Editing Fred Astaire (section)

===1957–1981: Television specials, serious roles ===
[[File:Fred Astaire 1962.JPG|thumb|Astaire in 1962]]
Astaire did not retire from dancing altogether. He made a series of four highly rated [[Emmy Award]]-winning musical specials for television in 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1968. Each featured [[Barrie Chase]], with whom Astaire enjoyed a renewed period of dance creativity. The first of these programs, 1958's ''[[An Evening with Fred Astaire]]'', won nine Emmy Awards, including "Best Single Performance by an Actor" and "Most Outstanding Single Program of the Year". It was also noteworthy for being the first major broadcast to be prerecorded on color videotape. Astaire won the Emmy for Best Single Performance by an Actor. The choice had a controversial backlash because many believed his dancing in the special was not the type of "acting" for which the award was designed. At one point, Astaire offered to return the award, but the Television Academy refused to consider it. A restoration of the program won a technical Emmy in 1988 for Ed Reitan, Don Kent, and Dan Einstein. They restored the original videotape, transferring its contents to a modern format and filling in gaps where the tape had deteriorated with [[kinescope]] footage.<ref>"Emmys" by Thomas O'Neil; Perigee Trade; 3 edition 2000; pp. 61–62</ref>

Astaire played Julian Osborne, a non-dancing character, in the nuclear war drama ''[[On the Beach (1959 film)|On the Beach]]'' (1959). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor award for his performance, losing to [[Stephen Boyd]] in ''[[Ben-Hur (1959 film)|Ben-Hur]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-10-05 |title=The 32nd Academy Awards {{!}} 1960 |url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1960 |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=www.oscars.org |language=en}}</ref> Astaire appeared in non-dancing roles in three other films and several television series from 1957 to 1969.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-03-06 |title=Biography Of Mr. Fred Astaire - Fred Astaire |url=https://www.fredastaire.com/mr-fred-astaire/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Astaire also wrote his own autobiography, titled ''Steps in Time'', which he published in 1959.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/stepsintime0000asta/page/n5/mode/1up | title=Steps in time | date=January 5, 2024 | publisher=New York, Harper }}</ref>

Astaire's last major musical film was ''[[Finian's Rainbow (1968 film)|Finian's Rainbow]]'' (1968), directed by [[Francis Ford Coppola]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-08 |title=The final time Fred Astaire danced on screen |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/final-time-fred-astaire-danced-on-screen/ |access-date=2025-01-24 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref> Astaire shed his white tie and tails to play an Irish rogue who believes that if he buries a crock of gold in the shadows of [[United States Bullion Depository|Fort Knox]] the gold will multiply. Astaire's dance partner was [[Petula Clark]], who played his character's skeptical daughter. He described himself as nervous about singing with her, while she said she was worried about dancing with him.<ref>''Finian's Rainbow'' Original Soundtrack CD liner notes</ref> The film was a modest success both at the box office and among critics.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Finian's Rainbow, Box Office Information |url=https://www.worldwideboxoffice.com/movie.cgi?title=Finian%27s%20Rainbow&year=1968 |access-date=2025-01-24 |website=catalog.afi.com}}</ref>

Astaire continued to act in the 1970s. He appeared on television as the father of [[Robert Wagner]]'s character, Alexander Mundy, in ''[[It Takes a Thief (1968 TV series)|It Takes a Thief]]''. In the movie ''[[The Towering Inferno]]'' (1974), he danced with [[Jennifer Jones]] and received his only [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] nomination, in the category of [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]]. He voiced the mailman narrator S.D Kluger in the 1970s Rankin/Bass animated television specials ''[[Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (TV special)|Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town]]'' and ''[[The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town]]''. Astaire also appeared in the first two ''[[That's Entertainment!]]'' documentaries, in the mid-1970s. In the second compilation, aged seventy-six, he performed brief dance linking sequences with Kelly, his last dance performances in a musical film. In the summer of 1975, he made three albums in London, ''Attitude Dancing'', ''[[They Can't Take These Away from Me]]'', and ''[[A Couple of Song and Dance Men]]'', the last an album of duets with Bing Crosby. In 1976, Astaire played a supporting role, as a dog owner, in the cult movie ''[[The Amazing Dobermans]]'', co-starring [[Barbara Eden]] and [[James Franciscus]], and played Dr. Seamus Scully in the French film ''[[The Purple Taxi]]'' (1977).{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}

In 1978, he co-starred with [[Helen Hayes]] in a well received television film ''[[A Family Upside Down]]'' in which they played an elderly couple coping with failing health. Astaire won an Emmy Award for his performance. He made a well publicized guest appearance on the [[Science fiction|science-fiction]] television series ''[[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' in 1979, as Chameleon, the possible father of [[Lieutenant Starbuck|Starbuck]], in "The Man with Nine Lives", a role written for him by [[Donald P. Bellisario]]. Astaire asked his agent to obtain a role for him on ''Galactica'' because of his grandchildren's interest in the series and the producers were delighted at the opportunity to create an entire episode to feature him. This episode marked the final time that he danced on screen, in this case with [[Anne Jeffreys]]. He acted in nine different roles in ''[[The Man in the Santa Claus Suit]]'' in 1979. His final film was [[Ghost Story (1981 film)|the 1981 adaptation]] of [[Peter Straub]]'s novel ''[[Ghost Story (Straub novel)|Ghost Story]]''. This horror film was also the last for two of his most prominent castmates, [[Melvyn Douglas]] and [[Douglas Fairbanks Jr.]]{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}