film Studios.

Media, Cinema

1 memorial
Gregory Augustus Daymond

Gregory Augustus Daymond

Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Augustus Daymond was born on 25 November 1920 in Great Falls, Cascade County, Montana, USA. From the American Air Museum in Britain website we learn that he grew up in Ne...

Person, Armed Forces, Cinema, USA

War served, WW2
1 memorial
Herbert Wilcox

Herbert Wilcox

Film producer and director. Born Herbert Sydney Wilcox at Norwood. He fought in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I and entered film production in 1922. He specialised in romantic, light-hearted ...

Person, Cinema

1 memorial
Jim Henson

Jim Henson

Puppeteer, filmmaker and screenwriter. Born James Maury Henson in Greenville, Mississippi. He worked on the television series 'Sesame Street', before creating the 'Muppet Show' and 'Fraggle Rock'. ...

Person, Cinema, TV & Radio, USA

2 memorials