Songs include ‘Cheek to Cheek’, ‘Isn’t it a Lovely Day to be Caught in the Rain?’, and of course ‘Top Hat, White Tie and Tails’.

It’s the most overly-used bit of movie trivia in all history but I can’t resist including the report made by a studio scout of Astaire’s first screen test: “Can’t act.  Can’t sing.  Slightly bald.  Can dance a little.”
     To be fair, Fred’s acting wasn’t great; his singing voice was (to be charitable) distinctive; he certainly was lacking a few hairs on his head, so it’s only the last comment that could be seriously disputed, and then only in terms of its gross understatement!

Astaire – with a reputation for modesty – described his dancing thus: “I just put my feet in the air and move them around.”

Astaire was only Oscar-nominated once in competition, for The Towering Inferno (1974), but did receive a special Academy Award in 1949 for “his unique artistry and contributions to the technique of musical pictures.”  Astaire and Ginger Rogers were publicly teamed for the last time at the 1966 Academy Awards ceremony.