Gwen Verdon won four Tony Awards for her roles in Can-Can, Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, and Redhead. She was the muse and married to director-choreographer Bob Fosse, and as the guardian of his legacy after his death.

As a toddler, she suffered from rickets, which left her legs so badly misshapen and spent her early years in orthopedic boots and rigid leg braces. At age three, her mother enrolled her in dance classes. Further ballet training strengthened her legs. By age six, she was dancing on stage.

At age 11, she appeared as a solo ballerina in the musical romance film The King Steps Out (1936), While in high school, she was cast in a revival of Show Boat. In 1945, she appeared as a dancer in the movie musical Blonde From Brooklyn.

Verdon was the assistant to choreographer Jack Cole, whose work was respected by both Broadway and Hollywood.

Verdon took small roles in movie musicals as a “specialty dancer”. She also taught dance to stars such as Jane Russell, Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe.

Verdon started out on Broadway going from one chorus line to another. Her break was as the second female lead in Cole Porter’s musical Can-Can (1953), as Eve in the Garden of Eden ballet she upstaged the show’s starand stopped the show. She received her first Tony Award for her performance.

Next came Damn Yankees, Verdon won another Tony and went to Hollywood to repeat her role in the 1958 movie version. It is her she met Bob Fosse who partnered with her in the original mambo duet “Who’s Got the Pain”.

Verdon won another Tony for her performance in the musical New Girl in Town

and her fourth Tony for Redhead, which was Fosse’s Broadway debut as a director/choreographer. In 1960, Fosse and Verdon wed.

In 1966, Verdon returned to the stage in the role of Charity in Sweet Charity, choreographed and directed by husband Fosse. Shirley MacLaine was Charity, but Fosse made his film debut as director and choreographer.

Verdon helped with the choreography. Verdon also traveled to Berlin to help Fosse with Cabaret, the musical film for which he won an Oscar for Best Director.

Estranged as a couple, Verdon and Fosse continued to collaborate on projects such as Chicago (1975) and the musical Dancin’ (1978), as well as Fosse’s autobiographical movie All That Jazz (1979).

After Chicago, Verdon focused on film in movies such as The Cotton Club(1984), Cocoon (1985) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). She continued to teach dance and musical theater and to act. She received three Emmy Award nominations for appearances on Magnum, P.I. (1988), Dream On (1993) and Homicide: Life on the Street (1993). Verdon appeared as the title character’s mother in the Woody Allen movie Alice(1990) and as Ruth in Marvin’s Room (1996).

Verdon served as artistic consultant on a Broadway musical Fosse. Verdon’s daughter Nicole received a “special thanks” credit. The show won a Tony Award for Best Musical.

In 1997 Verdon appeared in an episode of Walker Texas Ranger she reprised the role in 1999. Walking Across Egypt (1999) and  Bruno, released in 2000.

Verdon was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981. In 1998, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Verdon was a mental health-care advocate and taught dance as a form of therapy, she sat on the board of directors for the New York Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, and actively raised funds to support mental health-care research.

Verdon died from a heart attack on October 18, 2000, at age 75, at her daughter’s home in Woodstock, Vermont. Later that night, at 8 pm, all marquee lights on Broadway were dimmed in a tribute to Verdon’s talent and contribution to the American Musical Theatre.