Ginger and Fred Ginger and Fred Ginger and Fred () is a 1986 comedy/drama film directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina. The title is a reference to the American dancing couple Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The two leads portray Italian impersonators of Astaire and Rogers who reunite after thirty years of retirement for a vulgar and bizarre television extravaganza. The film was the subject of a trademark claim in the United States by Ginger Rogers, who claimed in "Rogers v. Grimaldi" that the film violated her Lanham Act trademark rights, right of publicity, and was a "false
Ginger Rogers Rogers also made television acting appearances until 1987. In 1992, Rogers was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors. She died of a heart attack in 1995, at the age of 83. Rogers is associated with the phrase "backwards and in high heels", the title of her memoir, attributed to Bob Thaves' "Frank and Ernest" 1982 cartoon with the caption "Sure he [Astaire] was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did... backwards and in high heels". This phrase is sometimes incorrectly attributed to Ann Richards, who used it in her keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National