Gwen Verdon
Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. With flaming red hair and a quaver in her voice, Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway from the 1950s-70s. Having originated many roles in musicals she is also strongly identified with her second husband, director–choreographer Bob Fosse, remembered as the dancer–collaborator–muse for whom he choreographed much of his work and as the guardian of his legacy after his death. By the time she was six, she was already dancing on stage. She went on to study multiple dance forms, ranging from tap, jazz, ballroom and flamenco to Balinese. In 1942, Verdon’s parents asked her to marry family friend and tabloid reporter James Henaghan after he got her pregnant at 17, and she quit her dancing career to raise their child. After her divorce, she entrusted her son Jimmy to the care of her parents. Early on, Verdon found a job as assistant to choreographer Jack Cole. During her five-year employment with Cole, she took small roles in movie musicals as a "specialty dancer" She also taught dance to stars such as Jane Russell, Fernando Lamas, and Lana Turner. Verdon started out on Broadway as a "gypsy," going from one chorus line to another. Her breakthrough role finally came as second female lead in Cole Porter's musical Can-Can. Verdon's biggest success was George Abbott's Damn Yankees. Verdon won another Tony and went to Hollywood to repeat her role in the 1958 movie version Damn Yankees. Verdon won another Tony for her performance in the musical, New Girl in Town, and won her fourth Tony for Redhead. Verdon and Fosse continued to collaborate on projects such as musicals Chicago and Dancin', as well as All That Jazz. After originating the role of Roxie opposite Chita Rivera's Velma Kelly in Chicago, Verdon focused on film acting, playing character roles in movies such as The Cotton Club, Cocoon and its sequel. She continued to teach dance and musical theater and to act. She received three Emmy Award nominations for appearances on Magnum, P.I., Dream On, and Homicide: Life on the Street. Verdon appeared in Alice and Marvin's Room). In 1999, Verdon served as artistic consultant on a Broadway musical designed to showcase examples of classic Fosse choreography, called Fosse. which won a Tony Award for best musical. Verdon appeared in the movie Walking Across Egypt, as well as Bruno. Verdon received a total of four Tonys, for best featured actress for Can-Can and best leading actress for Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, and Redhead. She also won a Grammy Award for the cast recording of Redhead. Verdon was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981, and in 1998, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Cocoon
as Bess McCarthyWhen a group of trespassing seniors swim in a pool containing alien cocoons, they find...
Movie pageThe Cotton Club
as Tish DwyerHarlem's legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves...
Movie pageCocoon: The Return
as Bess McCarthyThe reinvigorated elderly group that left Earth comes back to visit their relatives. Will they...
Movie pageMarvin's Room
as Ruth WakefieldA leukemia patient attempts to end a 20-year feud with her sister to get her bone marrow.
Movie pageAlice
as Alice's MotherAlice Tate, mother of two, with a marriage of 16 years, finds herself falling for a handsome sax...
Movie pageBroadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
as SelfBroadway: The Golden Age is the most important, ambitious and comprehensive film ever made about...
Movie pageDavid and Bathsheba
as Specialty Dancer (uncredited)King David enters into an adulterous affair with the beautiful Bathsheba, which has tragic...
Movie pageThat's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time...
Movie pageBruno
as Mrs. DragoThe story of a unique young boy genius, Bruno, whose expression of his own individuality leads...
Movie pageNadine
as VeraHairdresser Nadine Hightower wants to retrieve the risqué photos she once posed for, but when...
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as Our Guests at HeartlandA small town band makes it big, but loses track of their roots, as they get caught up into the...
Movie pageNight of 100 Stars II
as SelfThis special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited...
Movie pageThat's Dancing!
as Lola (archive footage)A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from it's orgins after the invention of the...
Movie pageMerely Marvelous: The Dancing Genius of Gwen Verdon
as Self (archive footage)Merely Marvelous is a celebration of the art and life of Broadway's greatest dancing star, Gwen...
Movie pageThe Merry Widow
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Movie pageDamn Yankees
as LolaFilm adaptation of the George Abbott Broadway musical about a Washington Senators fan who makes...
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as Etta PellLucy married at the turn of the last century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If...
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Movie pageBroadway's Lost Treasures
as Roxie Hart (segment "Chicago")The golden age of the annual Tony Awards ceremony lasted from 1967 to 1986 — the period during...
Movie pageLiza with a Z
as AudienceLiza Minnelli stars in a television concert directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse. She...
Movie pageOn the Riviera
as Specialty Dancer (uncredited)In this fast-paced remake of the Maurice Chevalier vehicle Folies Bergère, talented Danny Kaye...
Movie pageThe King Steps Out
as Specialty Ballerina (uncredited)Princess is destined to marry the Emperor, until her sister steps in.
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as Self (archive footage)A retrospective of Chita Rivera's film, television and stage career, including interviews with...
Movie pageWalking Across Egypt
as AloraAn elderly widow befriends an orphaned juvenile delinquent.
Movie pageThe I Don't Care Girl
as Specialty DancerThis semi-film within a film opens in the office of producer George Jessel, who never saw a...
Movie pageDreamboat
as Girl in Commercial (uncredited)Thornton Sayre, a respected college professor - secretly formerly a silent films romantic action...
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Movie pageThe Farmer Takes a Wife
as Abigail (uncredited)Erie Canal, N.Y., 1850: Molly Larkins, cook on Jotham Klore's canal boat, has a love-hate...
Movie pageGentlemen Marry Brunettes
as Specialty Dancer (uncredited)Two Broadway showgirls, who are also sisters, are sick and tired of New York as well as not...
Movie pageBob Fosse: Steam Heat
as Herself - NarratorA documentary profile of director/choreographer Bob Fosse. Includes clips from his films and...
Movie pageBlonde from Brooklyn
as Girl in Nightclub (uncredited)A brash young singer and an unemployed "jukebox girl" hire an elderly Confederate "colonel" to...
Movie pageLegs
as Maureen ComlyThree ambitious young women risk it all when they compete for a chance to dance with the Radio...
Movie pageMeet Me After the Show
as Gwen Verdon / Sappho, Dancer in No Talent Joe (uncredited)A Broadway star devises a scheme to win back her husband when she suspects he's being unfaithful.
Movie pageThe Music of Kander & Ebb: Razzle Dazzle
as SelfA profile of composing team John Kander and Fred Ebb, who have written many Broadway musicals....
Movie pageBest Friends for Life
as Edith CooperSarah and Harriet have been best friends since childhood. They married at the same time, had...
Movie pageAmerican Dance Machine Presents a Celebration of Broadway Dance
as Herself - HostDance routines from some of Broadway's greatest musicals (including The Boyfriend, Carousel,...
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TV Show pageMagnum, P.I.
as uncreditedA private investigator who works when he wants, lives in a beachfront estate in Hawaii, drives a...
TV Show pageThe Mike Douglas Show
as Self - Co-HostThe Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that...
TV Show pageThe Mike Douglas Show
as SelfThe Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that...
TV Show pageHotel
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TV Show pageThe Merv Griffin Show
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TV Show pageTony Awards
as Self - PresenterThe Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award,...
TV Show pageTony Awards
as Self - PerformerThe Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award,...
TV Show pageHomicide: Life on the Street
as uncreditedAn American police procedural chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore...
TV Show pageWhat's My Line?
as Self - Mystery GuestFour panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while...
TV Show pageThe Equalizer
as Kelly SterlingRobert McCall is a former agent of a secret government agency who is now running his own private...
TV Show pageWalker, Texas Ranger
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TV Show pageFame
as uncreditedAn American television series originally produced between 1982 and 1987. The show is based on...
TV Show pageTouched by an Angel
as Lorraine McCullyMonica, an angel, is tasked with bringing guidance and messages from God to various people who...
TV Show pageThe Carol Burnett Show
as Self - GuestThe Carol Burnett Show is an American variety/sketch comedy television show starring Carol...
TV Show pageDear John
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TV Show pageThe Colgate Comedy Hour
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TV Show pageThe Dinah Shore Chevy Show
as SelfThe Dinah Shore Chevy Show is an American variety series hosted by Dinah Shore, and broadcast on...
TV Show pageThe Ed Sullivan Show
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TV Show pageThe Danny Kaye Show
as SelfThe Danny Kaye Show is an American variety show hosted by Danny Kaye that aired on CBS from 1963...
TV Show pageDream On
as Kitty BrewerThe family life, romantic life, and career of Martin Tupper, a divorced New York City book...
TV Show pageIn Cold Blood
as Sadie TruittAt the end of the 1950s, in a more innocent America, the brutal, meaningless slaying of a...
TV Show pageAll is Forgiven
as Bonita HarrellPaula Russell is the producer of a soap opera called All is Forgiven who just married a donut...
TV Show pageOldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
as Etta PellLucy married at the turn of the last century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If...
TV Show page