Gwyneth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances. She also taught dance to stars such as Jane Russell, Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe.
About Gwen Verdon in brief
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. 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. Verdon started out on Broadway going from one chorus line to another. Her breakthrough role finally came when choreographer Michael Kidd cast her as the second female lead in Cole Porter’s musical Can-Can. She also taught dance to stars such as Jane Russell, Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. She was married to family friend and tabloid reporter James Henaghan after he got her pregnant at 17 years old, and she quit her dancing career to raise their child.
In 1966, Verdon returned to the stage in the role of Charity in the musical Sweet Charity, which was choreographed and directed by her husband. She later directed and choreographed the first film version of Cabiria Nights, starring Shirley MacLaine, Ricardo Montalbán, Sammy Davis Jr. and Sammy Chita Rivera, and directed the very first film of her husband’s choreography, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She died of a heart attack at the age of 83 in 1987. She had a daughter, Gwyneth Verdon, and a son, William Farrell Verdon; her husband was an electrician at MGM Studios, and her mother was a former vaudevillian of the Denishawn dance troupe, as well as a dance teacher. The couple had a son Jimmy, who was born in 1992.
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