Ginger Rogers

She could act, sing, she was gorgeous, and she was a very good dancer too!

Ginger Rogers was born in Independence, Missouri, on 16th July 1911 and was named Virginia Katherine McMath. The name Ginger came from her young cousin, Helen, who'd had a hard time pronouncing 'Virginia', shortening it to 'Badinda', and then later, 'Ginga'.

Ginger's parents had already separated when she was born, and her mother remarried when she was nine years old to John Logan Rogers, whose surname she took, although she wasn't legally adopted. 

After winning a major Charleston contest in which she was awarded her own vaudeville tour, she was cast in the Broadway play, Top Seed at the age of 18. George Gershwin's Broadway musical Girl Crazy in 1930-31 brought her more success, and she then moved west to Hollywood and the big screen - where she would go on to make more than seventy movies, including Vivacious Lady, Major and the Minor, Lady in the Dark and Bachelor Mother.

The name Ginger Rogers simply cannot be mentioned, without also thinking of her in the arms of fellow screen legend, Fred Astaire, beloved for their dancing routines. Who could forget the two of them touching foreheads during performances, which was to become their signature!

Together they lightened the hearts of depression hit America through their romantic ballroom encounters, and went on to star in ten films together, some of the most elegantly romantic musical films ever made, beginning with Flying Down to Rio in 1933, The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, and Swing Time.

However, she was determined to succeed as a serious actress, and took on many additional roles outside of her dancing partnership throughout the 1940s and 50s, including Kitty Foyle - for which she won an Oscar in 1941. She worked tirelessly through the 1960s and 70s keeping busy on television and the live stage, with her role on Broadway's Hello, Dolly! and London's West End production of Mame, before taking her own musical stage show, The Ginger Rogers Show on the road in the late 1970s.

Ginger Rogers graced us with her elegance, beauty and phenomenal talent over six amazing decades, before she passed away at her Rancho Mirage home on April 25th, 1995, at the age of 83. I hope she's still teaching everyone how to dance The Continental in heaven!

Happy Birthday Ginger!