Marge Champion has died at 101. It’s hard to over-estimate her influence as a model, dancer, actress, and choreographer in the theater, movies, and television which began in the 1930s and continued all the way to her final Broadway performance in 2001. Here she is, dancing in the 1951 Technicolor musical Show Boat with her then husband, Gower:
As you can see she was an incredibly strong and graceful dancer.
Here’s her obit in Variety in which you will probabaly learn some things of which you were unaware:
Marge Champion, a dancer and actor who served as the real-life model for Disney’s 1937 animated classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,†died on Wednesday in Los Angeles, according to The New York Times. She was 101.
Champion and her husband, Gower Champion, also had great success as dance partners and choreographers for Broadway musicals, films and television shows. Champion won an Emmy award in 1975 for choreographing the television movie “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.â€
Marge and Gower Champion most notably danced together in multiple MGM musicals, including the 1951 remake of “Show Boat†starring Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson and Ava Gardner.
In addition to “Snow White,†Champion’s elegant dance moves served as the inspiration for the Blue Fairy in “Pinocchio†and the tutu-wearing hippo ballerinas in the “Dance of the Hours†number in “Fantasia.â€
Every time you watch Disney’s Snow White, Pinocchio, or Fantasia you’re seeing Marge Champion.
