1. Robert Louis Fosse was an American choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, and stage director.
45 Facts About Bob Fosse
1. 2.
Bob Fosse received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, nine Tony Awards, and the Palme d'Or.
3.
Bob Fosse started his career acting in the musical productions of Call Me Mister, Billion Dollar Baby, and Pal Joey.
4.
Bob Fosse worked on Bells Are Ringing, New Girl in Town, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Chicago.
5.
Bob Fosse won the Academy Award for Best Director for the musical drama Cabaret.
6.
Bob Fosse was Oscar-nominated for directing the dramas Lenny and All That Jazz, the latter of which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
7.
Bob Fosse is known for directing the concert film Liza with a Z, which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, and his final film Star 80.
8.
Bob Fosse forged an uncompromising modern style, characterized by finger-snapping, tilted bowler hats, fishnet stockings, splayed gloved fingers, turned-in knees and toes, shoulder rolls and jazz hands.
9.
When he was 13 years old, Bob Fosse performed professionally in Chicago with Charles Grass, as "The Riff Brothers".
10.
Bob Fosse petitioned his manager, Frederick Weaver, to advocate on his behalf to his superiors after his own failed attempts to be placed in the Special Services Entertainment Division.
11.
Bob Fosse was placed in the variety show Tough Situation, which toured military and naval bases in the Pacific Ocean.
12.
Bob Fosse began to study acting at the American Theatre Wing, where he met his first wife and dance partner, Mary Ann Niles.
13.
Bob Fosse gave me my first job as a choreographer and I'm grateful for that.
14.
In Kiss Me Kate, Bob Fosse starred alongside Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, and Ann Miller.
15.
Bob Fosse played Hortensio within The Taming of the Shrew dance sequences.
16.
In 1954, Bob Fosse choreographed his first musical, The Pajama Game, followed by My Sister Eileen and George Abbott's Damn Yankees in 1955.
17.
Bob Fosse had previously won a Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Can-Can.
18.
In 1957, Bob Fosse choreographed New Girl in Town, directed by Abbott, and Verdon won her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1958.
19.
In 1957, Bob Fosse choreographed the film version of The Pajama Game starring Doris Day.
20.
The next year, Bob Fosse appeared in and choreographed the film version of Damn Yankees, in which Verdon reprised her stage triumph as the character Lola.
21.
In 1961, Bob Fosse choreographed the satirical Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Robert Morse.
22.
In 1963, Bob Fosse was nominated for two Tony Awards for Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical for the musical Little Me, winning the former.
23.
Bob Fosse choreographed and directed Verdon in Sweet Charity in 1966.
24.
Bob Fosse's first, Sweet Charity starring Shirley MacLaine, is an adaptation of the Broadway musical he had directed and choreographed.
25.
In 1972, Bob Fosse directed his second theatrical film, Cabaret, starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey.
26.
Bob Fosse was director and choreographer of Chicago in 1975, which starred Verdon.
27.
In 1974, Bob Fosse directed Lenny, a biographical film about the controversial standup comedian Lenny Bruce portrayed by Dustin Hoffman.
28.
Bob Fosse was again nominated for Best Director, Hoffman received a nomination for Best Actor.
29.
Bob Fosse performed a song and dance in Stanley Donen's 1974 film version of The Little Prince.
30.
In 1979, Bob Fosse co-wrote and directed a semi-autobiographical film All That Jazz, starring Roy Scheider, which portrayed the life of a womanizing, drug-addicted choreographer and director in the midst of triumph and failure.
31.
Bob Fosse's final film, Star 80, was a biographical movie about Dorothy Stratten, a Playboy Playmate who was murdered.
32.
In 1986, Bob Fosse wrote, choreographed and directed the Broadway production of Big Deal, which was nominated for five Tony awards, winning for Best Choreography, as well as five more for the revival of Sweet Charity at the nearby Minskoff Theater, winning a Tony Award for Best Revival.
33.
Bob Fosse began work on a film about gossip columnist Walter Winchell that would have starred Robert De Niro as Winchell.
34.
Notable distinctions of Bob Fosse's style included the use of turned-in knees, the "Bob Fosse Amoeba", sideways shuffling, rolled shoulders and jazz hands.
35.
For Damn Yankees, Bob Fosse was inspired by the "father of theatrical jazz dance", Jack Cole.
36.
In 1957, Verdon and Bob Fosse studied with Sanford Meisner to develop a better acting technique.
37.
Bob Fosse married dance partner Mary Ann Niles on May 3,1947, in Detroit.
38.
Bob Fosse met dancer Ann Reinking during the run of Pippin in 1972.
39.
In 1961, Bob Fosse's epilepsy was revealed when he had a seizure onstage during rehearsals for The Conquering Hero.
40.
Bob Fosse died of a heart attack on September 23,1987, at George Washington University Hospital while the revival of Sweet Charity was opening at the nearby National Theatre.
41.
Bob Fosse had collapsed in Verdon's arms near the Willard Hotel.
42.
At the 1973 Academy Awards, Bob Fosse won the Academy Award for Best Director for Cabaret.
43.
That same year he won Tony Awards for directing and choreographing Pippin and Primetime Emmy Awards for producing, choreographing and directing Liza Minnelli's television special Liza with a Z Fosse was the only person to win all three major industry awards in the same year.
44.
Bob Fosse was inducted into the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York, on April 27,2007.
45.
Bob Fosse choreographed the dances in Fosse style for that revival.