Gwen Verdon

At 75 years old, Gwen Verdon has this physical status:

Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon (January 13, 1925 – October 18, 2000) was an American actress and dancer.

She received four Tony Awards for her musical comedy appearances, as well as acting as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and special dance coach for theater and film.

Verdon, a flaming red hairstyle and a quaver in her voice, was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

Apart from her many appearances in musicals, she is also linked to her second husband, director-choreographer Bob Fosse, who was remembered as both the dancer-collaborator and muse for whom he choreographed a significant portion of his work and the guardian of his legacy after his death.

Early life

Verdon was born in Culver City, California, and the second child of Gertrude Lilian (née Standring) and Joseph William Verdon, British immigrants moving to the United States via Canada. William Farrell Verdon was her brother. Her father, an electrician at MGM Studios, and her mother, a former vaudevillian of the Denishawn dance troupe, as well as a dance instructor.

She suffered from rickets, which left her legs so badly damaged, that she was branded "Gimpy" by other children and spent her early years in orthopedic boots and rigid leg braces. Her mother took her to dance lessons at age three. She regained her legs and increased her carriage as a result of her more ballet training.

By age six, she was dancing on stage. She went on to study a variety of dance styles, ranging from tap, jazz, ballroom, and flamenco to Balinese. She also studied juggling. She appeared as a solo ballerina in the musical romance film The King Steps Down (1936), directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Grace Moore and Franchot Tone at age 11. Ernest Belcher, a ballet enthusiast, attended Hamilton High School in Los Angeles and studied under ballet buff Ernest Belcher. She appeared in a revival of Show Boat when she was in high school.

After getting her pregnant at 17 years old, Verdon's parents begged her to marry family friend and tabloid reporter James Henaghan, who died in 1942, and she quit dancing to raise their child. She appeared as a dancer in the film Blonde From Brooklyn in 1945. She entrusted her son Jimmy with the care of her parents after she divorced.

Personal life

Verdon was married twice and had two children. In 1942, she married tabloid journalist James Archibald Henaghan. They had a son, Jim, the following year, and divorced in 1947. Verdon married choreographer Bob Fosse in 1960. Nicole, their daughter, was born in 1963. Fosse's extramarital affairs put a strain on their marriage, and by 1971, Verdon and Fosse were divorced, but never divorced. She was involved in a relationship with actor Scott Brady and actor Jerry Lanning, the son of Roberta Sherwood. When Verdon suffered a fatal heart attack at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., in September 1987, he was with Fosse.

Verdon was a cat enthusiast, bringing up to six cats at a time, with the dogs sporting names such as "Feets Fosse," "Junie Moon," and "Tumbler Fosse" among them.

Verdon was a mental health advocate; later in life, she spoke openly about the positive effects of mental health care. She served on the board of directors for the New York Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, as well as teaching dance as a form of therapy, and actively raised funds to fund mental health-care research.

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Career

Early on, Verdon found a job as assistant to choreographer Jack Cole, whose work was respected by both Broadway and Hollywood movie studios. During her five-year employment with Cole, she took small roles in movie musicals as a "specialty dancer". She also taught dance to stars such as Jane Russell, Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe.

Verdon started out on Broadway going from one chorus line to another. Her breakthrough role finally came when choreographer Michael Kidd cast her as the second female lead in Cole Porter's musical Can-Can (1953), starring French prima donna Lilo. Out-of-town reviewers hailed Verdon's interpretation of Eve in the Garden of Eden ballet as a performance that upstaged the show's star, who reputedly demanded Verdon's role be cut to only two featured dance numbers. With her role reduced to little more than an ensemble part, Verdon formally announced her intention to quit by the time the show premiered on Broadway. But her opening-night Garden of Eden performance was so well-received that the audience screamed her name until the startled actress was brought from her dressing room in a towel to take a curtain call. Verdon received a pay increase and her first Tony Award for her performance.

Verdon's biggest critical and commercial success was her following show, George Abbott's Damn Yankees (1955), based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. The musical ran for 1019 performances. Verdon won another Tony and went to Hollywood to repeat her role in the 1958 movie version Damn Yankees, famously singing "Whatever Lola Wants". (Fosse can be seen partnered with her in the original mambo duet "Who's Got the Pain".)

Verdon won another Tony for her performance in the musical New Girl in Town as a hard-luck girl fleeing from her past as a prostitute. She won her fourth Tony for the murder-mystery musical Redhead, Fosse's Broadway debut as a director/choreographer. In 1960, Fosse and Verdon wed.

In 1966, Verdon returned to the stage in the role of Charity in Sweet Charity, which like many of her earlier Broadway triumphs was choreographed and directed by husband Fosse. The show is loosely based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria. It was followed by a movie version starring Shirley MacLaine as Charity, featuring Ricardo Montalbán, Sammy Davis Jr. and Chita Rivera, with Fosse at the helm of his very first film as director and choreographer. Verdon helped with the choreography. The numbers include the famed "Big Spender", "Rhythm of Life", "If My Friends Could See Me Now", and "I'm a Brass Band". Verdon also traveled to Berlin to help Fosse with Cabaret, the musical film for which he won an Oscar for Best Director.

Although estranged as a couple, Verdon and Fosse continued to collaborate on projects such as the musical Chicago (1975) (in which she originated the role of murderess Roxie Hart) and the musical Dancin' (1978), as well as Fosse's autobiographical movie All That Jazz (1979). The helpmate/peer played by Leland Palmer in that film is based on the role Verdon played in Fosse's real life. She also developed a close working relationship with Fosse's partner, Broadway dancer Ann Reinking, and was an instructor for Reinking's musical theatre classes.

After originating the role of Roxie opposite Chita Rivera's Velma Kelly in Chicago, Verdon focused on film acting, playing character roles in movies such as The Cotton Club (1984), Cocoon (1985) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). She continued to teach dance and musical theater and to act. She received three Emmy Award nominations for appearances on Magnum, P.I. (1988), Dream On (1993) and Homicide: Life on the Street (1993). Verdon appeared as the title character's mother in the Woody Allen movie Alice (1990) and as Ruth in Marvin's Room (1996), co-starring Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, and Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1999, Verdon served as artistic consultant on a Broadway musical designed to showcase examples of classic Fosse choreography. Called simply Fosse, the revue was conceived and directed by Richard Maltby Jr. and Ann Reinking and choreographed by Reinking and Chet Walker. Verdon's daughter Nicole received a "special thanks" credit. The show won a Tony Award for best musical.

In 1997 Verdon appeared in an episode of Walker Texas Ranger as Maisie Whitman. She reprised the role in 1999.

Verdon played Alora in the movie Walking Across Egypt (1999) and appeared in the film Bruno, released in 2000. Verdon received a total of four Tonys, for best featured actress for Can-Can (1953) and best leading actress for Damn Yankees (1955), New Girl in Town (1957) and Redhead (1959). She also won a Grammy Award for the cast recording of Redhead.

Verdon was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981. In 1998, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

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