Background

Ethnicity: Rogers was of Scottish, Welsh, and English ancestry.

Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath on July 16, 1911 in Independence, Missouri; the only living child of Lela Emogene (née Owens) and William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer. Her parents separated shortly after she was born.

In 1915, Rogers moved in with her grandparents, Wilma Saphrona (née Ball) and Walter Winfield Owens, while her mother made a trip to Hollywood in an effort to get an essay she had written made into a film. Lela succeeded and continued to write scripts for Fox Studios.

When Rogers was nine years old, her mother remarried, to John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the surname Rogers, although she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth. Her mother became a theater critic for a local newspaper, the Fort Worth Record.

Education

Ginger Rogers attended but did not graduate from, Fort Worth's Central High School (later renamed R.L. Paschal High School).

As a teenager, Rogers thought of becoming a school teacher, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her early exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of the Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along with the performers on stage.

Career

Ginger Rogers began her career, which was carefully orchestrated by her mother, while still a child, performing in local shows in Texas. She then appeared with Eddie Foy’s vaudeville troupe before winning a Charleston contest at age 15. That success ultimately led her to the Broadway stage in 1929, when she performed in Top Speed. By the time she was 19 years old, Rogers had introduced George Gershwin’s "Embraceable You" and "But Not for Me" in the 1930 Broadway hit Girl Crazy. She then went to Hollywood and began performing in movies, typecast as a flippant blonde.

Rogers made her motion-picture debut in Young Man of Manhattan (1930), in which she immortalized the catchphrase "Cigarette me, big boy." Her gum cracking and good-natured wholesomeness typified 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 (both 1933), while her stately beauty and sophisticated charm fueled the on-screen chemistry with Fred Astaire in their films. Rogers first performed with Astaire in Flying Down to Rio (1933), and their dance scenes - featuring an effortlessness and energy that became their trademarks - proved so popular that they continued the partnership in nine other films, notably The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), and The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), their last collaboration.

Though best known for her dancing, Rogers preferred dramatic acting and in 1940 won an Academy Award for her leading role in Kitty Foyle, in which she portrayed a spirited working girl who ultimately chooses love over money. She also enjoyed a sure hand in light comedy and starred in such films as Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) and The Major and the Minor (1942), in which her character pretended to be a 12-year-old girl. Some of her other 70 films include Roxie Hart (1942), Lady in the Dark (1944), and Monkey Business (1952).

After appearing in her last film, Harlow (1965), Rogers maintained a busy theatre schedule, performing the title role in Hello Dolly! from 1965 to 1967 and introducing Mame to London audiences in 1969. In addition, Rogers occasionally appeared on television, with guest roles in such series as Here’s Lucy and The Love Boat. Her last acting role came in a 1987 episode of Hotel.

Rogers spent winters in Rancho Mirage and summers in Medford. She continued making public appearances (chiefly at award shows) until suffering a stroke that left her partially paralyzed and dependent on a wheelchair. Despite her stroke, she was a practitioner of Christian Science and never saw a doctor or went to a hospital. Her last husband, William Marshall, would trick Rogers to take insulin since she was diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabetic at age 22. He stated he was injecting vitamins and she took the daily injections and knew it was insulin after the divorce. She lapsed into a diabetic coma and she was hospitalized where she suffered a stroke and complications of lifelong noncompliance with her diabetes. She died at her Rancho Mirage home on April 25, 1995, at the age of 83. An autopsy concluded that the cause of death was a heart attack. She was cremated and her ashes interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California, with her mother's remains.

Achievements

• Ginger Rogers was one of the most successful actresses during the Golden Era of Hollywood. She left the audiences spellbound with her performances and was one of the highest-paid American actresses of her time. Featured at number 14 on the American Film Institute’s list of 'greatest screen legends', Rogers, the charming, vivacious beauty was an iconic Hollywood star who enjoyed a remarkable acting career. She appeared in 73 films and several Broadway shows. She revolutionized the genre of musical films in Hollywood and starred in some of the most successful films of her time and received great critical acclaim. Some of her notable films include Kitty Foyle, A Shriek in the Night, Don't Bet on Love, Week-End at the Waldorf, Heartbeat, Magnificent Doll, It Had to Be You, The Barkleys of Broadway and Perfect Strangers.
  
  Roger's performance in Kitty Foyle (1940) won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1960, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ginger: My Story 1991

• movie

  • Forever Female

    (Aging Broadway sensation Beatrice Page (Ginger Rogers) sn...)

    1953
  • Heartbeat

    (In Paris, a troubled but charming young runaway, Arlette ...)

    1946
  • Stage Door

    (This movie features Terry Randall, a rich daughter, who s...)

    1937
  • I'll Be Seeing You

    (In this romantic drama, Zachary Morgan (Joseph Cotten) an...)

    1944
  • Kitty Foyle

    (This movie features the rough and patchy life of a middle...)

    1940
  • The Groom Wore Spurs

    (A lawyer (Ginger Rogers) bails out and then marries a Hol...)

    1951
  • Shriek in the Night

    (Rival reporters (Ginger Rogers, Lyle Talbot) mix romance ...)

    1933
  • Romance In Manhattan

    (Karel, an immigrant, reaches Manhattan where he meets Syl...)

    1935
  • Primrose Path

    (A young woman struggles to stay away from the profession ...)

    1940
  • Black Widow

    (The story revolves around a young writer who insinuates h...)

    1954
  • Weekend at the Waldorf

    (A weekend at a fabulous New York hotel brings an assortme...)

    1945
  • It Had to Be You

    (Society girl Victoria Stafford (Ginger Rogers) garners a ...)

    1947
  • Bachelor Mother

    (Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is m...)

    1939
  • Shall We Dance

    (A ballet dancer and a showgirl fake a marriage for public...)

    1937
  • Storm Warning

    (Marsha, a young woman, visits a town where she becomes a ...)

    1951
  • Roberta

    (A gem of a musical, with Astaire and Rogers rediscovering...)

    1935
  • The Gay Divorcee

    (The story revolves around Mimi, who seeks divorce from he...)

    1934
  • The Barkleys of Broadway

    (Josh and Dinah Barkley are a successful musical-comedy te...)

    1949

Religion

Rogers was raised a Christian Scientist and remained a lifelong adherent. She devoted a great deal of time in her autobiography to the importance of her faith throughout her career.

Politics

Rogers was a lifelong member of the Republican Party, who campaigned for Thomas Dewey in the 1944 presidential election and was a strong opponent of Franklin Delano Roosevelt speaking out against both him and his New Deal procedures.

Views

Quotations: "The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first."

"When two people love each other, they don't look at each other, they look in the same direction."

"Part of the joy of dancing is conversation. Trouble is, some men can't talk and dance at the same time."

"After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels."

Membership

Rogers was a member of The Daughters of the American Revolution.

Personality

Rogers had stately beauty and sophisticated charm. She preferred a more quiet life as opposed to partying, though it's also been argued she was generally following the ideologies of her mother.

Always the outdoor sporty type, she was a near-champion tennis player, a topline shot and loved going fishing.

A keen artist, Ginger did many paintings, sculptures and sketches in her free time but could never bring herself to sell any of them.

Ginger owned a lingerie factory in Rock Island Tennessee, called Form Fit Rogers.

Interests

• fishing

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

Connections

Ginger Rogers married Jack Pepper on March 29, 1929. They divorced in 1931, having separated soon after the wedding. Ginger dated Mervyn LeRoy in 1932, but they ended the relationship and remained friends. In 1934 Rogers married Lew Ayres. They divorced seven years later.

Ginger Rogers's third husband was Jack Briggs. They married in 1943, but six years later Briggs and Rogers divorced. In 1953 she married Jacques Bergerac. They divorced in 1957 and in 1961 Rogers married her fifth and final husband William Marshall. The couple broke up in 1969.

Father:

William Eddins McMath

Mother:

Lela E. Rogers

Lela E. Rogers was an American journalist, film producer, film editor, and screenwriter.

ex-spouse:

Jack Pepper

Jack Pepper was an American vaudeville dancer, singer, comedian, musician.

ex-spouse:

Lewis Frederick Ayres III

Lewis Frederick Ayres III was an American actor who is known for starring as German soldier Paul Bäumer in the film All Quiet on the Western Front

ex-spouse:

Jack Briggs

Jack Briggs was an American actor.

ex-spouse:

Jacques Bergerac

Jacques Bergerac was a French actor .

ex-spouse:

William Marshall

William Marshall was an American singer, bandleader and a motion picture actor, director and producer.

Friend:

Lucille Ball

Friend:

Bette Davis

Collegue :

Fred Astaire

References

• Ginger Rogers
  1975
• 25 Best Films Of Ginger Rogers A collection of vintage posters and poster art from the top 25 films of Ginger Rogers, Oscar-winning actress, singer and dancer, best known for her Depression-era musical films with dance partner Fred Astaire.
  2016
• American Legends: The Life of Ginger Rogers
  2013
• The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Murder Case
  1997
• Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: The Story of Hollywood’s Most Famous Dancers
  2013