1. Thomas James Tune was born on February 28,1939 and is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer.
22 Facts About Tommy Tune
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Tommy Tune was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, to oil rig worker, horse trainer, and restaurateur Jim Tommy Tune and Eva Mae Clark along with his sister, Gracey.
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Tommy Tune studied dance with Kit Andree in Boulder, Colorado.
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Tommy Tune went on to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Texas at Austin in 1962 and his Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the University of Houston.
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In 1965, Tommy Tune made his Broadway debut as a performer in the musical Baker Street.
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Tommy Tune gained national attention in 1969 when TV producer Greg Garrison hired him as a specialty dancer and assistant choreographer for The Dean Martin Show and its summer replacement series, Dean Martin Presents The Golddiggers.
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Tommy Tune became well known behind the scenes as a reliable dance expert.
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In 1978, when the musical-comedy revue Hellzapoppin starring Jerry Lewis and Lynn Redgrave was having an out-of-town tryout, Tommy Tune was called in three weeks before the show's Broadway bow: he arrived in Boston on a Saturday to debut in a dance number on the following Monday.
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Tommy Tune's contribution came too late to save the show, which closed less than a week later when a plan to televise Hellzapoppin suddenly fell through.
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Tommy Tune directed a new musical titled Turn of the Century, which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on September 19,2008, and closed on November 2,2008.
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Tommy Tune is the only person to win Tony Awards in the same categories in consecutive years, and the first to win in four categories.
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Tommy Tune has won ten Tony Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
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Tommy Tune appeared in a 1975 TV special titled Welcome to the "World" along with Lucie Arnaz and Lyle Waggoner to promote the opening of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World.
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Tommy Tune appeared briefly on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1988.
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Tommy Tune staged an elaborate musical entitled Paparazzi for the Holland America Line cruise ship the Oosterdam in 2003.
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Tommy Tune performed in his musical revue, Steps in Time: A Broadway Biography in Song and Dance, in Boston in April 2008 and continuing in various venues from Bethesda, Maryland in January 2009 to California in February 2009.
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The Tommy Tune Awards, presented annually by Theatre Under The Stars, honor excellence in high school musical theatre in Houston.
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The current home of the Tommy Tune Awards is the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston, Texas.
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Tommy Tune appeared as Argyle Austero in the revived fourth and fifth seasons of Arrested Development on Netflix.
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Tommy Tune further wrote about being openly gay in the world of theater; about losing his partner, choreographer David Steiger Wolfe, to AIDS in 1994, and about the unhappy ending of his relationship with A Chorus Line actor Michel Stuart.
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Tommy Tune described a woman whom he did not name but who he said was the "love of [his] life," and some media speculated that the description he gave appeared to fit Twiggy.
22.
In September 2021, Tommy Tune was elected the honorary president of the American Guild of Variety Artists, the labor union for non-actor stage performers.