Ginger Rogers was born July 16, 1911 in Independence, Missouri. Her given name was Virginia Katherine McMath. Shortly after she was born, her parents separated from each other. Her mother and her moved to her grandparents' home in Kansas City, though both parents wanted custody of their child, and Ginger's father kidnapped her twice. Once her parents' divorce was finalized, Roger's mother moved to Hollywood and wrote movie scripts while Ginger stayed with her grandparents for two years.

When she was 9, Ginger's mother married John Logan Rogers, which is how Virgina McMath became Ginger Rogers. They moved to Fort Worth, Texas where her mother became a newspaper theater critic. Hanging around her mother's work, Ginger began to become interested in the theater and began to sing and dance.

She made her performance debut at 14 when a traveling Vaudeville act came to town and needed a last minute stand-in. At 20, she went to Hollywood with her mother, and her breakout performance came in the 1933 film "42nd Street." From 1933-1939, she made nine movie-musicals with her famous dance partner Fred Astaire. She was known as a tremendous dancer, actor, and professional.

In 1941, she won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in "Kitty Foyle." Through the 1950's she starred in only a few films, but in 1965, she had success once again playing the lead role in "Hello, Dolly!" on Broadway. She also had the lead role in "Mame" in London's West End.

On May 18, 1995, at the age of 62, Ginger Rogers died of colon cancer in California.


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