Martha Gutierrez's Life

Famous artists on FRED ASTAIRE

“Fred Astaire is my hero. I love him because he was willing to kill himself to make his art look effortless. And because he proved it’s possible to be an artist and a good person.” -Connie Willis 

“We are, of course, very lucky. His gift, captured in the movies is one we can all share forever. He was, he is, and he always will be our never-ending legend.” -Mikhail Baryshnikov

“He is like Bach. […] Astaire has that same concentration of genius; there is so much of the dance in him that it has been distilled.” -George Balanchine

“When I am asked about influences, I always say I bow down to Fred Astaire, because when you look at him dancing you never look at his extremities, do you? You look at his centre. What you never see is the hours of hard work that went into the routines, you just see the breathtaking spirit and freedom.” –Alan Rickman

“We are, of course, very “Last summer I went to Italy to work on a film and when I arrived in Rome there was a big Fred Astaire festival going on. There were big posters of Fred plastered all over the city. But what impressed me most was an article in one of the leading magazines there, with a picture of Fred on the cover and the titles was “America Que Bela Era” which means how beautiful America was or used to be. And it wanted to say that he personified what was quality and beauty of that era. And I think that we owe Fred a debt of gratitude for the image that he portraits to the world of what this country is good on.” -Hermes Pan (1981)