1951Nominee
Best Performance
Show Boat
Gower Champion
Actor · Director · Writer
Geneva, Illinois, USA
June 22, 1921
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).
Photo
Representative Works
Awards and Honors
Critical Favorites
1946Nominee
Best Performance
Till the Clouds Roll By
1948Nominee
Best Performance
Words and Music
Career Highlights
1974Highlight
Best Director
The Bank Shot
1955Highlight
Best Performance
Jupiter's Darling
Video
Show Boat
Till the Clouds Roll By
Words and Music