Ginger Rogers was an Academy Award-winning American film and stage actress, dancer and singer. In a film career spanning 50 years, she made a total of 73 films, and is now principally celebrated for her role as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre.
Early life
Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri, the daughter of William Eddins McMath, of Scottish ancestry, and his wife Lela Owens, of Welsh ancestry. Her mother separated from Rogers' father soon after her birth, and mother and daughter went to live with her grandparents in nearby Kansas City. Ginger was close to her grandfather, and, in 1939, bought him a home in Sherman Oaks, California so that he could be close to her while she was filming at the studios.
Rogers' parents divorced and fought for custody, with her father even kidnapping her twice. After they divorced, Rogers stayed with her grandparents, Walter and Saphrona Owens, while her mother wrote scripts for two years in Hollywood. Several of Rogers' cousins had a hard time pronouncing her first name, shortening it to "Ginya".
When Rogers was nine years old, her mother married John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the name of Rogers, although she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth, Texas. Her mother became a theater critic for a local newspaper, the Fort Worth Record.
As a teenager, Rogers thought of teaching school, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her young exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of the Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along to the performers on stage.
Vaudeville
Rogers' entertainment career was born one night when the traveling vaudeville act of Eddie Foy came to Fort Worth and needed a quick stand-in. She entered and won a Charleston dance contest and then hit the road with a vaudeville tour
