Marge Champion

American dancer and actress (1919–2020)

Marjorie Celeste "Marge" Champion (née Belcher; September 2, 1919 – October 21, 2020) was an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography in 1975.

Marge Champion
Marge in 1952
Born
Marjorie Celeste Belcher

(1919-09-02)September 2, 1919
DiedOctober 21, 2020(2020-10-21) (aged 101)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Dancer, choreographer, actress
Years active1930s–2020
Spouse(s)Art Babbitt (1937–40)
Gower Champion (1947–73)
Boris Sagal (1977–81)
ChildrenBlake
Gregg
RelativesLina Basquette (half-sister)

Career

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At a young age she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios animated movies. Snow White was modeled after Champion for the 1937 animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Later she performed as an actress and dancer in movie musicals, and in 1957 had a TV show based on song and dance.[1]

Champion has also done creative choreography for liturgy, and served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries, The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in the Ohio Valley.[2]

Together as a dance team, the Champions performed in MGM musicals of the 1940s and 50s, including Show Boat (1951) and Everything I Have Is Yours (1952). MGM wanted the couple to remake Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, but only one, Lovely to Look At (1952), a remake of Roberta (1935), was completed.

Champion turned 100 in September 2019.[3] She died on October 21, 2020 in Los Angeles at the age of 101.[4]

References

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  1. Harry Haun (2013). "Still Lovely to Look At: A Lifetime Achievement Award for Dancing Diva Marge Champion From 'Walt's Folly' to 'Follies'—at 93, she has all the right moves". The New York Observer. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  2. Hal Erickson, Overview: The Awakening Land Archived October 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times
  3. "TINSELTOWN TALKS: Dancer Marge Champion turns 100 - News - Times Telegram - Herkimer, NY". Archived from the original on October 23, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  4. Marge Champion, Actress, Dancer and Model for Snow White, Dies at 101

Other websites

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  Media related to Marge Champion at Wikimedia Commons