Fred Astaire

Was the very first name entered on IMDB (nm0000001).

Wore his trademark top hat and tails in his very first movie appearance, Dancing Lady (1933).

First met lifelong best friend Irving Berlin on the set of Top Hat (1935).

Had a son, Fred Astaire Jr. (born on Tuesday, January 21st, 1936) and a daughter, Ava Astaire-McKenzie (born on Saturday, March 28th, 1942) with his first wife, Phyllis Livingston Potter. Fred Astaire Junior was born 2,258 days (322 weeks and 4 days), before Ava Astaire-McKenzie.

Joining ASCAP in 1942, he collaborated with Johnny Mercer and Gladys Shelly. His popular song compositions include "I'm Building Up to an Awful Let-Down"; "Blue Without You"; "If Swing Goes, I Go Too"; "Just Like Taking Candy from a Baby"; "Just One More Dance, Madame"; "I'll Never Let You Go"; "Oh, My Achin' Back"; and "Sweet Sorrow".

Founder of Ava Records. Joining ASCAP in 1942, he collaborated with Johnny Mercer and Gladys Shelly. His popular song compositions include "I'm Building Up to an Awful Let-Down"; "Blue Without You"; "If Swing Goes, I Go Too"; "Just Like Taking Candy from a Baby"; "Just One More Dance, Madame"; "I'll Never Let You Go"; "Oh, My Achin' Back"; and "Sweet Sorrow".

After Blue Skies (1946), New York's Paramount Theater generated a petition of 10,000 names to persuade him to come out of retirement.

Owned Blue Valley Ranch, a Thoroughbred horse breeding farm in the San Fernando Valley. He maintained a racing stable of four or five horses which competed at racetracks in California. His most famous racehorse was Triplicate, winner of the 1946 Hollywood Gold Cup.

He and Ginger Rogers acted in 10 movies together: The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), Carefree (1938), Flying Down to Rio (1933), Follow the Fleet (1936), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Shall We Dance (1937), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Swing Time (1936) and Top Hat (1935)

For Daddy Long Legs (1955), Leslie Caron told Fred that she wanted to create her own costumes for the film. Fred Astaire told her: "OK, but no feathers, please", recalling the troubles he had with one of Ginger Rogers' elaborate ostrich feathered gowns in a dance from Top Hat (1935). A feather broke loose from Ginger Rogers dress and stubbornly floated in mid air around Astaire's face. The episode was recreated to hilarious effect in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer portrayed by Judy Garland.

Aside from starring in the film Funny Face (1957), he also starred in the original 1927 Broadway version of the George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin musical "Funny Face". Although he was the male lead in the show, he did not play the same character he does in the film, and the storyline of the original stage musical was entirely different from the one in the film. Both play and film used many of the same songs. The studio may have felt that the original plot of "Funny Face" could not be properly adapted into a movie as it was an "ensemble" musical with people dropping out and parts changing all the time. Apparently the studio bought the rights to the title just so they could use the song. The plot of this movie is actually that of the unsuccessful Broadway musical "Wedding Bells" by Leonard Gershe. His character in the film is based on photographer Richard Avedon, who in fact, set up most of the photography shown in the film. The soggy Paris weather played havoc with the shooting of the wedding dress dance scene. Both Astaire and Audrey Hepburn were continually slipping in the muddy and slippery grass.

Made a cameo appearance in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Imagine (1972) film, escorting Yoko through a doorway; after one successful take, he asked to try again, believing he could do a better job.

The only time he and Gene Kelly ever danced together on screen (other than the linking-segments in the 1976 compilation movie, That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)) was in one routine, titled "The Babbitt and the Bromide" in the 1946 movie Ziegfeld Follies (1945).

One of the first Kennedy Center Honorees in 1978.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 36-38. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

When Ginger Rogers received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1992, Robyn Smith, widow of Fred Astaire, withheld all rights to clips of Rogers' scenes with Astaire, demanding payment. The Kennedy Center refused and Rogers received her honor without the retrospective show.

Ranked #73 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]

In the year 2000 the following album was released as a tribute to him: "Let Yourself Go: Celebrating Fred Astaire". All songs were performed by Stacey Kent.

Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2002 (inaugural class).