(ANSA) - NEW YORK, OCTOBER 22 - Farewell to Marge Champion, the model behind the movements of the character, among others, of Snow White in the Disney animated film of 1937.
The actress, dancer and choreographer died at the age of 101 in LosAngeles.
In addition to Snow White, Disney also used Mars' moves for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (1940), for the dancing hippo in Fantasia (1940) and for Mr Stork in Dumbo - The Flying Elephant (1941).
Born Marjorie Celeste Belcher on September 2, 1919, the actress was the daughter of the famous Hollywood dance teacher Ernest Belcher, also teacher of Fred Astaire and Shirley Temple as well as a friend of Walt Disney.
This led to the animation team of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs studying the girl's movements in order to transfer them to the main character to make them more realistic on the screen.
Champion, at the time, found herself working with an all-male team.
"None of them were girls," she said in a 1998 interview, "and she knew how a dress would move, this way or that way. Most animators, before that, made the characters themselves.
In 1947 she married dancer and choreographer Gower Champion in 1947 and began dancing in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical films as a Show Boat.
Both were appreciated to the point that the film company wanted them for a remake of Roberta, Models of Luxury, in which they covered the roles that were Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.
In 1943 he made his Broadway debut in The Fair Witch in Dark of the Moon.
The pair also choreographed musicals including Hello, Dolly !, with Carol Channin.
In 1975 he won the Emmy Award for Best Choreography for Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.
His latest works date back to 1968, in Hollywood Party (TheParty) directed by Blake Edwards and A Naked Man (TheSwimmer), directed by Frank Perry.
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