Rogers, Ginger

orig. Virginia Katherine McMath

(born July 16, 1911, Independence, Mo., U.S.—died April 25, 1995, Rancho Mirage, Calif.) U.S. film actress. She began her career as a dancer in vaudeville and made her Broadway debut in 1929. After starring in Girl Crazy (1930–31), she moved to Hollywood. Her first performance with Fred Astaire, in Flying Down to Rio (1933), was so popular that they continued the partnership in nine more movies, including The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), and Swing Time (1936). She also acted in the drama Kitty Foyle (1940, Academy Award) and in light comedies such as Tom, Dick, and Harry (1941) and The Major and the Minor (1942). Rogers returned to the Broadway stage in 1965, taking the lead in Hello Dolly!, and she followed that in 1969 with a star performance as Mame in London.

Rogers, Ginger (b. Virginia Katherine McMath) (1911– ) movie actress; born in Independence, Mo. She made her professional debut at age 14 with Eddie Foy's vaudeville troupe; by 1928 she was appearing with her first husband, Jack Pepper, as a vaudeville song-and-dance team; she sang with a band, appeared in film shorts and in Broadway musicals, and made her screen debut in Young Man in Manhattan (1930). She and Fred Astaire were not given star billing when they first danced together in Flying Down to Rio (1933), but they stole the picture and went on to adorn nine more movies. She made several nonmusical roles—winning the Oscar for best actress in Kitty Foyle (1940)—and in 1945 was the highest paid performer in Hollywood. She continued in occasional movies until the mid-1960s but then found a new public when she took over the lead in such musicals as Hello, Dolly! and Mame. She served as a fashion consultant for the J. C. Penney retail stores in the 1970s.