Fred Astaire was born in Nebraska in 1899. Fred and his sister, Adele, learned to dance when they were very young. Their mother took them to New York to study dance. They performed in their first professional（专业的） show when Fred was ten years old and Adele was twelve. Later, as teenagers, the two danced in many shows throughout the United States. Their first big success was on Broadway in 1917.
The Astaires as they were known quickly became Broadway stars. During the nineteen twenties, they sang and danced in eleven different shows. They also performed in England. In 1932, Adele Astaire married a British man, and stopped performing. But Fred did not forego his dream. He would go on alone, in the movies.
Fred Astaire had the best skill among all dancers in history. He danced up walls and on the ceiling in the film Royal Wedding. He danced on rooftops in The Belle of New York. He danced on roller skates in Shall We Dance?
Fred Astaire made all this look easy. But it was not. He said: "Dancing is a sweaty job. You cannot just sit down and do it. You have to get up on your feet. It takes time to get a dance right, to create something memorable. I always try to get to know my dance so well that I do not have to think."
In 1949, Fred Astaire won a special award for his film work from America's Motion Picture Academy. He also won awards from the television industry for a number of his television programs.
Fred stopped dancing in 1970. He was more than seventy years old at the time. He said a dancer could not continue dancing forever. He said he did not want to disappoint（使失望） anyone, even himself. He danced again in public only once after that. It was with another great male dancer, Gene Kelly, in the movie "That's Entertainment, Part Two".
Fred Astaire and his first wife, Phyllis, had three children. Phyllis died in 1954. Twenty-five years later, Fred married race horse rider Robyn Smith. Fred Astaire died on June 22, 1987. He was eighty-eight years old. He was called the greatest dancer in the world. His dancing was called perfect. And moviegoers everywhere will remember him as a great performer whose work will live forever in his films.
