Marge Champion
Marge Champion | |
|---|---|
Marge in 1952 | |
| Born | Marjorie Celeste Belcher September 2, 1919 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | October 21, 2020 (aged 101) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Dancer, choreographer, actress |
| Years active | 1930s–2020 |
| Spouse(s) | Art Babbitt (1937–40) Gower Champion (1947–73) Boris Sagal (1977–81) |
| Children | Blake Gregg |
| Relatives | Lina Basquette (half-sister) |
Marjorie Celeste "Marge" Champion (née Belcher; September 2, 1919 – October 21, 2020) was an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography in 1975.
Career
[change | change source]At a young age she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios animated movies. Snow White was modeled after Champion for the 1937 animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Later she performed as an actress and dancer in movie musicals, and in 1957 had a TV show based on song and dance.[1]
Champion has also done creative choreography for liturgy, and served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries, The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in the Ohio Valley.[2]
Together as a dance team, the Champions performed in MGM musicals of the 1940s and 50s, including Show Boat (1951) and Everything I Have Is Yours (1952). MGM wanted the couple to remake Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, but only one, Lovely to Look At (1952), a remake of Roberta (1935), was completed.
Death
[change | change source]Champion turned 100 in September 2019.[3] She died on October 21, 2020 in Los Angeles at the age of 101.[4]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Harry Haun (2013). "Still Lovely to Look At: A Lifetime Achievement Award for Dancing Diva Marge Champion From 'Walt's Folly' to 'Follies'—at 93, she has all the right moves". The New York Observer. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
- ↑ Hal Erickson, Overview: The Awakening Land Archived October 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times
- ↑ "TINSELTOWN TALKS: Dancer Marge Champion turns 100 - News - Times Telegram - Herkimer, NY". Archived from the original on October 23, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ↑ Marge Champion, Actress, Dancer and Model for Snow White, Dies at 101
Other websites
[change | change source] Media related to Marge Champion at Wikimedia Commons
- Marge Champion on IMDb
- 80103, 80104, 111883 Marge Champion at the Internet Broadway Database
- Marge Champion at AllMovie
- Marge Champion at the TCM Movie Database
- http://www.valyermodancers.org/DanceCompany.html
- Marge Champion performing Dancing in 1986 at Jacob's Pillow Archived March 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- Archival footage from Jacob's Pillow PillowTalk: Hippo in a Tutu featuring Marge Champion, 8/28/2010 Archived September 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
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