Time to stand and Astaire

the swan-like Audrey Hepburn, Astaire couldn't help but outdo them. Watch any of his old films and you'll find your eye drawn to him rather than his partner during the dance numbers. It's just impossible not to be dazzled by him.

Frederic Austerlitz was born on May 10, 1899 to Frederic and Johanna Austerlitz of Omaha, Nebraska. Austerlitz senior was an Austrian emigre who had gone into the brewery business under the name Astaire, while Johanna (who lived until 1975) was the American-born daughter of Lithuanian parents. Fred was their second child, 18 months younger than their daughter Adele who, by the age of four, had revealed a phenomenal talent as a dancer. Although Fred had been sent to dancing school with his sister, he was very much a supporting act in those early days and when Mrs Astaire decided that Adele's dancing talents should be developed, it was perfectly logical that Fred should tag along.

In 1904, the Astaire family split up in the hope of making a star of Adele. While her husband stayed home in Omaha, Mrs Astaire took the children to New York to attend a top dance school. Within a year, the Astaire youngsters had turned professional, and in 1906 a local New Jersey newspaper described them as ''the greatest child act in vaudeville''. It was only when they hit their early teens that Fred began to emerge as a talent in his own right. Adele later recalled: ''I noticed it when he started tapping and dancing by himself. Suddenly he began inventing things. I was more the clown.''

By 1917 the Astaires had graduated from vaudeville to Broadway. After a shaky seven-year start they hit their stride with the George and Ira Gershwin show Lady Be Good which ran for 330 performances and made them the darlings of Broadway, and then London. Success followed success until 1932 when Adele

married Charles Cavendish, an English aristocrat, and decided to quit showbusiness.

Astaire tried to go it alone, but neither he nor the audience was as inspired by one Astaire as they had been by two. Rather than

soldier on until he found a replacement stage partner, he opted to start afresh in the movies, accepting an offer to appear in the RKO musical Flying Down to Rio.

RKO's head of production, David O Selznick, had screen-tested him and had reported: ''I am still a little uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous it comes through even in this wretched test.'' By the time Flying Down to Rio finally took off, however, Astaire had made his screen debut in Dancing Lady, a Joan Crawford musical for which he had been loaned out to MGM.

Flying Down to Rio was the no-expense spared musical extravaganza in which the greatest dancing partnership of the movies was born - by chance. Unfortunately, nobody is quite certain how Ginger Rogers, the bubbly blonde 21-year-old veteran of 20-odd movies, came to be teamed with newcomer Astaire. What is certain, however, is that they sparked from the start. Although they only had small roles in the film, their featured, rhumba-style, number, The Carioca, was the movie's big hit and prompted a flood of letters from movie fans calling for more Astaire & Rogers.

Realising they had stumbled upon a winning combination, RKO immediately put them to work in The Gay Divorcee (1934). That film, with the passionate Night and Day dance as its centrepiece, confirmed what RKO executives had begun to suspect: that, despite their offscreen differences, the Astaire-Rogers team was a match made in movie heaven. As Katharine Hepburn is alleged to have said: ''He gave her class and she gave him sex appeal.'' The Gay Divorcee was the first fully-fledged Astaire-Rogers film, and it launched the team on a series of eight classic musicals which were unique within the musicals genre. The Astaire-Rogers pictures were essentially screwball comedies with music. They featured songs penned by Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin - the greatest songsmiths of the day - and glorious dance routines which looked effortlessly perfect. The music and dance was balanced out

by the comedy provided by a core group of unforgettable character actors - toadyish Eric Blore, nervous Edward Everett Horton, and fluttery Alice Brady. Not only did Astaire and Rogers dance beautifully together, but they also bantered every bit as well as the best screwball couples.

The relationship between Rogers and Astaire, although never cosy, was not as fraught as some biographers have implied. However, they did have their fall-outs. In her autobiography, Rogers who apparently finished most rehearsals with bleeding feet, said: ''Fred was a hard taskmaster, a perfectionist. He always got a

little cross.''

It was Rogers's longstanding desire to pursue a serious acting career that finally broke up the act in 1940. Dropped by RKO, Astaire changed partners and danced for a number of studios before settling at MGM.

However, he rarely found a partner as well-suited to his high standards as Ginger Rogers had been. In 1945, Astaire's retirement was announced, but he was persuaded to make a comeback in 1948 when MGM needed a replacement for an injured Gene Kelly in the Irving Berling musical Easter Parade. The

film co-starred Judy Garland, and the success of this new

partnership seemed to re-ignite Astaire's enthusiasm.

Astaire worked solidly through the 1950s, finding some solace in his work after the sudden death of his wife in 1954. Even in his mid-50s, he continued to devise and execute dazzling dance routines, and to star as leading men to such gorgeous younger stars as Cyd Charisse and Audrey Hepburn.

Although he was even less good looking than he had been in the 1930s, Astaire was still a convincing romantic figure: as long as he could woo these young women with his feet. And as long as he could serenade them in that

gentle, laidback singing style which was almost as integral to his screen persona as his casually elegant dancing.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Astaire - who bowed gracefully out of musicals on the high notes of the delightful Funny Face (1957) and Silk Stockings (1959) - played character parts in movies and on TV, and but he bowed out of films entirely in 1977, three years before he married 35-year-old jockey, Robyn Smith, and 10 years before his death.

Fred Astaire was more than ''just'' a film star and more than ''just'' a dancer. He was, as Cole Porter, said, ''the tops''.

Dancing feat

n He wore a toupee even in his earliest films.

n He wore a size 8-and-a-half shoe, and went through several dozen pairs during the making of each film.

n His Los Angeles cobbler gave him every hundredth pair

of shoes free.

n Astaire and Rogers didn't have their first screen kiss

until their ninth film together: Mrs Astaire had always

previously objected.

n Astaire and Rogers fell out over Rogers's choice of feathered gown in the Cheek to Cheek number: feathers floated in front of the camera, on Astaire's suit and all over the floor.

n During the first take of the Let's Face the Music and Dance number in Follow the Fleet, Astaire was biffed in the eye by Rogers's heavily-beaded sleeve.

n In August 1944 Astaire was flown to Prestwick Airport

en route to entertaining American troops in France.

n Astaire loved to tune into police broadcasts, and often

turned up at the scenes of crimes.

n Ever debonair, Astaire began wearing silk scarves in

place of belts when he gave up wearing braces.

n Throughout his career, Astaire wrote songs. One of them

- I'm Building Up to an Awful Letdown - reached

number 4 in the American hit parade, in February 1936.

n In the 1950s, Astaire tapdanced and sang on a jazz

album with the Oscar Peterson band.

TEN SONGS FOREVER ASSOCIATED WITH FRED

1. Top Hat, White Tie and Tails (Top Hat; Irving Berlin)

2. Puttin' on the Ritz (Blue Skies; Irving Berlin)

3. Isn't This a Lovely Day? (Top Hat; Irving Berlin)

4. Cheek to Cheek (Top Hat; Irving Berlin)

5. Let's Face the Music and Dance (Follow the Fleet;

Irving Berlin)

6. The Way You Look Tonight (Swing Time; Jerome

Kern-Dorothy Fields)

7. They Can't Take That Away From Me (Shall We Dance and

The Barkleys of Broadway; George and Ira Gershwin)

8. A Foggy Day (A Damsel in Distress; George and

Ira Gershwin)

9. Stepping Out With My Baby (Easter Parade; Irving Berlin)

10. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off (Shall We Dance;

George and Ira Gershwin)