Hollywood Memorial

Actor, entertainer and legendary dancer working in both vaudeville and Broadway in partnership with his sister, Adele, who is buried nearby. When Adele left show business to marry in 1932, he headed for Hollywood and signed to RKO. He was loaned to MGM and teamed with Ginger Rogers. Their dancing stole the show and over the next six years, Astaire and Rogers made eight more movies, all of them blending in astonishing choreography, brilliant songs by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern, beautiful sets, and vintage comedy plots from vaudeville days. Although he set the standard as a dancer, he also introduced more hit songs during this period than any other performer of his generation. After Rogers left the team to concentrate on her acting, he continued his career, dancing opposite Eleanor Powell in ‘Broadway Melody’ Rita Hayworth in ‘You’ll Never Get Rich,’ Bing Crosby in the Christmas classic ‘Holiday Inn,’ Gene Kelly ‘Ziegfeld Follies,’ and Judy Garland in ‘Easter Parade’ among others. He won one Oscar and three Emmys for his television specials and a TV Movie. He was considered by his contemporaries to be the epitome of elegance and grace, and always a true gentleman. The famous Russian dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, once said of him ‘I have been invited to say something about how dancers feel about Fred Astaire. It’s no secret that we hate him. He gives us complexes because he’s too perfect. His perfection is an absurdity.’ Buried not far from Ginger Rogers in Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth California, his epitaph reads ‘Will always love you my darling, thank you.’