31 Facts About Gwen Verdon

Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon was an American actress and dancer.

Gwen Verdon 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.

Gwen Verdon is 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.

Gwen Verdon was born in Culver City, California, the second child of Gertrude Lilian and Joseph William Gwen Verdon, British immigrants to the United States by way of Canada.

Gwen Verdon's father was an electrician at MGM Studios, and her mother was a former vaudevillian of the Denishawn dance troupe, as well as a dance teacher.

Gwen Verdon went on to study multiple dance forms, ranging from tap, jazz, ballroom and flamenco to Balinese.

Gwen Verdon attended Hamilton High School in Los Angeles and studied under ballet enthusiast Ernest Belcher.

In 1942, Gwen Verdon's parents asked her to marry 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.

Early on, Gwen Verdon found a job as assistant to choreographer Jack Cole, whose work was respected by both Broadway and Hollywood movie studios.

Gwen Verdon taught dance to stars such as Jane Russell, Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe.

Gwen Verdon started out on Broadway going from one chorus line to another.

Gwen Verdon received a pay increase and her first Tony Award for her performance.

Gwen Verdon won another Tony and went to Hollywood to repeat her role in the 1958 movie version Damn Yankees, famously singing "Whatever Lola Wants".

Gwen Verdon won another Tony for her performance in the musical New Girl in Town as a hard-luck girl fleeing from her past as a prostitute.

In 1966, Gwen Verdon returned to the stage in the role of Charity in Sweet Charity, which like many of her earlier Broadway triumphs was choreographed and directed by husband Fosse.

Gwen Verdon traveled to Berlin to help Fosse with Cabaret, the musical film for which he won an Oscar for Best Director.

Gwen Verdon developed a close working relationship with Fosse's partner, Broadway dancer Ann Reinking, and was an instructor for Reinking's musical theatre classes.

Gwen Verdon continued to teach dance and musical theater and to act.

Gwen Verdon appeared as the title character's mother in the Woody Allen movie Alice and as Ruth in Marvin's Room, co-starring Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

In 1999, Gwen Verdon served as artistic consultant on a Broadway musical designed to showcase examples of classic Fosse choreography.

In 1997 Gwen Verdon appeared in an episode of Walker Texas Ranger as Maisie Whitman.

Gwen Verdon played Alora in the movie Walking Across Egypt and appeared in the film Bruno, released in 2000.

Gwen Verdon received a total of four Tonys, for best featured actress for Can-Can and best leading actress for Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town and Redhead.

Gwen Verdon won a Grammy Award for the cast recording of Redhead.

Gwen Verdon was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981.

Gwen Verdon married tabloid reporter James Archibald Henaghan in 1942.

Gwen Verdon was involved in relationships with actor Scott Brady and actor Jerry Lanning, son of Roberta Sherwood.

Gwen Verdon was with Fosse when he suffered a fatal heart attack at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, in September 1987.

Gwen Verdon was a mental health-care advocate; later in life, she openly spoke about the positive effects of mental-health counseling.

Gwen Verdon died from a heart attack on October 18,2000, aged 75, at her daughter's home in Woodstock, Vermont.

In 1956, Gwen Verdon released an album titled The Girl I Left Home For.