Gwen Verdon

Movie Actress

Gwen Verdon was born in Culver City, California, United States on January 13th, 1925 and is the Movie Actress. At the age of 75, Gwen Verdon biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.

  Report
Other Names / Nick Names
Gwyneth Evelyn Verdon, Gwennie, The Superior Posterior
Date of Birth
January 13, 1925
Nationality
United States
Place of Birth
Culver City, California, United States
Death Date
Oct 18, 2000 (age 75)
Zodiac Sign
Capricorn
Networth
$3 Million
Profession
Dancer, Film Actor, Singer, Stage Actor
Gwen Verdon Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

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

Height
163cm
Weight
Not Available
Hair Color
Red
Eye Color
Not Available
Build
Slim
Measurements
Not Available
Gwen Verdon Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
Not Available
Hobbies
Not Available
Education
Not Available
Gwen Verdon Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
James Henaghan ​ ​(m. 1942; div. 1947)​, Bob Fosse ​ ​(m. 1960; died 1987)​
Children
2, including Nicole Fosse
Dating / Affair
Not Available
Parents
Not Available
Gwen Verdon Career

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.

Source

Michelle Williams was caught in New York filming her latest FX limited series Dying For Sex

www.dailymail.co.uk, March 16, 2024
On Friday, Michelle Williams was seen in New York City shooting the new FX limited series Dying For Sex. The award-winning actress arrived casual in brown pants with a green puffer jacket and black leather boots for the day's shoot. The actress briefly covered her face and her short dyed blond locks with her long scarf before deciding not to speak with a crew member.

Tony Vaccaro: The photographer who saw it all over a nine-decade career

www.dailymail.co.uk, January 2, 2023
Tony Vaccaro, who died eight days before his 100th birthday, chronicled World War II's horrors before establishing himself as the 21st century's best commercial photographer. Through an exhibit that compares his war photography with the glamor of his later art, the tale of his life and career is told. "juxtaposes the living legend's striking war pictures with the lyrical mid-century fashion, film, and pop culture photographs that followed later.' The exhibition includes photographs from Europe's battlefields, Vaccaro's photographs of the continent's postwar reconstruction, as well as a collection of vibrant portraits of celebrities he befriended, including fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy and stage icon Gwen Verdon.