Gwen Verdon
Encyclopedia
Gwenyth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon (January 13, 1925 – October 18, 2000) was an actress and dancer who won four Tony awards for her musical comedy performances. With flaming red hair and an endearing quaver in her voice, Verdon was a critically acclaimed dancer on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s. She is also strongly identified with her second husband, director–choreographer Bob Fosse
, remembered as the dancer–collaborator–muse for whom he choreographed much of his work and as the guardian of his legacy after his death.
. Her brother was William Farrell Verdon (August 1, 1923 – June 10, 1991). The Verdon family could be described as "showpeople." Her father was an electrician
at MGM
Studios, and her mother was a former vaudevillian
of the Denishawn dance troupe, as well as a dance teacher.
As a toddler, Gwen had rickets
, which left her legs so badly misshapen she was called "Gimpy" by other children and spent her early years in orthopedic boots and rigid leg braces. Her mother put the three-year-old in dance classes. Further ballet
training strengthened her legs and improved her carriage.
By the time she was six,she was already dancing on stage. She went on to study multiple dance forms, ranging from tap, jazz, ballroom and flamenco to Balinese. She even added juggling to her repertoire. At age 11, she appeared as a solo ballerina in the musical romance film The King Steps Out (1936), directed by Josef von Sternberg
and starring Grace Moore
and Franchot Tone
. She attended Hamilton High School in Los Angeles
and studied under famed balletomane Ernest Belcher. While in high school, she was cast in a revival
of Show Boat
.
Verdon shocked her parents and instructors when she abandoned her budding career
aged 17 to elope with reporter James Henaghan in 1942. In 1945, she appeared as a dancer in the movie musical The Blonde From Brooklyn. After her divorce, she entrusted her son Jimmy to the care of her parents.
and Hollywood movie studio
s. During her five-year employment with Cole, she took small roles in movie musicals as a "specialty dancer". She also taught dance to performers who eventually became stars, such as Jane Russell
, Fernando Lamas
, Lana Turner
, Rita Hayworth
, Betty Grable
and Marilyn Monroe
.
Verdon started out on Broadway as a "gypsy", 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 jealously 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 her bathrobe to take a curtain call. Verdon received a pay increase and her first Tony Award
for her triumphant performance.
With her short shock of flaming red hair, exquisite body of a pin-up girl and a guileless vulnerability on stage and off, Verdon was considered the best dancer on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s. That reputation solidified during her next show, George Abbott
's Damn Yankees
(1955), based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant
. She would forever be identified with her role as the vampish Lola, and it was on this show that she first worked with Bob Fosse
as her choreographer. In the story, Verdon's Lola is a woman who was once "the ugliest woman in Providence, Rhode Island" but sold herself to the Devil
to be the beauty we see in the play. The Devil (played by a wryly comic Ray Walston
) convinces a baseball fan to sell his soul so he can play and win the World Series for the Washington Senators. The Devil then employs the seductive Lola to keep the guy ("Joe") from escaping his grasp. The hitch is that Lola falls for the guy and has to choose between her love for him and her beauty pact with the Devil. The musical ran for 1019 performances. Vernon won another Tony and went to Hollywood to repeat her role in the 1958 movie version Damn Yankees
, memorably singing "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets". (Fosse can be seen partnered deliciously with her in the witty mambo duet "Who's Got the Pain".)
Another Tony came when Verdon memorably played a role associated with Greta Garbo
, Eugene O'Neill
's Anna Christie
, the hard-luck girl fleeing from her past as a prostitute, in the musical New Girl in Town
. When Fosse directed as well as choreographed his first Broadway musical, it was Redhead
. 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 based on Federico Fellini
's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria
. But whereas Fellini's black-and-white Italian film concerns the romantic ups and downs of an ever-hopeful prostitute, the musical makes the central character a hoofer-for-hire at a Times Square dance hall. The trademark Fosse showmanship, a dynamite musical score and theatregoers' affection for the exuberant, 41-year-old Verdon put the show over, despite Fellini's source material straining against the sanitized, Broadway-ized storyline. It was followed by a movie version starring Shirley MacLaine
as Charity, featuring Ricardo Montalban
, Sammy Davis, Jr.
and Chita Rivera
, with Fosse at the helm of his very first film as director and choreographer. Characteristically generous, Verdon helped with the choreography. The numbers include the famed "Big Spender", the fast-paced "Rhythm of Life", the witty "If My Friends Could See Me Now" and "I'm a Brass Band", in which MacLaine's Charity marched down the middle of Manhattan's Wall Street district. Verdon would also travel to Berlin to help Fosse with Cabaret
, the musical film for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.
Although estranged as a couple, Verdon and Fosse continued to collaborate on projects such as 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 helpmeet/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 lover, Broadway dancer Ann Reinking
, and she instructed for Reinking's musical theatre classes. Reinking can be seen in All That Jazz
playing the protagonist's lover, as she was in Fosse's real life. She, as much as Verdon, would become responsible for keeping Fosse's trademark choreography alive after Fosse's death. Reinking played Roxie Hart in the highly successful Broadway revival of Chicago that opened in 1996. She choreographed the dances "in the style of Bob Fosse" for that revival.
After originating the role of Roxie opposite Chita Rivera
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 receiving three Emmy Award
nominations for appearances on Magnum, P.I.
(1988), Dream On
(1993) and Homicide: Life on the Street
(1993). Verdon appeared as Alice's mother in the Woody Allen
movie Alice
(1990) and as Ruth in Marvin's Room (1996), co-starring Meryl Streep
and Hume Cronyn
. In 1999, Verdon served as artistic consultant on a plotless 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 received a Tony for best musical.
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 supporting actress for Can-Can (1953) and best leading actress for Damn Yankees (1955), New Girl in Town (1957) and Redhead
(1959), a murder-mystery musical. She also won a Grammy Award
for the cast recording of Redhead.
Gwen Verdon was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
in 1981. In 1998, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts
.
(married 1960, his death 1987). She and Henaghan had one son, Jim Henaghan (born 1943); she and Fosse had a daughter, Nicole Fosse (born 1963).
In 1971, Verdon filed a legal separation
from Fosse (but never divorced) because of his extramarital affairs. She held him in her arms as he suffered a fatal heart attack
on the sidewalk outside the Washington
theatre where Sweet Charity was being revived.
She was a cat fancier, and had up to six cats at one time, with names such as "Feets Fosse", "Junie Moon
", and "Tidbits Tumbler Fosse".
Verdon died in her sleep in 2000 of a heart attack
at the home of her daughter, Nicole, in Woodstock, Vermont, at the age of 75. At 8 p.m. on the night she died, all marquee lights on Broadway were dimmed in a tribute to the actress.She was cremated.
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
, remembered as the dancer–collaborator–muse for whom he choreographed much of his work and as the guardian of his legacy after his death.
Early life and career
Verdon was born in Culver City, California, the second child of Gertrude Lilian ( Standring; October 24, 1896 – October 16, 1956) and Joseph William Verdon (December 31, 1896 – June 23, 1978), who were British immigrants to the United States by way of CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Her brother was William Farrell Verdon (August 1, 1923 – June 10, 1991). The Verdon family could be described as "showpeople." Her father was an electrician
Electrician
An electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, stationary machines and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical infrastructure. Electricians may also...
at MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
Studios, and her mother was a former vaudevillian
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
of the Denishawn dance troupe, as well as a dance teacher.
As a toddler, Gwen had rickets
Rickets
Rickets is a softening of bones in children due to deficiency or impaired metabolism of vitamin D, magnesium , phosphorus or calcium, potentially leading to fractures and deformity. Rickets is among the most frequent childhood diseases in many developing countries...
, which left her legs so badly misshapen she was called "Gimpy" by other children and spent her early years in orthopedic boots and rigid leg braces. Her mother put the three-year-old in dance classes. Further ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
training strengthened her legs and improved her carriage.
By the time she was six,she was already dancing on stage. She went on to study multiple dance forms, ranging from tap, jazz, ballroom and flamenco to Balinese. She even added juggling to her repertoire. At age 11, she appeared as a solo ballerina in the musical romance film The King Steps Out (1936), directed by Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
and starring Grace Moore
Grace Moore
Grace Moore was an American operatic soprano and actress in musical theatre and film. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale." Her films helped to popularize opera by bringing it to a larger audience.-Early life:...
and Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
. She attended Hamilton High School in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and studied under famed balletomane Ernest Belcher. While in high school, she was cast in a revival
Revival (play)
A revival is a restaging of a stage production after its original run has closed. New material may be added. A filmed version is said to be an adaptation and requires writing of a screenplay....
of Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
.
Verdon shocked her parents and instructors when she abandoned her budding career
Career
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
aged 17 to elope with reporter James Henaghan in 1942. In 1945, she appeared as a dancer in the movie musical The Blonde From Brooklyn. After her divorce, she entrusted her son Jimmy to the care of her parents.
Adult career
Early on, Verdon found a job as assistant to choreographer Jack Cole, whose work was respected by both BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
and Hollywood movie studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
s. During her five-year employment with Cole, she took small roles in movie musicals as a "specialty dancer". She also taught dance to performers who eventually became stars, such as Jane Russell
Jane Russell
Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s....
, Fernando Lamas
Fernando Lamas
Fernando Álvaro Lamas was an Argentine-born actor and director, and the father of actor Lorenzo Lamas.-Early life and career:...
, Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
, Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
, Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
and Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
.
Verdon started out on Broadway as a "gypsy", going from one chorus line
Chorus line
A chorus line is a substantial group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre. Sometimes, singing is also performed. Chorus line dancers in Broadway musicals and revues have been referred to by slang terms such as ponies, gypsies and twirlies...
to another. Her breakthrough role finally came when choreographer Michael Kidd
Michael Kidd
Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer.-Life and career:Born Milton Greenwald in New York City on the Lower East Side, the son of Abraham Greenwald, an immigrant barber, and his wife Lillian, Michael Kidd moved to Brooklyn with his family and attended New Utrecht High School there...
cast her as the second female lead in Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
's musical Can-Can
Can-Can (musical)
Can-Can is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and a book by Abe Burrows. The story concerns the showgirls of the Montmartre dance halls during the 1890s....
(1953), starring French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
prima donna
Prima donna
Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...
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 jealously 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 her bathrobe to take a curtain call. Verdon received a pay increase and her first Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for her triumphant performance.
With her short shock of flaming red hair, exquisite body of a pin-up girl and a guileless vulnerability on stage and off, Verdon was considered the best dancer on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s. That reputation solidified during her next show, George Abbott
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...
's Damn Yankees
Damn Yankees
Damn Yankees is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League...
(1955), based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant
The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant
The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant is a 1954 novel by Douglass Wallop. It adapts the Faust theme to the world of American baseball in the 1950s.-Plot summary:...
. She would forever be identified with her role as the vampish Lola, and it was on this show that she first worked with Bob Fosse
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
as her choreographer. In the story, Verdon's Lola is a woman who was once "the ugliest woman in Providence, Rhode Island" but sold herself to the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
to be the beauty we see in the play. The Devil (played by a wryly comic Ray Walston
Ray Walston
Ray Walston was an American stage, television and film actor best known as the title character on the 1960s situation comedy My Favorite Martian. In addition, he is also remembered for his roles as Luther Billis in South Pacific , Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees , J.J...
) convinces a baseball fan to sell his soul so he can play and win the World Series for the Washington Senators. The Devil then employs the seductive Lola to keep the guy ("Joe") from escaping his grasp. The hitch is that Lola falls for the guy and has to choose between her love for him and her beauty pact with the Devil. The musical ran for 1019 performances. Vernon won another Tony and went to Hollywood to repeat her role in the 1958 movie version Damn Yankees
Damn Yankees
Damn Yankees is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League...
, memorably singing "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets". (Fosse can be seen partnered deliciously with her in the witty mambo duet "Who's Got the Pain".)
Another Tony came when Verdon memorably played a role associated with Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
, Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's Anna Christie
Anna Christie
Anna Christie is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his work.-Plot summary:...
, the hard-luck girl fleeing from her past as a prostitute, in the musical New Girl in Town
New Girl in Town
New Girl in Town is a musical with a book by George Abbott and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill based on Eugene O'Neill's 1921 gloomy play Anna Christie, about a prostitute who tries to live down her past. New Girl, unlike O'Neill's play, focuses on the jealousy of the character Marthy and on...
. When Fosse directed as well as choreographed his first Broadway musical, it was Redhead
Redhead (musical)
Redhead is a musical with music composed by Albert Hague and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, who with her brother, Herbert, along with Sidney Sheldon and David Shaw wrote the book/libretto...
. In 1960, Fosse and Verdon wed.
In 1966, Verdon returned to the stage in the role of Charity in Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...
, which like many of her earlier Broadway triumphs was choreographed and directed by husband Fosse. The show is based on Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria is a 1957 Italian film directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria Ceccarelli, a feisty but naive prostitute in Ostia, then a seedy section of Rome...
. But whereas Fellini's black-and-white Italian film concerns the romantic ups and downs of an ever-hopeful prostitute, the musical makes the central character a hoofer-for-hire at a Times Square dance hall. The trademark Fosse showmanship, a dynamite musical score and theatregoers' affection for the exuberant, 41-year-old Verdon put the show over, despite Fellini's source material straining against the sanitized, Broadway-ized storyline. It was followed by a movie version starring Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
as Charity, featuring Ricardo Montalban
Ricardo Montalbán
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG was a Mexican radio, television, theatre and film actor. He had a career spanning six decades and many notable roles...
, Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
and Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera is an American actress, dancer, and singer best known for her roles in musical theater. She is the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award...
, with Fosse at the helm of his very first film as director and choreographer. Characteristically generous, Verdon helped with the choreography. The numbers include the famed "Big Spender", the fast-paced "Rhythm of Life", the witty "If My Friends Could See Me Now" and "I'm a Brass Band", in which MacLaine's Charity marched down the middle of Manhattan's Wall Street district. Verdon would also travel to Berlin to help Fosse with Cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
, the musical film for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.
Although estranged as a couple, Verdon and Fosse continued to collaborate on projects such as Chicago
Chicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
(1975) (in which she originated the role of murderess Roxie Hart
Roxie Hart
Roxanne "Roxie" Hart is a fictional showgirl in various adaptations of the same story. She first appeared in the 1926 play Chicago written by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins was inspired by the real-life unrelated 1924 murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, which she covered for...
) and the musical Dancin'
Dancin'
Dancin' is a musical revue first produced in 1978, directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, who won a Tony Award for the choreography. The show is a tribute to the art of dance, and the music is a collection of mostly American songs, many with a dance theme from a wide variety of styles, from...
(1978), as well as Fosse's autobiographical movie All That Jazz
All That Jazz
All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical film directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life and career as dancer, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Bob Fosse's manic effort to edit his...
(1979
1979 in film
The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....
). The helpmeet/peer played by Leland Palmer
Leland Palmer (actress)
Leland Palmer is an American actress, dancer, and singer who has appeared on stage, in motion pictures, and on television. She appeared on Broadway in Bajour, A Joyful Noise, Hello, Dolly!, Applause, and Pippin...
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 lover, Broadway dancer Ann Reinking
Ann Reinking
Ann Reinking is an American actress, dancer, and choreographer. She has worked extensively in musical theatre, both as a dancer and choreographer, as well as appearing in film.-Biography:...
, and she instructed for Reinking's musical theatre classes. Reinking can be seen in All That Jazz
All That Jazz
All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical film directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life and career as dancer, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Bob Fosse's manic effort to edit his...
playing the protagonist's lover, as she was in Fosse's real life. She, as much as Verdon, would become responsible for keeping Fosse's trademark choreography alive after Fosse's death. Reinking played Roxie Hart in the highly successful Broadway revival of Chicago that opened in 1996. She choreographed the dances "in the style of Bob Fosse" for that revival.
After originating the role of Roxie opposite Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera is an American actress, dancer, and singer best known for her roles in musical theater. She is the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award...
in Chicago, Verdon focused on film acting, playing character roles in movies such as The Cotton Club
The Cotton Club (film)
The Cotton Club is a 1984 crime-drama, centered on a famed Harlem jazz club of the 1930s, the Cotton Club.The movie was co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, choreographed by Henry LeTang, and starred Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Gregory Hines...
(1984), Cocoon
Cocoon (film)
The score for Cocoon was composed and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack was released twice, through Polydor Records in 1985 and a reprint through P.E.G. in 1997 and features eleven tracks of score and a vocal track performed by Michael Sembello...
(1985) and Cocoon: The Return
Cocoon: The Return
Cocoon: The Return is a 1988 science fiction film that is the sequel to the 1985 film Cocoon. All of the starring actors from the first film reprised their roles in this film, although Brian Dennehy only appears in one scene at the end of the film...
(1988). She continued to teach dance and musical theater and to act. She receiving three Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominations for appearances on Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....
(1988), Dream On
Dream On (TV series)
Dream On is an American adult-themed situation comedy about single New Yorker, Martin Tupper. The show used a gimmick where old black and white clips were used to punctuate the main character's feelings or thoughts...
(1993) and Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
(1993). Verdon appeared as Alice's mother in the Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
movie Alice
Alice (1990 film)
Alice is a 1990 film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Joe Mantegna, Mia Farrow and Alec Baldwin. The film is a loose reworking of Federico Fellini's 1965 film Juliet of the Spirits.-Plot:...
(1990) and as Ruth in Marvin's Room (1996), co-starring Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
and Hume Cronyn
Hume Cronyn
Hume Blake Cronyn, OC was a Canadian actor of stage and screen, who enjoyed a long career, often appearing professionally alongside his second wife, Jessica Tandy.-Early life:...
. In 1999, Verdon served as artistic consultant on a plotless Broadway musical designed to showcase examples of classic Fosse choreography. Called simply Fosse
Fosse
Fosse is a three-act musical revue showcasing the choreography of Bob Fosse. After 21 previews, the original Broadway production, conceived and directed by Richard Maltby, Jr...
, 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 received a Tony for best musical.
Verdon played Alora in the movie Walking Across Egypt
Walking Across Egypt
Walking Across Egypt is a 1999 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by veteran director Arthur Allan Seidelman and written by Paul Tamasy, based on Clyde Edgerton's novel of the same name...
(1999) and appeared in the film Bruno
Bruno (2000 film)
Bruno is a 2000 American film starring Alex D. Linz and Shirley MacLaine. The film is the first and, as of 2009, the only film ever directed by MacLaine....
, released in 2000.
Verdon received a total of four Tonys, for best supporting actress for Can-Can (1953) and best leading actress for Damn Yankees (1955), New Girl in Town (1957) and Redhead
Redhead (musical)
Redhead is a musical with music composed by Albert Hague and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, who with her brother, Herbert, along with Sidney Sheldon and David Shaw wrote the book/libretto...
(1959), a murder-mystery musical. She also won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for the cast recording of Redhead.
Gwen Verdon was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
American Theatre Hall of Fame
The American Theatre Hall of Fame in New York City was founded in 1972. Earl Blackwell was the first head of the Executive Committee. In an announcement at a luncheon meeting on March 1972, he said that the new Theater Hall of Fame would be located in the Uris Theatre . James M...
in 1981. In 1998, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
.
Personal life
Verdon had two husbands, tabloid reporter James Henaghan (married 1942, divorced 1947) and Bob FosseBob Fosse
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
(married 1960, his death 1987). She and Henaghan had one son, Jim Henaghan (born 1943); she and Fosse had a daughter, Nicole Fosse (born 1963).
In 1971, Verdon filed a legal separation
Legal separation
Legal separation is a legal process by which a married couple may formalize a de facto separation while remaining legally married. A legal separation is granted in the form of a court order, which can be in the form of a legally binding consent decree...
from Fosse (but never divorced) because of his extramarital affairs. She held him in her arms as he suffered a fatal heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on the sidewalk outside the Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
theatre where Sweet Charity was being revived.
She was a cat fancier, and had up to six cats at one time, with names such as "Feets Fosse", "Junie Moon
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon is a 1970 film directed by Otto Preminger. The film is based on the book by Marjorie Kellogg. The film starred Liza Minnelli as the title character, a girl whose face is scarred in a vicious battery acid attack by her boy friend. Later in an institution, she...
", and "Tidbits Tumbler Fosse".
Verdon died in her sleep in 2000 of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
at the home of her daughter, Nicole, in Woodstock, Vermont, at the age of 75. At 8 p.m. on the night she died, all marquee lights on Broadway were dimmed in a tribute to the actress.She was cremated.
Filmography
- The King Steps Out (1936)
- The Blonde from Brooklyn (1945)
- On the RivieraOn the RivieraOn the Riviera is a 1951 musical comedy film made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Walter Lang, produced by Sol C. Siegel from a screenplay by Valentine Davies and Phoebe and Henry Ephron, based on the play The Red Cat by Rudolph Lothar and Hans Adler, with dance sequences choreographed and...
(1951) - David and BathshebaDavid and BathshebaDavid and Bathsheba is a 1951 historical Technicolor epic film about King David made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Henry King, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Philip Dunne. The music score was by Alfred Newman and the cinematography by Leon Shamroy...
(1951) - Meet Me After the ShowMeet Me After the ShowMeet Me After the Show is a 1951 musical film starring Betty Grable and released through 20th Century Fox. The film was one of Grable's last musical films for Fox during her box office reign of the past decade.-Plot:...
(1951) - DreamboatDreamboat (film)Dreamboat is a 1952 comedy film starring Clifton Webb as a college professor with a mysterious past.-Plot:The respectable lives of Professor of English literature Thornton Sayre and his daughter Carol are severely disrupted when it is revealed that he was once a matinee idol known as "Dreamboat"...
(1952) - The I Don't Care Girl (1953)
- The Mississippi GamblerThe Mississippi Gambler (1953 film)The Mississippi Gambler is a 1953 adventure film directed by Rudolph Maté. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording The Mississippi Gambler is a 1953 adventure film directed by Rudolph Maté. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording The Mississippi...
(1953) - The Farmer Takes a WifeThe Farmer Takes a WifeThe Farmer Takes a Wife is a 1934 play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly based on the novel Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds. It was well-received upon its opening night on Broadway on October 30, 1934 at the 46th Street Theatre. The production was directed by Marc Connelly and used set designs by...
(1953) - Gentlemen Marry BrunettesGentlemen Marry BrunettesGentlemen Marry Brunettes is a 1955 musical film produced by Russ-Field productions, starring Jane Russell and Jeanne Crain, and released by United Artists...
(1955) (scenes deleted) - Damn YankeesDamn Yankees (film)Damn Yankees is a 1958 musical film made by Warner Bros., a modern version of the Faust story involving the New York Yankees and Washington Senators baseball teams. The film is based on the 1955 Broadway musical of the same name....
(1958) - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BandSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film)Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a 1978 American musical film. Its soundtrack, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, features new versions of songs originally written and performed by The Beatles. The film draws primarily from two of their albums, 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club...
(1978) (Cameo) - CreepshowCreepshowCreepshow is a 1982 American horror anthology film directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King. The film's ensemble cast included Ted Danson, Leslie Nielsen, Hal Holbrook, E.G...
(1982) (voice only) - LegsLegs (film)Legs is a 1983 television musical drama film starring Shanna Reed, Deborah Geffner, Lawrence Leritz, David Marshall Grant and Maureen Teefy. It was directed by Jerrold Freedman and written by Jerrold Freedman and Brian Garfield....
(1983) - The Cotton ClubThe Cotton Club (film)The Cotton Club is a 1984 crime-drama, centered on a famed Harlem jazz club of the 1930s, the Cotton Club.The movie was co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, choreographed by Henry LeTang, and starred Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Gregory Hines...
(1984) - Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret (1985)
- CocoonCocoon (film)The score for Cocoon was composed and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack was released twice, through Polydor Records in 1985 and a reprint through P.E.G. in 1997 and features eleven tracks of score and a vocal track performed by Michael Sembello...
(1985) - NadineNadineNadine may refer to:* Nadine * Nádine , a South African singer* Nadine, the title of a Chuck Berry song* Nadine, the title of a Frank Black and the Catholics song* Nadine , a George Thorogood album...
(1987) - Cocoon: The ReturnCocoon: The ReturnCocoon: The Return is a 1988 science fiction film that is the sequel to the 1985 film Cocoon. All of the starring actors from the first film reprised their roles in this film, although Brian Dennehy only appears in one scene at the end of the film...
(1988) - Marvin's Room (1996)
- In Cold Blood (TV) (1996)
Stage
- Alive and KickingAlive and Kicking (musical)Alive and Kicking is a musical revue with sketches by Ray Golden, I.A.L. Diamond, Henry Morgan, Jerome Chodorov, Joseph Stein, Will Glickman, John Murray, and Michael Stuart; music by Hal Borne, Irma Jurist, Sammy Fain, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Rome, Sonny Burke, Leo Schumer, and Ray Golden; and...
(1950) - Can-CanCan-Can (musical)Can-Can is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and a book by Abe Burrows. The story concerns the showgirls of the Montmartre dance halls during the 1890s....
(1953) - Damn YankeesDamn YankeesDamn Yankees is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League...
(1955) - New Girl In TownNew Girl in TownNew Girl in Town is a musical with a book by George Abbott and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill based on Eugene O'Neill's 1921 gloomy play Anna Christie, about a prostitute who tries to live down her past. New Girl, unlike O'Neill's play, focuses on the jealousy of the character Marthy and on...
(1957) - RedheadRedhead (musical)Redhead is a musical with music composed by Albert Hague and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, who with her brother, Herbert, along with Sidney Sheldon and David Shaw wrote the book/libretto...
(1959) - Sweet CharitySweet CharitySweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...
(1966) - Children! Children! (1972)
- ChicagoChicago (musical)Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
(1975)