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After beginning work as a dancer and vaudeville performer at the age of nine, Astaire built a successful performance career with her younger brother, Fred Astaire. The brother and sister act initially worked their way through vaudeville circuits, finally achieving a breakthrough with their first Broadway roles in 1917.
Astaire's older sister Adele was an instinctive dancer and singer early in her childhood. Johanna planned a brother-and-sister act, common in vaudeville at the time, for her two children. Although Fred refused dance lessons at first, he easily mimicked his older sister's steps and learned piano, accordion and clarinet.
Adele Astaire was the older—and lesser-known—sister of the vaudeville and Hollywood legend, Fred Astaire. While she never graced the screen with her elegant and swan-like movements, she did manage to dance her way into Lismore Castle.
Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10, 1899, in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents, Frederic E. and Ann Gelius Austerlitz, enrolled him in dancing school at age four to join his older sister Adele.
Fred, born in 1899, and his sister, Adele, a year his senior, were the children of an Austrian immigrant named Austerlitz who had settled in Omaha, Nebraska.
Astaire, Adele (1898–1981) American dancer and actress. Born Adele Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 10, 1898; died in 1981; daughter of Ann (Geilus) and Frederick E. Austerlitz (a traveling salesman); older sister of Fred Astaire; married Lord Charles Cavendish, in 1932 (died 1944); married Kingman Douglass (a Wall Street ...
Fred Astaire married New York socialite Phyllis Potter in 1933. His mother and sister were against this relationship, yet he vehemently pursued Phyllis for two years before she finally said yes. They had two children, Fred Jr and Ava.
