She retired from performing in 1932 to marry Lord Charles Cavendish, with whom she had three children: an unnamed daughter, who died the day she was born on October 8, 1933; and unnamed twin sons, who both died within hours of their birth in 1935.
In 1931, Astaire met and soon fell in love with Phyllis Livingston Potter, a woman who came from one of Boston's most aristocratic families and who had never seen him on the stage; they were married in July 1933 and had two children: Fred Jr., born in 1936, and Ava, born in 1942.
In an interview, Astaire's daughter Ava Astaire McKenzie, observed that he was often given a top hat to make him look taller. In November 1905, the comedic act debuted in Keyport, New Jersey at a "tryout theater." The local paper wrote that "the Astaires are the greatest child act in vaudeville."
Fred Astaire had passed on a chunk to his two children because he wasn't expecting to marry again so long after the death of his first wife, Phyllis, in 1954. So Fred left Robyn the jewel of his estate - the right to manage his intellectual property and buff the sheen on his legacy.
Was allergic to champagne. He is considered by some to be the greatest American composer of the twentieth century. His last words were, "Fred Astaire".
The closest he may have come to identifying a possible favorite was in Interview magazine in June 1973 where he said: "Barrie Chase is the best partner - she's the latest partner that I've had, and believe me, that girl has got it - that girl can dance."
In 1973, he met Robyn Smith, a jockey, who filled the empty space left by his wife's death. The two were married in 1980, and many credit Smith for Astaire's happiness in his last years. He died in her arms at age 88 of pneumonia.
Rogers was interested in more dramatic roles than those she was offered with Astaire. Meanwhile, Astaire, who worked with many dancers throughout his career, wished to be known as a dancer in his own right, rather than always being paired with one permanent partner.
Astaire was also an excellent actor, and a successful, though personally modest, singer. He introduced some of the most celebrated songs from the Great American Songbook. He married Phyllis Potter in 1933; they had two children. After her death, he remarried in 1980 to Robyn Smith, a female jockey 45 years his junior.
Rogers married and divorced five times. She did not have children. On March 29, 1929, Rogers married for the first time at age 17 to her dancing partner Jack Pepper (real name Edward Jackson Culpepper). They divorced in 1932, having separated soon after the wedding.
What was the relationship between Fred and Adele Astaire?
The dancing partner who made Fred Astaire famous isn't the one most people remember. Fred, born in 1899, and his sister, Adele, a year his senior, were the children of an Austrian immigrant named Austerlitz who had settled in Omaha, Nebraska.
As of the date of the film's release in May 1976, Astaire had just attained his 77th year a week earlier, and Kelly was to turn 64 that August. One of only two films in which Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly danced together. The other was Ziegfeld Follies (1945).
“Fred and I were colleagues… and we worked together beautifully,” Rogers writes. “True, we were never bosom buddies off screen, we were different people with different interests. We were a couple only on film.”
Astaire was excited to reunite with Hayworth for You Were Never Lovelier, writing in his autobiography, "I looked forward to it mainly because Rita was so delightful to work with and I wanted very much to have a big hit with her.
'' Mr. Astaire kept himself and his own ability in perspective as the years went by with his capacity for agonizing self-appraisal. He stopped dancing professionally about 1970, when he was already more than 70 years old.
Astaire himself, however, believes that he is past his peak and that Kelly will reign supreme in the field for at least another ten years. Fred Astaire, by the way, tells me it isn't true he stepped into Gene Kelly's dances for Easter Parade. “I had to create my own… I have my style; Gene has his.
He was typically paired up with Ginger. Rogers, but, when he was asked about it, he secretly. confessed that his favorite dance partner just. happened to be Rita Hayworth.
How old was Fred Astaire when he married Robyn Smith?
She went on to marry Astaire on June 24, 1980, at the Astaire home in Beverly Hills, California. At the time of their marriage, Astaire was 81 and Smith was 35. After Astaire's death in 1987, Smith became embroiled in a series of legal battles over the use of her late husband's image.
While walking with his family on a warm Hollywood night, silver-screen legend Fred Astaire noticed a nail lying on the sidewalk. “He kicked it and it landed on its head,” recounts his grandson Tyler McKenzie. “He interacted with space and time in a way that was as unique as he was.”
