A distant cousin of Lucille Ball, according to Lucie Arnaz.
A keen artist, Ginger did many paintings, sculptures and sketches in her free time but could never bring herself to sell any of them.
Always the outdoor sporty type, she was a near-champion tennis player, a topline shot and loved going fishing.
Author Graham Greene always said he would have liked Ginger to play the role of Aunt Augusta in the film version of his novel "Travels With My Aunt". When the film Travels with My Aunt (1972) was made in 1972 the role was played by Maggie Smith.
Brought her first cousin Helen Nichols to Hollywood, renamed her Phyllis Fraser, and guided her through a few films. Phyllis Fraser married and then became known as Phyllis Cerf.
Daughter of Lela E. Rogers
Despite being married 5 times, all of her marriages ended under a decade. Her longest marriage was her last, to William Marsh, which lasted 8 years.
Directed her first stage musical, "Babes In Arms", at age 74.
During the last years of her life she retired in Oregon and bought a ranch in the Medford area because she liked the climate. She donated money to the community and funded the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in downtown Medford, which was named after her.
First cousin, once removed, of Christopher Cerf and Jonathan Cerf.
For the "Cheek to Cheek" number in Top Hat (1935), she wanted to wear an elaborate blue dress heavily decked out with ostrich feathers. When director Mark Sandrich and Fred Astaire saw the dress, they knew it would be impractical for the dance. Sandrich suggested that Rogers wear the white gown she had worn performing "Night and Day" in The Gay Divorcee (1934). Rogers walked off the set, finally returning when Sandrich agreed to let her wear the offending blue dress. As there was no time for rehearsals, she wore the blue feathered dress for the first time during filming of the "Cheek to Cheek" number, and as Astaire and Sandrich had feared, feathers started coming off the dress. Astaire later claimed it was like "a chicken being attacked by a coyote". In the final film, some stray feathers can be seen drifting off it. To patch up the rift between them, Astaire presented Rogers with a locket of a gold feather. This was the origin of Rogers' nickname "Feathers". The shedding feathers episode was recreated to hilarious results in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Astaire da
Has a street named after her in Rancho Mirage, California, her final winter home. Ginger Rogers Road is located in the Mission Hills Golf Course. It crosses Bob Hope Drive, between Gerald Ford Drive and Dinah Shore Drive and 2 blocks from Frank Sinatra Drive.
Her first teaming with Fred Astaire, Flying Down to Rio (1933), was her 20th film appearance but only Astaire's second.
Her great-great-grandfather was a doctor who discovered quinine, the cure for malaria.
Her tied-to-the-hip relationship with her mother, Lela E. Rogers, proved eternal. They're buried side by side at Oakwood Memorial Park. The grave of Ginger's screen partner, Fred Astaire, is just yards away.
In a 1991 TV interview when asked why the Fred Astaire / Rogers union wasn't known as "Ginger & Fred" rather than "Fred & Ginger" (as Ginger had been in films longer), she replied, "It's a man's world".
In Italy, most of her films were dubbed by either Lidia Simoneschi or Wanda Tettoni. She was occasionally dubbed by Andreina Pagnani; Dhia Cristiani; Rosetta Calavetta and Giovanna Scotto.
Inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians in 2009.
Interred at Oakwood Memorial Park, Chatsworth, California, USA, the same cemetery as long-time dancing/acting partner Fred Astaire is located.
Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"