Fred Astaire's Career
Acting
Astaire acted into the 1970s, appearing on television as the father of Robert Wagner's character of Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief and in films such as The Towering Inferno (1974), in which he danced with Jennifer Jones and for which he received his only Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actor. He voiced the mailman narrator in 1970's classic animated film, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. He appeared in the first two That's Entertainment! documentaries in the mid-1970s.
Singing
Extremely modest about his singing abilities (he frequently claimed that he couldn't sing), Astaire introduced some of the most celebrated songs from the Great American Songbook. Astaire also co-introduced a number of song classics via song duets with his partners. Although he possessed a light voice, he was admired for his lyricism, diction and phrasing. The grace and elegance so prized in his dancing seemed to be reflected in his singing, a capacity for synthesis which led Burton Lane to describe him as "The world's greatest musical performer." Astaire was a songwriter of note himself, with "I'm Building Up to an Awful Letdown" reaching number four in the Hit Parade of 1936. He recorded his own "It's Just Like Taking Candy from a Baby" with Benny Goodman in 1941, and nurtured a lifelong ambition to be a successful popular song composer.
Dancing
With very few exceptions, Astaire created his routines in collaboration with other choreographers, primarily Hermes Pan. Astaire's execution of a dance routine was prized for its elegance, grace, originality and precision. He drew from a variety of influences, including tap and other black rhythms, classical dance and the elevated style of Vernon and Irene Castle, to create a uniquely recognizable dance style which greatly influenced the American Smooth style of ballroom dance, and set standards against which subsequent film dance musicals would be judged. He termed his eclectic approach his "outlaw style", an unpredictable and instinctive blending of personal artistry
Astaire acted into the 1970s, appearing on television as the father of Robert Wagner's character of Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief and in films such as The Towering Inferno (1974), in which he danced with Jennifer Jones and for which he received his only Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actor. He voiced the mailman narrator in 1970's classic animated film, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. He appeared in the first two That's Entertainment! documentaries in the mid-1970s.
Singing
Extremely modest about his singing abilities (he frequently claimed that he couldn't sing), Astaire introduced some of the most celebrated songs from the Great American Songbook. Astaire also co-introduced a number of song classics via song duets with his partners. Although he possessed a light voice, he was admired for his lyricism, diction and phrasing. The grace and elegance so prized in his dancing seemed to be reflected in his singing, a capacity for synthesis which led Burton Lane to describe him as "The world's greatest musical performer." Astaire was a songwriter of note himself, with "I'm Building Up to an Awful Letdown" reaching number four in the Hit Parade of 1936. He recorded his own "It's Just Like Taking Candy from a Baby" with Benny Goodman in 1941, and nurtured a lifelong ambition to be a successful popular song composer.
Dancing
With very few exceptions, Astaire created his routines in collaboration with other choreographers, primarily Hermes Pan. Astaire's execution of a dance routine was prized for its elegance, grace, originality and precision. He drew from a variety of influences, including tap and other black rhythms, classical dance and the elevated style of Vernon and Irene Castle, to create a uniquely recognizable dance style which greatly influenced the American Smooth style of ballroom dance, and set standards against which subsequent film dance musicals would be judged. He termed his eclectic approach his "outlaw style", an unpredictable and instinctive blending of personal artistry