Marge Champion

Biography

An American dancer and actress, Marge Champion was one half of the "Gower and Marge Champion" dance team. She began dancing as a child under the instruction of her father, Ernest Belcher, who was a noted Hollywood ballet coach. As a teen, she served as the model for the heroine of Disney's feature-length cartoon Snow White and for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio, and appeared in westerns under the name "Marjorie Bell." She teamed up with actor/choreographer Gower Champion in 1945; they were married in 1947. They went on to appear together in a string of highly popular musical films in the '50s, becoming the screen's most appealing dance team since Astaire and Rogers. After the team quit making films, she went on to be a character actress in a number of movies; also, she created dances for films (The Day of the Locust, etc.), the stage (Stepping Out, Grover's Corners), and TV. Marge Champion's work as the choreographer for the TV special Queen of the Stardust Ballroom earned her an Emmy in 1975. She and Gower Champion were divorced in 1973, and she married director Boris Sagal, who died as the result of a helicopter accident in 1981. ~ All Movie Guide