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Bob Fosse Biography

Choreographer / Dancer

As a choreographer, Bob Fosse changed the course of Broadway musicals with his distinctively slinky, sexy style of dancing. Then he developed into a multimedia triple threat: in 1973 he won an Academy Award for directing the movie Cabaret (which also won a best actress Oscar for Liza Minnelli), three Emmy awards for directing, producing and choreographing Minelli's TV special Liza With a Z, and two Tony Awards for directing and choreographing the Broadway show Pippin. That feat is, so far, unmatched. Fosse's other hit Broadway shows included Sweet Charity (1965), Chicago (1975) and Dancin' (1978). Fosse was married three times, most famously to his dance partner Gwen Verdon, and was also famous for his extramarital womanizing and freewheeling lifestyle. He told his own story in the semi-autobiographical movie All That Jazz (1979). A 1998 revue, Fosse, collected his most famous dance works into one show.

Extra credit: Fosse died of a heart attack in Washington D.C. during the run of a revival of his 1965 show Sweet Charity... A 2002 film version of Chicago won the Academy Award as the year's best picture; it was directed by Rob Marshall and starred Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart, the role originated by Verdon.

Fosse is at the center of the strange loop we call The Fosse Connection.

Blog posts mentioning Bob Fosse:

• Roy Scheider, Star of Jaws and Jazz