She was natural Gwyneth Evelyn Verdon within Culver City, California, the second little one of Joseph William Verdon (December 31, 1896-June 23, 1978) and Gertrude Lilian Standring (October 24, 1896-October 16, 1956), who were British emigree to the U.S. by way of Canada. Her brother was William Farrell Verdon (August 1, 1923-June 10, 1991).

It were too "show people," Joseph existence an electrician at MGM Studios & Gertrude the previous member of the Denishawn dance company, and the veteran of vaudeville.

As a tyke, Gwen was afflicted sustaining rickets, which left her legs so badly bent & malformed she was known as "Gimpy" by more youngsters & spent her early years around orthopedic boots and strong leg braces. Gertrude Verdon situated Gwen inside dance classes at a age of ternion & ballet began strengthening her legs and improving her carriage. Little did Gwen or even her mother understand she would 1 day be the renowned Broadway star.

Per age of sixer, feisty redheaded Gwen was performing in stage as a tapper. She went in to learn multiple dance forms, from either tap, jazz, dance palace & flamenco, to Balinese & juggling.

At age eleven, she appeared in the musical/romance movie The King Steps Out (1936), which was directed by Josef von Sternberg and starred Grace Moore and Franchot Tone. Gwen was the solo danseuse.

She attended Hamilton High School within Los Angeles and also exposed under a illustrious ballet master, Ernest Belcher. When around high school, she was cast within the revival of Show Boat.

Verdon so shocked her parents & teacher whenever she abandoned her budding career to elope with her number 1 hubby at a age of Seventeen inside 1942. Inside 1945, she appeared as a dancer in the movie musical theater A Blonde From either Brooklyn. When her divorcement, she entrusted her immature boy, Jemmy, to the care of her parents.

Her quest after function led to the job when helper to choreographer Jack Cole, whose function was respected by two Broadway & top Hollywood movie studios. When you took her 5-month employment by owning Cole, she took little roles within motion-picture show musical theater as a "specialty dancer." She too gave dance instruction, by having trainees including such large title stars when Jane Russell, Gene Kelly, Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe.

Verdin began retired on Broadway as a "gypsy," running from either of these chorus line to another. Her breakthrough role come whenever she was cast by choreographer Michael Kidd as the 2nd female lead within Cole Porter's musical Can-Can (1953), which starred French prima donna Lilo.

Out-of-town reviewers hailed Verdon's interpretation of Eve in the Garden of Eden ballet & said it outshone a indicate's star. Lilo was displeased sustaining all the attention Verdon received & demanded her role exist as cut to merely deuce featured dance totals.

By using her role reduced to barely to a higher degree an ensemble a portion, Verdon threatened to hike away from Could-May, formally announcing her intentiin to leave per instance a indicate premiered on Broadway. However in opening nighttime her Garden of Eden total stopped a indicate. A audience thundered her title until a startled actress was brought away from her dressing room around her bathrobe to take a curtain call for. Gwen Verdon received the pay raise & her foremost Tony Award for her triumphant performance.

By having flaming red hair & a sassy, ill-rude attitude, Verdin was considered the better dancer on Broadway in the Fifties & Sixties. She would forever exist when identified by using her role as a vampish "Lola" inside Bob Fosse's Damn Yankees (1955), which is based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. Verdon played a Devil's adherent world health organization entices the baseball aficionado to sell his soul to play for the Washington Senators. A musical comedy run 1,019 performances. She won a second Tony & attend Hollywood to repeat her role in the picture show version, Damn Yankees (1958).

She received the sum of quadruplet Tonys; for Potty-May (1953), Damn Yankees (1955), New Girl in Town (1957) and Redhead (1959), a murder-mystery musical comedy. She besides won the Grammy Award for the cast recording of Redhead. Verdon got ii hubby, tabloid newsman James Henaghan (married 1942-divorced 1947) and Bob Fosse (married 1960-his death 1987).

She & Henaghan got of these boy, Jim Henaghan (born 1943); she and Moat got the girl, Nicole Fosse (born 1963).

Fallowing a birth of her girl, Verdon took period off. Withinside 1966, she returned to the stage in the role of Charity in Sweet Charity, which like several of her earliest Broadway triumphs was choreographed by her longtime hubby, Bob Fosse. the indicate became the Broadway cult classic & was followed by a moving-picture show version starring Shirley MacLaine, Ricardo Montalban, Sammy Davis Jr., and Chita Rivera. Verdon helped choreograph a amounts, which involved a legendary "Big Spender", a convenient-paced "Rhythm of Life" & a indicate-stopping "If My Friends Could See Me Now".

Inside 1971, Verdon filed a legal separation from either Moat because of his open adulterous affairs however it never divorced. It remained close friends & were collaborators & co-workfellow in projects such as Chicago (1975), her last major Broadway role where she played murderess Roxie Hart, & a musical ''Dancin' (1978), when well as his autobiographical moving picture, All That Jazz'' (1979). She developed the close working relationship by owning Moat's domesticated companion, actress Ann Reinking, and potentially instructed for Reinking's musical theatre classes.

When swimming "Roxie Hart" within Chicago, Verdin concentrated on straight acting. She played character area around such moving-picture show when The Cotton Club (1984), Cocoon (1985) and Cocoon: The Return (1988).

Verdon was accompanying Moat to the 1987 revival of Sweet Charity starring Debbie Allen in Washington and held him in her arms whenever he suffered the disastrous heart attack on a walk outside the theatre.

She continued to instruct dance & musical theatre & to work, including getting ternary Emmy Award nominations for appearances on Magnum PI (1988), Dream On (1993) and Homicide (1993). Verdon appeared when a mother of "Alice" in the film Alice (1990) and as "Ruth" around ''Marvin's Room'' (1996), which co-starred Meryl Streep and Hume Cronyn.

Inside 1999, Verdon served as artistic advisor & consultant on the stage life of her late married man's life inside theatre, a todays stage musical theater Fosse, and her girl, Nicole, was credited using "special thanks." A indicate received a Tony for better musical comedy. Verdon too played Alora in the motion picture Walking Across Egypt (1999) and appeared in the pic Bruno, which was released around 2000.

Gwen Verdon died quietly withinside her sleep at a at home of her girl, Nicole Fosse, in Woodstock, Vermont, at the age of 75.

At 8:00 P.M. around the nighttime she passed away, all the marquee lights on Broadway were dimmed in honor & tribute of one of its greatest & brightly stars.

Stage Appearances
Alive and Kicking (1950) Can-Can (1953) Damn Yankees (1955) New Girl in Town (1957) Redhead (1959) Sweet Charity (1966) Children! Children! (1972) Chicago (1975)

Filmography
The King Steps Out (1936) The Blonde from Brooklyn (1945) On the Riviera (1951) David and Bathsheba (1951) Meet Me After the Show (1951) Dreamboat (1952) ''The I Don't Care Girl (1953) The Mississippi Gambler (1953) The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953) Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955) (scenes deleted) Damn Yankees! (1958) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) (Cameo) Creepshow (1982) (voice only) The Cotton Club (1984) Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret (1985) (documentary) Cocoon (1985) Nadine (1987) Cocoon: The Return'' (1988)