By 1917 Fred had grown and the pair began working together in stage musicals on Broadway and in London. They recorded songs from these stage shows as early as 1923. It was during a successful stay in London that Adele met the man who was to become her husband Lord Charles Cavendish, they married in 1932 and Adele retired from the stage.
Fred returned to America and married Phyllis Potter, they went to Hollywood where an executive from Paramount told Fred to “forget about a career in movies”. Undaunted Fred did get a contract with another studio that loaned him to MGM to appear with Joan Crawford in “Dancing Lady”. His second film was “Flying Down to Rio” which brought Fred and Ginger together for the first time. The pair brought magic to the screen and went on to make another eight musicals together, the sound tracks from these movies were always popular and Fred became recognised as a talented singer as well as a superb dancer.
Screen magic continued with a galaxy of female Co-stars including Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn singing and dancing their way through a prolific number of box office hits. In 1948 Fred was awarded an honorary Oscar for his “contribution to musicals.
An amazing talent, Fred’s elegant singing style and superb dancing was also a huge success on television, he received nine Emmy’s for his excellent TV shows in the 50’s and 60’s. Fred himself was astounded at his success and is reported to have said, “I never thought a funny looking guy like me would be suitable for pictures”.
One sad note in Astaire’s life was the death of his wife Phyllis in1954. He became devoted to his two children Fred Jr and Ava, but he didn’t marry again until 1980 when he made Robyn Smith his second wife. The pair had seven happy years together before Fred died from pneumonia on 22nd of June 1987 he was 88 years old.
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