Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Marge Champion

 
Actor: Marge Champion
  • Born: Sep 02, 1921 in Hollywood, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '30s, '50s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Musical, Drama
  • Career Highlights: Give a Girl A Break, Show Boat, Whose Life Is It Anyway?
  • First Major Screen Credit: Show Boat (1951)

Biography

An American dancer and actress, Marge Champion was one half of the "Gower and Marge Champion" dance team. She began dancing as a child under the instruction of her father, Ernest Belcher, who was a noted Hollywood ballet coach. As a teen, she served as the model for the heroine of Disney's feature-length cartoon Snow White and for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio, and appeared in westerns under the name "Marjorie Bell." She teamed up with actor/choreographer Gower Champion in 1945; they were married in 1947. They went on to appear together in a string of highly popular musical films in the '50s, becoming the screen's most appealing dance team since Astaire and Rogers. After the team quit making films, she went on to be a character actress in a number of movies; also, she created dances for films (The Day of the Locust, etc.), the stage (Stepping Out, Grover's Corners), and TV. Marge Champion's work as the choreographer for the TV special Queen of the Stardust Ballroom earned her an Emmy in 1975. She and Gower Champion were divorced in 1973, and she married director Boris Sagal, who died as the result of a helicopter accident in 1981. ~ All Movie Guide
Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Wikipedia: Marge Champion
Top
Marge Champion
Born Marjorie Celeste Belcher
September 2, 1919 (1919-09-02) (age 90)
Los Angeles, California, USA
Other name(s) Marjorie Bell
Marge Champion Sagal
Occupation Actor, choreographer, dancer, pedagogue
Years active 1930s–present
Spouse(s) Art Babbitt (1937–1940)
Gower Champion (1947–1973)
Boris Sagal (1977-1981)

Marge Champion (September 2, 1919) is an American dancer choreographer, and pedagogue. In addition, she also worked in film and appeared in a number of television variety shows.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Champion was born Marjorie Celeste Belcher in Los Angeles, California to Hollywood dance director Ernest Belcher and Gladys Lee Baskette.[1] She began dancing while very young and became a ballet instructor at her father's studio at age twelve. She was hired as a teen by Disney as a dance model for their film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They copied her movements to enhance the realism of Snow White's movement. She later modelled for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio and the Dancing Hippo in Fantasia.

Career

She became a Hollywood legend with second husband Gower Champion (1921-1980) as an accomplished dancing team during MGM's Golden Age of the 1940s and 50s. MGM wanted them to remake Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films, but only one, Roberta, remade as Lovely To Look At, was completed. The couple refused to remake any of the others, the rights to which were still owned by RKO. Nonetheless, they appeared in many successful films for MGM, such as the 1951 version of Show Boat and their own starring vehicle, Everything I Have Is Yours.

Champion first married Art Babbitt (1907–1992), a Walt Disney's top animator. She married Gower Champion in 1947. They divorced in 1973 and had two sons, Blake and actor Gregg Champion. Her third marriage was to Boris Sagal, father of actress Katey Sagal, on January 1, 1977 until his death on May 22, 1981. She is the half-sister of actress Lina Basquette.[1]

Since retiring, Marge Champion works as a dance teacher and choreographer in New York City. In 1982, she made a rare television acting appearance on the dramatic series Fame, playing a ballet teacher with a prejudice against African-American dance students. In 2001 she appeared as Emily Whitman in a Broadway revival of Follies

References

  1. ^ a b Gary Brumburgh (2008). "Biography for Lina Basquette". The Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0060012/bio. Retrieved 2008-10-14. 

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Marge Champion" Read more