Marge Champion

Personal

Vocation

Lifestyle

Notable

Family

American dancer, ballet and ballroom, started at age five by her dad, a Hollywood dance instructor. By the time she was 15 she herself was teaching and had decided on a dance career. She made a brief first marriage before meeting and falling in love with Gower Champion. They married in 1947 for 25 productive years together as the premier dance team of their day. They appeared in night clubs and theaters, on TV, and such MGM moves as "Mr. Music," 1950, "Show Boat," 1951 and "Three For the Show," 1955. They gave their last performance together in 1960 in "Sabrina Fair" in summer stock. The following year they both went into directing. Her debut was outstanding, with her production, "Bye Bye Birdie." Her stage career began to wane in the late '60s and she made only one film, "The Swimmer." Marge was teaching ballet in Watts at the Majundi Institute as a public service when they separated in 1971. The following year she became involved with the church for the first time since her early youth, and she danced for the Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, California in an effort to rekindle public interest in the church. Marge lived with their two boys in Beverly Hills. She moved into choreographing films, and in 1976 she won an Emmy for choreographing the TV special "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom." She kept in great shape as she aged, still active in a jazz class. Champion married three times and divorced twice. Her ex-husband, Gower, died on 25 August 1980. Just months later, her third husband, Boris Sagal, was killed by walking into the tail rotor of a helicopter, on 22 May 1981. Her son, Blake, was killed in a car accident in 1987. Link to Wikipedia biography