FOSSE, BOB

born June 23, 1927, Chicago, Ill., U.S. died Sept. 23, 1987, Washington, D.C. byname of Robert Louis Fosse American theatre and motion-picture choreographer and director of musical plays. The son of a vaudevillian, Fosse attended dance schools as a child and began dancing professionally at the age of 13. A chorus dancer in national tours and Broadway musicals between 1947 and 1953, he signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the latter year and danced and sang in three film musicals, including Kiss Me Kate. He returned the next year to Broadway, where he won his first Tony award for choreographing The Pajama Game (1954), becoming noted then and later for his clever, angular groupings of dancers and fresh, stylistically exaggerated staging. He then arranged the dances for several Broadway shows, winning Tony awards for Damn Yankees (1955), Redhead (1959), Little Me (1963), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), and Dancin' (1978). Fosse choreographed and directed the successful motion-picture musicals Cabaret (1972) and All That Jazz (1979). He also directed the nonmusical films Lenny (1974), based on the life of comedian Lenny Bruce, and Star 80 (1983).