Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer, and singer. She is known for her starring role in "Kitty Foyle" (1940), but is best remembered for performing in RKO's musical films (partnered with Fred Astaire) on stage, radio and television, throughout much of the 20th century. Born in Independence, Missouri, and raised in Kansas City, Rogers and her family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, when she was nine years old. After winning a 1925 Charleston dance contest that launched a successful vaudeville career, she gained recognition as a
Charley Foy stage through the 1920s, eventually disbanding when Eddie Foy Jr. went out on his own as a single act in 1929. Foy, along with three of his younger siblings, Madeline, Mary, and Irving, continued to perform as an act in Vaudeville through the mid-1930s, billed as "The Foy Family: Real Chips Off the Old Block", in which Charley Foy was given top billing. At one point in the mid-1920s, Foy attempted to give Ginger Rogers, then an unknown dancer by the name of Ginger McMath, an opportunity on stage during a performance in Fort Worth, Texas. However the venue manager