
Person
Gower Champion
Acting · 1921–1980 · Geneva, Illinois, USA
Biography
Gower Carlyle Champion (June 22, 1919 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer. Champion was born on June 22, 1919, in Geneva, Illinois, as the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School. He studied dance from an early age and, at the age of fifteen, toured nightclubs with friend Jeanne Tyler billed as "Gower and Jeanne, America's Youngest Dance Team". In 1939, "Gower and Jeanne" danced to the music of Larry Clinton and his Orchestra in a Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film short-subject, "The Dipsy Doodler" (released in 1940).
Known for

Tony Awards
Self - Presenter

The Merv Griffin Show
Self

What's My Line?
Self

The Ed Sullivan Show
Self

The Bell Telephone Hour
Self

Startime
Director
The Dow Hour of Great Mysteries
Director

That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)

Till the Clouds Roll By
Dance Specialty

Show Boat
Frank Schultz
Filmography
- 201942nd StreetChoreographer
- 200642nd Street: From Book to Screen to StageSelf (archive footage)
- 198642nd StreetChoreographer
- 1976That's Entertainment, Part II(archive footage)
- 1974The Bank ShotDirector
- 1963My Six LovesDirector
- 1962The Merv Griffin ShowSelf
- 1960The Dow Hour of Great MysteriesDirector
- 1959StartimeDirector
- 1959Forty-five Minutes from BroadwayDirector
- 1959The Bell Telephone HourSelf
- 1958The All-Star Christmas ShowSelf
- 1958The Girl Most LikelyChoreographer
- 1956What Day Is It?Conroy Gregory
- 1956Tony AwardsSelf - Presenter
- 1956Once Upon a HoneymoonDirector
- 1955Three for the ShowVernon Lowndes
- 1955Jupiter's DarlingVarius
- 1953Give a Girl a BreakTed Sturgis
- 1952Everything I Have Is YoursChuck Hubbard
- 1952Lovely to Look AtJerry Ralby
- 1951Show BoatFrank Schultz
- 1950Mr. MusicGower Champion
- 1950What's My Line?Self
- 1949The Admiral Broadway Revue
- 1948Words and MusicSpecialty Dancer (uncredited)
- 1948The Ed Sullivan ShowSelf
- 1946Till the Clouds Roll ByDance Specialty
- 1945Rhapsody in BlueTap Dancer at Remick's (uncredited)
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