Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Marge Champion

Actress/dancer

Born - 2 September 1919, Los Angeles, California, USA
Died - 21 October 2020

Personable, apple-cheeked, fair-haired American dancer with lovely legs and winning smile - not unlike another musical star, Vera-Ellen, in looks - who briefly hit the big-time in MGM musicals of the 1950s with then-husband Gower. During her first marriage to animator Art Babbitt, she was the model for several Disney characters, including Snow White, and the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio. Married to Gower (he died from a rare blood cancer at 59), from 1947, Marge turned her attentions to choreography after their 1971 divorce, winning an Emmy for her work on the 1974 TV movie Queen of the Stardust Ballroom. Her third husband, director Boris Sagal, was killed in a helicopter accident. Born Marjorie Belcher, and initially billed as Marjorie Bell, she was in movies as a teenager: The Singing Outlaw (1937), Courage of the West (1937), Delinquent Parents (1938), Honor of the West (1938), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), All Women Have Secrets (1939), What a Life (1939) and a voice in Pinocchio (1940). After Broadway dancing success with Gower, they were seen in Mr Music (1950), Show Boat (1951), Lovely to Look At (1952), Everything I Have is Yours (1952), Give a Girl a Break (1953), Three for the Show (1954) and Jupiter's Darling (1955). As a character actress, she made later appearances in The Swimmer (1967), The Party (1968) and A Woman for Charlie (1969), subsequently participating in the documentaries Sing Your Song (2011), Never Stand Still (2012), Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2018) and Move (2020), her last. Half-sister of child actress and silent star Lina Basquette (Lena Baskette, 1907-1994). The director Gregg Champion is Marge's son.