(Credit: ABC Television)
There isn’t an actor in Hollywood history to have been as intrinsically linked to the showstopping musical as Fred Astaire, who became synonymous with the art form through a string of classics spanning decades.
His regular collaborations with equally iconic partner Ginger Rogers may have been the most famous – with the duo partnering up for no less than ten productions, including Top Hat, Swing Time, and Shall We Dance – but Astaire’s dedication to the song-and-dance format extended far beyond his most notable co-star. Time catches up to everyone eventually, though, with Astaire gradually fading out of the genre.
Even though his last feature-length musical – excluding the 1974 compilation film That’s Entertainment! and its sequel – came in Francis Ford Coppola’s two-time Academy Award-nominated Finian’s Rainbow in 1968, Astaire’s last on-screen dancing performance came in the most unexpected of places a decade later.
It may have only lasted for a single 24-episode season between 1978 and 1979, but Glen A. Larson’s original Battlestar Galactica nonetheless became an enduring cult favourite of small-screen sci-fi, with the reboot launched in 2004 reinventing the pulpy premise into something altogether grittier and finding itself regarded as one of the greatest TV shows of the 21st Century as a result.
In the episode ‘The Man with Nine Lives’, Astaire guest-starred as Captain Dimitri, a conman now operating under the alias of Chameleon. In an effort to evade his captors and seek safe passage onto the titular ship, the wily old schemer tries to convince Dirk Benedict’s Starbuck that he’s actually his long lost father, manipulating the emotions of his “son” to achieve his own goals.
Astaire’s grandchildren were huge fans of the show, which led to the veteran reaching out to producer Donald P. Bellisario to see if he could wrangle himself a guest spot. Understandably, Bellisario was more than happy to acquiesce, reportedly replying enthusiastically: “Mr. Astaire, I will write a two-hour episode around you!”
The episode didn’t end up running for two hours, although Astaire was inevitably asked if he’d be interested in dancing given his reputation. It was said that he wasn’t entirely sold on the idea at first but eventually relented to be captured on camera dancing for the last time, giving Anne Jeffries the distinction of being his final on-screen partner after her character and love interest Siress Blassie shares the screen with Astaire’s Chameleon.
Having won three Primetime Emmys, two Golden Globes, a Grammy, a Bafta, and an Honorary Academy Award for his contributions to the musical genre, Astaire’s last-ever dance number coming in an episode of Battlestar Galactica remains one of the most fascinating facts of a career that spanned three-quarters of a century and saw him lend his name to some of the most popular films that have ever been made.
