Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse was an American choreographer, dancer, actor, filmmaker, and stage director. He is known for his work on stage and screen, and is arguably the most influential figure in the field of jazz dance in the twentieth century. He received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, nine Tony Awards, and the Palme d'Or.
His career began as actor in the musical productions Call Me Mister, Billion Dollar Baby, and Pal Joey. He transitioned into directing and choreographing musical works, winning Tony Awards for choreographing The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Redhead, Little Me, Sweet Charity, Pippin, Dancin', and Big Deal, and for directing Pippin. He worked on Bells Are Ringing, New Girl in Town, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Chicago.
In film, he played Hortensio in the MGM musical Kiss Me Kate and his directorial debut was in the musical Sweet Charity. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the musical drama Cabaret. He was Oscar-nominated for directing the dramas Lenny and All That Jazz, the latter of which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He directed the concert film Liza with a Z, which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, and his final film is Star 80.
Fosse forged an uncompromising modern style, characterized by finger-snapping, tilted bowler hats, fishnet stockings, splayed gloved fingers, turned-in knees and toes, shoulder rolls, and jazz hands. His third wife was the actor–dancer Gwen Verdon, with whom he collaborated on several theater and film projects.
Early life
Fosse was born in Uptown, Chicago, Illinois, on June 23, 1927, to Norwegian-American father Cyril Kingsley Fosse, a traveling salesman for Hershey, and Irish-American mother Sarah Alice "Sadie" Fosse. He was the fifth of six children.He was drawn to dance, and his parents supported his interest, enrolling him in formal dance lessons at the age of eight at the Chicago Academy of Theatre Arts, where he trained under Marguerite Comerford. When he was 13 years old, Fosse performed professionally in Chicago with Charles Grass as "The Riff Brothers". They toured vaudeville and movie houses in Chicago, as well as USO theaters and Eagles Clubs. Many of these performances included shows at burlesque clubs such as the Silver Cloud and Cave of Winds. Fosse himself is quoted with saying, "I was sixteen years old, and I played the whole burlesque wheel." However, many of the women and promoters did not care that Fosse was underage working in adult clubs or that he would be exposed to sexual harassment from the burlesque women. Much of the erotica he saw would inspire his future work. In 1943 at the age of 15, Fosse would come to choreograph his first dance number and earn his first full credit as a choreographer in a film, Hold Evry'thing! A Streamlined Extravaganza in Two Parts, which featured showgirls wearing strapless dresses and performing a fan dance, inspired by his time in burlesque houses.
After graduating from Amundsen High School in 1945, Fosse was recruited into the U.S. Navy toward the end of World War II at Naval Station Great Lakes, where he was sent to be prepared for combat. Fosse petitioned his manager, Frederick Weaver, to advocate on his behalf to his superiors after his own failed attempts to be placed in the Special Services Entertainment Division. Fosse was soon placed in the variety show Tough Situation, which toured military and naval bases in the Pacific Ocean.
Career
1947–1953: Contract with MGM
After his discharge, Fosse moved to New York City in 1947 with the ambition of being the new Fred Astaire. He began to study acting at the American Theatre Wing, where he met his first wife and dance partner, Mary Ann Niles. His first stage role was in Call Me Mister, along with Niles. In 1948 Tony Charmoli danced in Make Mine Manhattan but gave the part to Fosse when the show toured nationally. Charmoli also found Fosse work as a dancer on the TV shows he was working on when Fosse returned from the tour.Fosse and Niles were regular performers on Your Hit Parade in its 1950–1951 season. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis saw their act in New York's Pierre Hotel and scheduled the couple to appear on The Colgate Comedy Hour in 1951.
Fosse was signed to an MGM contract in 1953. His early screen appearances as a dancer included Give a Girl a Break, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, and Kiss Me Kate, all released in 1953. Fosse's choreography of a short dance sequence during From This Moment On in Kiss Me Kate and his dance with Carol Haney brought him to the attention of Broadway producers. In Kiss Me Kate, Fosse starred alongside Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, and Ann Miller. Fosse played Hortensio within The Taming of the Shrew dance sequences.
1954–1968: Choreographer
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Fosse transitioned from film to theatre. Fosse told an interviewer, "Jerry started me doing choreography. He gave me my first job as a choreographer and I'm grateful for that."In 1954 Fosse choreographed his first stage musical, The Pajama Game, followed by My Sister Eileen and George Abbott's Damn Yankees in 1955. It was during Damn Yankees when he first met rising star Gwen Verdon, whom he married in 1960. For her work in Damn Yankees in 1956 Verdon won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She had previously won a Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Can-Can. In 1957 Fosse choreographed New Girl in Town, also directed by Abbott, and Verdon won her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1958.
Also in 1957 Fosse choreographed the film version of The Pajama Game, starring Doris Day. The next year, Fosse appeared in and choreographed the film version of Damn Yankees, in which Verdon reprised her stage triumph as the character Lola. Fosse and Verdon were partners in the mambo number "Who's Got the Pain". In 1959 Fosse directed and choreographed the stage musical Redhead. For his work on Redhead Fosse won the Tony Award for Best Choreography, while Verdon won her third Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Redhead also won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Fosse's next feature was supposed to be the musical The Conquering Hero, based on a book by Larry Gelbart, but he was replaced as director/choreographer.
In 1961 Fosse choreographed the satirical Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, starring Robert Morse. The story revolves around an ambitious man, J. Pierrepont Finch, who, with the help of the book How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, rises from window washer to chairman of the board of the World Wide Wicket Company. The musical was an instant hit. In 1963 Fosse was nominated for two Tony Awards, Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical for Little Me, winning the former. He choreographed and directed Verdon in Sweet Charity in 1966.
1969–1979: Film director
Fosse directed five feature films. His first, Sweet Charity, starring Shirley MacLaine, is an adaptation of the Broadway musical he had directed and choreographed. In 1972 Fosse directed his second theatrical film, Cabaret, starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York, and Joel Grey. The film is based on the 1966 musical of the same name. In the traditional manner of musical theater, called an "integrated musical", every significant character in the stage version sings to express his or her own emotion and to advance the plot. In the film version, however, the musical numbers are entirely diegetic. The film focuses on a romance between Sally Bowles, who performs at the Kit Kat Klub, and a young British idealist, Brian Roberts, played by York, set during the final days of Weimar Germany. It was an immediate success among audiences and critics alike, winning eight Academy Awards, including Best Director. Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey both won Oscars for their roles. That same year, Fosse and Minnelli collaborated on the concert film Liza with a Z, earning Fosse an Emmy Award for both direction and choreography.In 1973 Fosse's work on Pippin won him the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. He was director and choreographer of Chicago in 1975, which starred Verdon. In 1974 Fosse directed Lenny, a biographical film about the controversial standup comedian Lenny Bruce, portrayed by Dustin Hoffman. Fosse was again nominated for Best Director; Hoffman also received a nomination for Best Actor. Fosse performed a number in Stanley Donen's 1974 film version of The Little Prince. According to AllMusic, "Bob Fosse stops the show with a slithery dance routine." In 1977 Fosse had a small role in the romantic comedy Thieves.
In 1979 Fosse co-wrote and directed a semi-autobiographical film, All That Jazz, starring Roy Scheider, which portrayed the life of a womanizing, drug-addicted choreographer and director in the midst of triumph and failure. Ann Reinking appears in the film as the protagonist's lover, protégée, and domestic partner. All That Jazz won four Academy Awards, earning Fosse his third Oscar nomination for Best Director. It also won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the film as "Mr. Fosse's answer to 8½ in which Federico Fellini wittily examined his own life at a point when he feared his creativity was at an end".
Writing for The New Yorker i