Word: verdon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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DIED. GWEN VERDON, 75, Broadway's first lady of dance and winner of four Tony Awards; in Woodstock, Vt. She married choreographer Bob Fosse in 1960 and had one of her greatest successes as Roxie Hart in his production of Chicago. The two separated in 1971 but never divorced (see Eulogy below...
Aside from being the best American dancer-actress of the 20th century, GWEN VERDON, in every cell of her body, held the moves and spirit of her great collaborator, Bob Fosse. In her 70s, Gwen created the musical Fosse, willing his work into immortality through new dancers, not so much teaching as illuminating them, lighting each like a candle, startling and inspiring with a sudden and impossible whirl, a back-arched, hip-winked, sly-smiled thrust of her hands in which each finger had a job and a mind of its own, not so much defying time and gravity...
Things that made my father happy: Perry Mason; any Broadway musical starring Gwen Verdon; fishing for blues with doctor cronies off Montauk, on New York's Long Island; Corona Corona cigars; a straw skimmer hat; Herman Wouk. Things that drove him up the wall: misinformation about medicine in movies or on TV; strangers calling him by his first name; my frequent playing of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I Put a Spell on You; and me, at least before I achieved...