Fosse Bob

American dancer, choreographer and film director with a career spanning 40 years. The only artist to ever win a Tony Award, an Emmy and an Oscar in the same year, Fosse was one of the most outstanding dance talents of the twentieth century. Along with his prodigious ability in dance, he also excelled in directing in film and television. The son of a ex-vaudevillian father who became an insurance salesman, Fosse grew up on the North Side of Chicago with four siblings. His dance training began as a youth at a neighborhood school but he soon moved on to the Frederick Wheeler School of Ballet where he was the only male enrolled. "I got a lot of jokes and I got whistled at a lot. But I beat up a couple of the whistlers and rest sort of tapered off after a while." At age 13, Fosse teamed up with another young dancer named Charles Grass, and together they formed an act known as The Riff Brothers. Within two years the act was earning the princely sum of more than $100 a week The Riff Brothers disbanded and, at age 15, the ambitious Fosse took a job as an emcee in local nightclubs. It was at one of these clubs that he choreographed his first dance number using four girls to manipulate ostrich fans to the music of Cole Porter. The innocent teen then brought his dancing skills to burlesque, where his innocence abruptly ended. "I was really unhappy and scared. It left certain impressions on me that werent too good. I was too young to be exposed to naked ladies." The seedy atmosphere of the burlesque clubs left an indelible impression on the young dancer. After graduating Amundsen High School in Chicago, Fosse enlisted in the Navy and was posted to entertainment units in the Pacific, where he was given freedom to experiment and create, honing his skills for later success. "I never knew I could handle anything like that until I tried it on Okinawa. From then on, I knew what I wanted and where I wanted to go." When the war ended, Fosse and his first wife, Mary Ann Niles, formed a dance team and appeared in nightclubs, television and stage musicals. In 1950, he made his Broadway debut in "Dance Me a Song" and two years later went on tour in the lead role in "Pal Joey." Fosse was offered a contract with MGM in 1953 and moved to Hollywood. He appeared in three musicals and choreographed the film "My Sister Eileen." When movie musicals entered a period of decline, so did Fosse. Despite his remarkable talent and efforts, success was not forthcoming. "My parts were getting smaller. I knew what that meant." It meant going back to Broadway. In 1955 Director Jerome Robbins tracked down a dancer named Bob Fosse living in a 35 cents a day rooming house, and cast him in the chorus of the show "The Pajama Game." Fosses work was so impressive he was hired to choreograph the show, which was a huge success and won Fosse his first Tony award. The following year he won his second Tony award (he would eventually win ten) for the choreography of "Damn Yankees," in which Fosse danced a number with chorus member Gwen Verdon. The couple married the same year. They danced together in the film version of "Damn Yankees" in 1958 and Fosse made his directing debut on Broadway the following year starring Gwen Verdon in "Redhead." During this time Fosse also adapted the choreography for Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees" for film. Three years after the birth of their only child in 1963, daughter Nicole Providence, Fosse crafted the starring role for Ver Read less