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Fred Astaire

76 quotes

“I have no desire to prove anything by it. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from Astaire's autobiography Steps in Time, 1959, p. 325.
“When working on my choreography I am not always receptive to outside suggestions or opinions. I believe that if you have something in mind in the way of a creation, such as a new dance, a sequence, or an effect, you are certain to come up with inaccurate criticism and damaging results if you go around asking for opinions.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But I do nothing that I don't like, such as "inventing" up to the arty or "down" to the corny. I happen to relish a certain type of corn. What I think is the really dangerous approach is the "let's be artistic" attitude. I know that artistry just happens.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't make love by kissing, I make love by dancing.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fred Astaire to Henry Ephron, screenwriter on Daddy Long Legs, as quoted in Ephron, Henry. We Thought We Could Do Anything: The Life of Screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron, New York: Norton, 1977, p. 131. (M).
“Either the camera will dance, or I will.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fred Astaire in Winge, John. "How Astaire Works." Film and Theatre Today, January 1950, pp. 7-9. (M).
“There comes a day when people begin to say, 'Why doesn't that old duffer retire?' I want to get out while they're still saying Astaire is a hell of a dancer.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fred Astaire in Time. "The New Pictures: 'Blue Skies'". October 14, 1946, p. 103. (M).
“A four wood I hit on the 13th hole at Bel Air Country Club in June of 1945. It landed right on the green and rolled into the cup for a hole in one.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fred Astaire on his proudest achievement in Lewis, Jerry D. "Interview : Fred Astaire." Glendale Federal Magazine, Summer 1982, pp. 8-10. (M).
“What's all this talk about me being teamed with Ginger Rogers? I will not have it Leland--I did not go into pictures to be teamed with her or anyone else, and if that is the program in mind for me I will not stand for it. I don't mind making another picture with her but as for this teams idea, it's out.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fred Astaire in a letter to his agent Leland Hayward dated February 9, 1934. He went on to make a further nine musical films with Rogers. (M).
“I have had to do most of my choreography. I would say most of it, with help from various choreographers I have worked with.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fred Astaire in "Reminiscences of Fred Astaire", Interview with Ronald L. Davis, Beverly Hills, July 31, 1978, SMU Oral History Project on the Performing Arts. (M).
“Oh, there's no such thing as my favorite performance. I can't sit here today and look back, and say, Top Hat was better than Easter Parade or any of the others. I just don't look back, period. When I finish with a project, I say 'all right, that's that. What's next?'”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fred Astaire, interviewed by Dan Navarro for American Classic Screen Magazine, September/October 1978.
“He lacks confidence to the most enormous degree of all the people in the world. He will not even go to see his rushes. He’ll stay out in the alley and pace up and down and worry and collar you when you come out and say: ‘How good was so and so?’, and he’ll keep you for 45 minutes. It would be much simpler if he would go and look at them himself, you know? But he always thinks he’s no good.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vincente Minnelli quoted in Schickel, Richard. The Men Who Made The Movies. New York: Atheneum, 1975. (M).
“I remember when I was doing a film with Fred Astaire, it was nothing for him to work three or four days on two bars of music. One evening in the dark grey hours of dusk, I was walking across the deserted MGM lot when a small, weary figure with a towel around his neck suddenly appeared out of the giant cube sound stages. It was Fred. He came over to me, threw a heavy arm around my shoulder and said: "Oh Alan, why doesn't someone tell me I cannot dance?" The tormented illogic of his question made any answer insipid, and all I could do was walk with him in silence.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Alan Jay Lerner in Lerner, Alan Jay. On the Street Where I Live. New York: Norton, 1978. p. 89. (M).
“He is terribly rare. He is like Bach, who in his time had a great concentration of ability, essence, knowledge, a spread of music. Astaire has that same concentration of genius; there is so much of the dance in him that it has been distilled.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: George Balanchine in Nabokov, Ivan and Carmichael, Elizabeth. "Balanchine, An Interview". Horizon, January 1961, pp. 44-56. (M).
“He is the most interesting, the most inventive, the most elegant dancer of our times... you see a little bit of Astaire in everybody's dancing--a pause here, a move there. It was all Astaire's originally.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: George Balanchine, quoted in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985. p. 33.
“What do dancers think of Fred Astaire? It's no secret. We hate him. He gives us a complex because he's too perfect. His perfection is an absurdity. It's too hard to face.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mikhail Baryshnikov at the 1978 Kennedy Center Honours for Fred Astaire and George Balanchine, as quoted in Satchell, Tim. Astaire, The Biography. Hutchinson, London. 1987. p. 255.
“He's a genius...a classical dancer like I never saw in my life.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mikhail Baryshnikov in "Interview with Mike Wallace", 60 Minutes, CBS Television. February 18, 1979. (M).
“It's unmatched perfection. It's a taste, understanding of his strength, and weaknesses in a way. He was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mikhail Baryshnikov in an interview on Larry King Live, CNN. 5 May 2002.
“He was not just the best ballroom dancer, or tap dancer, he was simply the greatest, most imaginative, dancer of our time.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rudolph Nureyev quoted in Cooke, Alistair. "Fred Astaire Obituary", Letter From America, BBC World Service, June 1987.
“When I was in the Soviet Union recently I was being interviewed by a newspaperman and he said, "Which dancers influenced you the most?" and I said, "Oh, well, Fred Astaire." He looked very surprised and shocked and I said, "What's the matter?" He said, "Well, Mr. Balanchine just said the same thing.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jerome Robbins in Heeley, David, producer and director. Fred Astaire: Puttin' on his Top Hat and Fred Astaire: Change Partners and Dance (two television programs written by John L. Miller), PBS, March 1980. (M).
“The history of dance on film begins with Astaire.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gene Kelly in Heeley, David, producer and director. Fred Astaire: Puttin' on his Top Hat and Fred Astaire: Change Partners and Dance (two television programs written by John L. Miller), PBS, March 1980. (M).
“Except for times Fred worked with real professional dancers like Cyd Charisse, it was a twenty five year war.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hermes Pan, Astaire's principal choreographic collaborator, quoted in Davidson, Bill. The Real and the Unreal. New York: Harper and Bros., 1961. p. 186. (M).
“There is no setup in Hollywood that compares with an Astaire picture.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Irving Berlin to George Gershwin quoted in Jablonski, Edward, and Stewart, Lawrence D. The Gershwin Years. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961, p. 250. (M).
“As a dancer he stands alone, and no singer knows his way around a song like Fred Astaire.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Irving Berlin, quoted in Puttin' on the Ritz, BBC Programme Acquisition, 1999.
“He has a remarkable ear for intonation, a great sense of rhythm and what is most important, he has great style - style in my way of thinking is a matter of delivery, phrasing, pace, emphasis, and most of all presence.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bing Crosby in Crosby, Bing. Liner notes for Attitude Dancing, United Artists Records, UAS29888, 1975. (M).
“There never was a greater perfectionist, there never was, and never will be, a better dancer, and I never knew anybody more kind, more considerate, or more completely a gentleman...I love Fred, John, and I admire and respect him. I guess it's because he's so many things I'd like to be and I'm not.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bing Crosby in a letter to John O'Hara as quoted in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985. p. 242.
“For a guy who had retired ostensibly, your comeback represents the greatest event since Satchel Paige.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bing Crosby in a letter to Fred Astaire, c.1948, on Astaire's return in Easter Parade, as quoted in Astaire's biography, Steps in Time, United States, 1959. p. 293. .
“When you talk about Fred Astaire, you talk about heaven. What more can I say?”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Johnny Green to Mike Steen in Steen, Mike. Hollywood Speaks! An Oral History, G.P. Putnam's, New York, 1974.
“Fred Astaire once worked so hard/ he often lost his breath/ and now he taps all other chaps to death”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They climb the clouds/ To come through with airmail/ The dancing crowds/ Look up to some rare male/ Like that Astaire male.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Astaire can't do anything bad.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jerome Kern quoted in Bordman, Gerald. Jerome Kern: His Life and Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. p. 142. (M).
“Fred Astaire is the best singer of songs the movie world ever knew. His phrasing has individual sophistication that is utterly charming. Presumably the runner-up would be Bing Crosby, a wonderful fellow, though he doesn't have the unstressed elegance of Astaire.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oscar Levant in Levant, Oscar. The Memoirs of an Amnesiac. New York: Putnam, 1965. (M).
“Our homeward step was just as light/As the tap-dancing feet of Astaire/And, like an echo far away,/A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You're the nimble tread/Of the feet of Fred Astaire”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Astaire really sweat - he toiled. He was a humorless Teutonic man, the opposite of his debonair image in top hat and tails. I liked him because he was an entertainer and an artist. There's a distinction between them. An artist is concerned only with what is acceptable to himself, where an entertainer strives to please the public. Astaire did both. Louis Armstrong was another one.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Artie Shaw on his collaboration with Astaire in Second Chorus (1940) as interviewed in Fantle, Dave and Johnson, Tom. Reel to Real. Badger Books LLC, 2004, p. 304. .
“By far the gentlest man I have ever known.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Frank Sinatra on Astaire as quoted in Barnes, Clive. "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails - Fred Astaire dead at 88," New York Times, June 23, 1987 as reproduced in Billman, Larry. Fred Astaire - a Bio-Bibliography, Greenwood …
“Q: What great singers of the past do you wish had sung your music?”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A: Nobody really. Well, actually, Fred Astaire.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stephen Sondheim in an interview with David Patrick Stearns, Classical Music Critic, The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 19, 2009
“Can't act, slightly bald, also dances.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fred Astaire's version of the lost infamous screen test report in his interview on 20/20 with Barbara Walters, ABC, 1980 and reaffirmed by Astaire in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Lon…
“You know, you so-and-so, you've a little of the hoodlum in you.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once after a dinner party, Gregory Peck and I drove Fred Astaire home. Fred lived in a colonial house that had a long porch with many pillars. When we dropped him off, he danced along the whole front porch, then opened the door, tipped his hat to us, and disappeared. Wow! Greg and I couldn't speak for a few minutes. It was a beautiful way to say thank you.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kirk Douglas in Douglas, Kirk. Let's Face It. Wiley, 2007. , p. 26.
“You can get dancers like this for $75 a week.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Johnny Considine, MGM associate producer, on viewing Astaire's screen test. Source: Burton Lane as quoted in Green, Benny. Fred Astaire. London: Hamlyn, 1979 and reaffirmed by Lane in Lane, Burton. Letter to John Muelle…
“The main point of Flying Down to Rio is the screen promise of Fred Astaire.... He's assuredly a bet after this one, for he's distinctly likeable on the screen, the mike is kind to his voice and as a dancer he remains in a class by himself. The latter observation will be no news to the professsion, which has long admitted that Astaire starts dancing where the others stop hoofing.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Variety. Flying Down to Rio, December 26, 1933. (M).
“As it turned out, you'd think that Fred had been playing serious drama all his life. He breaks your heart. We had to get rid of any signs that this was Fred Astaire, the dancer, and I even thought of putting weights in his shoes to eliminate that jaunty Astaire walk. But I didn't have to do anything. He worked it all out on his own—even to mussing the hair of his toupee to get rid of the sleek look of 'The Hoofer,' as he calls himself.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: , on Astaire's performance in On the Beach (1959); quoted in Davidson, Bill. The Real and the Unreal. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1961. p. 191.
“Of all the actors and actresses I've ever worked with, the hardest worker is Fred Astaire. He behaved like he was a young man whose whole destiny depended on being successful in his first film. He rehearses between takes, after takes - there's no limit to his professionalism.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rouben Mamoulian in Lecture and discussion at University of Southern California, December 7, 1975. Tape recording, Special Collections, University of Southern California. (M).
“He is a truly complex fellow, not unlike the Michelangelos and da Vincis of the Renaissance period. He's a supreme artist but he is constantly filled with doubts and self-anger about his work--and that is what makes him so good. He is a perfectionist who is never sure he is attaining perfection.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rouben Mamoulian, quoted in Satchell, Tim. Astaire, The Biography. Hutchinson, London. 1987. . p. 200.
“I don't think that I will plunge the nation into war by stating that Fred Astaire is the greatest tap-dancer in the world.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Robert Benchley in "Hail to the King!!" The New Yorker, November 29, 1930, pp. 33-36. (M).
“Mr. Astaire is the nearest approach we are ever likely to have to a human Mickey Mouse; he might have been drawn by Mr. Walt Disney, with his quick physical wit, his incredible agility. He belongs to a fantasy world almost as free as Mickey's from the law of Gravity.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Graham Greene reviewing Follow the Fleet in The Spectator 1936 and quoted in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985. , p. 81.
“At its most basic, Mr. Astaire's technique has three elements - tap, ballet and ballroom dancing. The ballet training, by his account, was brief but came at a crucial, early age. He has sometimes been classed as a tap dancer, but he was never the hoofer he has jokingly called himself. Much of the choreographic outline of his dancing with his ladies—be it Miss Rogers or Miss Hayworth—is ballroom. But of course, no ballroom dancer could dance like this.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dance critic Anna Kisselgoff, in Shepard, Richard F. "Fred Astaire, The Ultimate Dancer, Dies," The New York Times, 23 June 1987.
“I have never met anyone who did not like Fred Astaire. Somewhere in his sad monkey-sad face, his loose legs, his shy grin, or perhaps the anxious diffidence of his manner, he has found the secret of persuading the world.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Films of the Week: The Case of Mr Fred Astaire", The Observer (12 April 1936), p. 10, quoted in Halliwell, Leslie. Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion. New York : C. Scribner's Sons, 1985. , p. 54
“The audience meets Mr. Astaire and The Gay Divorcee at their best when he is adjusting his cravat to an elaborate dance routine or saying the delicious things with his flashing feet that a librettist would have difficulty putting into words.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Film critic , "The Screen: 'The Gay Divorcee' with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers," The New York Times, November 16, 1934, p. 27.