Fred Astaire was the male dancer who frequently partnered Ginger Rogers in classic Hollywood musicals.
Astaire and Rogers became one of cinema’s most famous dance partnerships after appearing together in Flying Down to Rio in 1933. Although they were supporting players in that film, their “Carioca” dance number attracted so much attention that RKO quickly built a series of movies around them. Their partnership combined Astaire’s precise, inventive choreography with Rogers’s musicality, acting skill, and comic timing.
They made nine films together for RKO between 1933 and 1939, including The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, and Swing Time. They reunited a decade later in The Barkleys of Broadway, their only film together in Technicolor.
A common misconception is that Rogers was merely Astaire’s partner. She was a major star in her own right and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Kitty Foyle in 1941. Astaire also danced with Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse, Judy Garland, and other leading performers.