Ginger Rogers
Date of birth: 1911-07-16
Place of birth: Independence, Missouri, USA
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Virginia Katherine McMath
Biography
Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the twentieth century. During her long career, she made a total of 73 films and is noted for her role as Fred Astaire's partner in a series of ten musical films. She achieved great success in a variety of film roles and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle. After winning a 1925 Charleston dance contest that launched a successful vaudeville career, she gained recognition as a Broadway actress for her stage debut in Girl Crazy. This led to a contract with Paramount Pictures, which ended after five films. Rogers had her first successful film role as a supporting actress in 42nd Street. In the 1930s, Rogers' nine films with Fred Astaire gave RKO Pictures some of its biggest successes, most notably Top Hat and Swing Time. But after two commercial failures with Astaire, she branched out into dramatic and comedy films. Her acting was well received by critics and audiences, and she became one of the biggest box-office draws and highest paid actresses of the 1940s. Her performance in Kitty Foyle won her the Oscar for Best Actress. Rogers' popularity peaked by the end of the decade. She reunited with Astaire in 1949 in the commercially successful The Barkleys of Broadway. After an unsuccessful period in the 1950s, she returned to Broadway in 1965, playing the lead role in Hello, Dolly!. More Broadway roles followed, along with her stage directorial debut in 1985 of an off-Broadway production of Babes in Arms. She also made television acting appearances until 1987. In 1992, Rogers was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors. She died of a heart attack in 1995, at age 83. Rogers is associated with the phrase "backwards and in high heels", which is attributed to Bob Thaves' Frank and Ernest 1982 cartoon with the caption "Sure he [Astaire] was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did...backwards and in high heels". This phrase is sometimes incorrectly attributed to Ann Richards, who used it in her keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention. A Republican and a devout Christian Scientist, Rogers married five times with all of them ending in divorce, and having no children. During her long career, Rogers made 73 films, and her musical films with Astaire are credited with revolutionizing the genre. Rogers was a major movie star during the "Golden Age" of Hollywood and is often considered an American icon. She ranks number 14 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of female stars of classic American cinema. Her autobiography Ginger: My Story was published in 1991.
Movie Credits
42nd Street
1933-03-11
A producer puts on what may be his last Broadway show, and at the last moment a chorus girl has to r
Top Hat
1935-08-29
Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new
Swing Time
1936-08-28
Lucky is tricked into missing his own wedding to Margaret and has to make $25,000 so her father will
I'll Be Seeing You
1944-12-31
Mary Marshall, serving a six year term for accidental manslaughter, is given a Christmas furlough fr
We're Not Married!
1952-07-11
A Justice of the Peace performed weddings a few days before his license was valid. A few years later
Monkey Business
1952-09-03
Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the
Gold Diggers of 1933
1933-05-27
When all Broadway shows are shut down during the Depression, a trio of desperate showgirls scheme to
Shall We Dance
1937-05-07
Ballet star Petrov arranges to cross the Atlantic aboard the same ship as the dancer and musical sta
Hollywood on Parade No. A-1
1932-08-25
In the first entry of this series, the show open with a troupe of dancing chorus girls getting a sal
Roberta
1935-03-07
Football player John Kent tags along as Huck Haines and the Wabash Indianians travel to an engagemen
A Shriek in the Night
1933-07-22
Rival newspaper reporters Pat Morgan and Ted Rand find themselves unraveling the mystery behind the
Cinderella
1965-02-22
After the success of the live 1957 Cinderella on CBS (with Julie Andrews), the network decided to p
Vivacious Lady
1938-05-13
College town life gets turned upside down after a button-down botany professor secretly weds a sizzl
Tales of Manhattan
1942-08-05
Ten screenwriters collaborated on this series of tales concerning the effect a tailcoat cursed by it
Storm Warning
1951-02-10
A fashion model witnesses the brutal assassination of an investigative journalist by the Ku Klux Kla
The Gay Divorcee
1934-10-12
Seeking a divorce from her absentee husband, Mimi Glossop travels to an English seaside resort. Ther
Flying Down to Rio
1933-12-22
An American bandleader woos a Brazilian beauty who is already engaged to his employer. His friends
Follow the Fleet
1936-02-20
When the US Navy fleet docks at San Francisco, sailor Bake Baker tries to rekindle the flame with hi
Bachelor Mother
1939-06-30
Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a fo
Carefree
1938-09-02
Dr. Tony Flagg's friend Steven has problems in the relationship with his fiancée Amanda, so he persu
Heartbeat
1946-05-01
A female escapee from a reform school joins a pickpocket academy in Paris.
The Barkleys of Broadway
1949-05-04
Josh and Dinah Barkley are a successful musical-comedy team, known for their stormy but passionate r
Once Upon a Honeymoon
1942-11-27
A radio correspondent tries to rescue a burlesque queen from her marriage to a Nazi official.
Stage Door
1937-10-08
The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls fr
Black Widow
1954-10-28
When a young stage hopeful is found dead, suspicion falls on her mentor, a successful Broadway produ
Fifth Avenue Girl
1939-09-22
A wealthy man hires a poor girl to play his mistress in order to get more attention from his neglect
Having Wonderful Time
1938-07-01
Teddy Shaw, a bored New York office girl, goes to a camp in the Catskill Mountains for rest and find
The Major and the Minor
1942-09-16
Returning to her hometown from New York, Susan Applegate learns that she hasn't enough for the train
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
1939-03-29
In 1911, minor stage comic, Vernon Castle meets the stage-struck Irene Foote. A few misadventures la
Primrose Path
1940-03-22
Ellie Mae lives on Primrose Hill with her good-hearted and fancy free mother, her drunken father, he
Star of Midnight
1935-04-19
When a dancer disappears from a theater, Clay Dalzell is asked to investigate, leading him on a tra
Perfect Strangers
1950-03-11
Romance at a murder trial with a pair of sequestered jurors who are the only ones who think that the
It Had to Be You
1947-12-07
A chronic runaway bride is haunted by her conscience, who becomes reality.
Roxie Hart
1942-02-20
A café in Chicago, 1942. On a rainy night, veteran reporter Homer Howard tells an increasing audienc
Tight Spot
1955-03-19
A former model, serving time in prison, becomes a key witness in a trial against a notorious gangste
Teenage Rebel
1956-11-01
Nancy Fallon gets her teenage daughter back from her ex-husband when she remarries and must win her
The Thirteenth Guest
1932-08-09
Thirteen years after a dinner party in which the thirteenth guest failed to arrive, the remaining gu
Dreamboat
1952-07-26
Thornton Sayre, a respected college professor - secretly formerly a silent films romantic action her
Tom, Dick and Harry
1941-06-13
Janie is a telephone operator who is caught up in the lines of love of three men: car salesman Tom,
Week-End at the Waldorf
1945-10-04
Anything can happen during a weekend at New York's Waldorf-Astoria: a glamorous movie star meets a w
Kitty Foyle
1940-12-27
A hard-working, white-collar girl falls in love with a young socialite, but meets with his family's
Tender Comrade
1944-05-30
Jo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares
Beautiful Stranger
1954-07-13
An ex-chorus girl lives on the Riviera, supported by a married man she doesn't know is a crook.
Lady in the Dark
1944-02-10
A neurotic editor sees a psychoanalyst about the advertising man, movie star and other man in her li
The Groom Wore Spurs
1951-03-13
Pretty female attorney Abigail "AJ" Furnival is hired to keep high-flying cowboy movie star Ben Cast
Oh, Men! Oh, Women!
1957-02-22
Arthur Turner's bored housewife Mildred seeks psychiatric help from Dr. Alan Coles who also has his
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
1972-01-10
A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to t
Twenty Million Sweethearts
1934-05-26
Unscrupulous agent Rush Blake makes singing waiter Buddy Clayton a big radio star while Peggy Cornel
Rafter Romance
1933-09-01
A working girl shares her apartment with an artist, taking the place in shifts.
Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC
1988-05-16
Stars celebrate Bob Hope's 50 years with NBC.
Chance at Heaven
1933-10-27
A young woman's ambitious boyfriend falls for a ditzy socialite.
The Tip-Off
1931-10-16
A young radio repairman becomes involved with gangsters and one of their girlfriends when he repairs
Forever Female
1953-11-28
An aging actress has a hard time admitting she is too old to play the ingenue role anymore.
Lucky Partners
1940-08-02
Two strangers split a sweepstake prize to go on a fake honeymoon with predictable results.
The Tenderfoot
1932-05-23
Calvin Jones is a cowboy who wants to invest in a Broadway play. Joe Lehman's secretary Ruth learns
Honor Among Lovers
1931-03-21
Jerry Stafford falls for his secretary, Julia Traynor, but instead she marries a shady character who
Don't Bet on Love
1933-06-30
A plumber wins big at the racetrack but then his luck runs out and almost ruins his business. His ma
In Person
1935-11-22
Carol Corliss, a beautiful movie star so insecure about her celebrity that she goes around in disgui
Sitting Pretty
1933-11-23
Jack Oakie and Jack Haley are songwriters are enroute from New York to Hollywood to make their fame
The First Traveling Saleslady
1956-08-01
At the turn of the century Rose and ex-showbiz friend Molly get involved in selling steel. When they
Office Blues
1930-11-22
An amorous secretary ignores her importunate co-worker and daydreams about her boss when she should
Romance in Manhattan
1935-01-11
Karel Novak is an incredibly naive Czech immigrant who is taken under the wing of streetwise New Yor
Finishing School
1934-05-04
Virginia, who studies at a boarding school for upper-class girls, falls in love with a medical inter
Upperworld
1934-04-28
A railroad tycoon, disillusioned with his marriage, starts seeing a showgirl. Things go agreeably un
Queen High
1930-08-23
The two partners of a ladies' garter business are constantly feuding with each other. When they ask
Young Man of Manhattan
1930-04-19
Two flappers try to get their newspaper reporter boyfriends to pay attention to them.
Carnival Boat
1932-03-19
Buck is a hard working lumberjack, but likes to have fun. Buck's father is the foreman and wants Buc
Suicide Fleet
1931-11-20
Three US sailors aboard a decoy ship fight German U-boats in World War I and try to win Sally who wo
Magnificent Doll
1946-12-08
While packing her belongings in preparation of evacuating the White House because of the impending B
Professional Sweetheart
1933-06-09
Radio singer Glory Eden is publicized as the ideal of American womanhood in order to sell the sponso
Broadway Bad
1933-02-24
Showgirl Tony Landers, supported by her friend Flip Daly, fights for the custody of her son during a
Change of Heart
1934-05-18
Catherine and Mack and their close friends Chris and Madge graduate from a West Coast college and fl
Follow the Leader
1930-12-06
A kooky waiter and sometimes vaudevillian promises to get his employer's daughter into a Broadway sh
You Said a Mouthful
1932-12-08
Two men bear the name Joe Holt. One is a shipping clerk, the other a champion Canadian swimmer. When
Going Hollywood: The '30s
1984-01-01
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were
The Sap from Syracuse
1930-07-26
Ellen Saunders is an heiress on a cruise to Europe being pursued by a day laborer mistaken for a pro
Hat Check Girl
1932-10-08
Gerry Marsh is a hat-check girl in a nightclub surrounded by bootleggers, blackmailers and others be
"All -Singing All-Dancing" Before And After
2006-10-10
The development of sound and song dance production techniques, and how they come together in 'Holida
Quick, Let's Get Married
1964-01-01
Madame Rinaldi, owner of a bordello, helps thief Mario Forni locate an ancient buried treasure.
Hollywood on Parade
1932-06-05
A short featuring many stars
That's Entertainment!
1974-06-21
Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year hi
Night of 100 Stars II
1985-03-10
This special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited from a
Hollywood Newsreel
1934-03-24
A potpourri of features involving Hollywood celebrities. The Columbia University football team, winn
Gold Diggers: FDR'S New Deal... Broadway Bound
2006-03-21
Short documentary about the Great Depression's impact on film, specifically Berkeley musicals.
Busby Berkeley: A Journey with a Star
2007-02-20
Profile of famed dance director Busby Berkeley's career, in particular "The Gang's All Here"
That's Entertainment! III
1994-07-01
Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975-08-06
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American ent
A Night in a Dormitory
1930-01-05
The adventures of a schoolgirl in a nightclub as related by her to her dormitory sisters.
Harlow
1965-05-14
Loosely based biography of 1930s star Jean Harlow as she begins her climb to stardom. One of two "Ha
Show-Business at War
1943-05-21
A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort.
Complicated Women
2003-05-06
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, u
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976-05-16
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time includi
Astaire and Rogers: Partners in Rhythm
2006-10-24
Featuring clips from all 10 films which Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers made together from 1933 to 1949
George White's Scandals
1945-10-09
Two couples work through their issues in this backstage Broadway musical.
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
1985-03-03
Biography of the legendary filmmaker directed by his son.
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
1987-03-13
Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
2009-07-02
This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and in
That's Dancing!
1985-01-18
A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from it's orgins after the invention of the movie ca
Screen Snapshots: Series 16, No. 12
1937-08-13
A tour of Hollywood, featuring such star frequented spots as the Vendome, the Lakeside Golf Club, th
A Day of a Man of Affairs
1929-11-06
Campus Sweethearts
1930-03-09
Fred Astaire donne le 'la'
2017-12-24
Success is inevitable for a musical in which Fred Astaire appears - if it was also written by one of
Reunited at MGM: Astaire and Rogers Together Again
2005-08-16
A cherished remembrance of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers reunited for the film, "The Barkleys of Br
Astaire and Rogers Sing the Great American Songbook
2010-04-09
Compilation of memorable songs from the Great American Songbook sung by Fred Astaire and Ginger Roge
Sem Título #1: Dance of Leitfossil
2014-06-01
Experimental Short, Brazil
Night of 100 Stars
1982-03-08
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place
Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1930s: Dancing Away the Great Depression
2009-01-01
A two-hour in-depth exploration into the Hollywood musicals of the 1930s.
Hooray for Hollywood
1976-01-01
A celebration of Hollywood in the 1930s, featuring a compilation of clips from features and newsreel
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
1987-05-18
A TV special on the 100th anniversary of the birth of film.
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
1999-07-20
Second installment of deleted scenes, mostly musical or comedic, from Fox films of the 30's - 50's.