Marjorie Celeste Belcher
10 min read
Reading time
1,921
Words
Published
30
Film credits
3
Awards
Marge Champion, born Marjorie Celeste Belcher, began as a dance model for Disney, serving as the live-action reference for Snow White and the Blue Fairy. She formed a dance team with husband Gower Champion in MGM musicals including Show Boat 1951. She later choreographed on Broadway and television, and received the Disney Legends Award in 2007. She lived to age 101.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Marge Champion — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Marge Champion by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Marge Champion — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
In 1930, at age 11, Marge Champion made her debut at the Hollywood Bowl in the ballet Carnival in Venice. Her father, Ernest Belcher, was a prominent Hollywood dance director who taught Shirley Temple, Betty Grable, and Cyd Charisse. Marge studied exclusively with her father from age five until leaving for New York. She graduated from Hollywood High School in 1936, singing in the Senior Glee Club.
Marge Champion’s career began at age 14 when she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios, providing live-action reference for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937, the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio 1940, and Hyacinth Hippo in Fantasia 1940. She married Disney animator Art Babbitt in 1937; they divorced three years later. After marrying dancer Gower Champion in 1947, they formed a dance team, performing in MGM musicals including Till the Clouds Roll By 1946, Show Boat 1951, and Give a Girl a Break 1953. The couple refused to remake Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films, preferring original projects. In the 1970s, she turned to choreography, winning an Emmy for Queen of the Stardust Ballroom and serving as movement coach for the miniseries The Awakening Land 1978.
Marge Champion married three times: first to Disney animator Art Babbitt from 1937 to 1941, then to dancer Gower Champion from 1947 to 1973, and finally to director Boris Sagal from 1977 until his death in 1981. With Gower Champion she had two sons, Gregg and Blake. With Sagal she became stepmother to his children, including actress Katey Sagal. Marge was also the half-sister of actress Lina Basquette.
Marge Champion’s contributions to Disney animation as the physical model for Snow White, the Blue Fairy, and Hyacinth Hippo remain a key part of her legacy. Her dance partnership with Gower Champion is remembered as a standout husband-wife team in Hollywood. She received the Disney Legends Award in 2007 and was inducted into the National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame in 2009. She continued teaching and choreographing in later years. Her ashes were scattered at sea.
The complete filmography of Marge Champion — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Marge Champion — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Marge Champion — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
In Those Days – It Seems Impossible Now – Nice Girls Didn’t Go to Bed with People Before They Were Married. I Had Been Brought up by My British Father. You Just Didn’t Do That. You Did Not Sleep with Them or Live with Them.
Little-known facts about Marge Champion — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Through her marriage to Boris Sagal, Marge became stepmother to Katey Sagal, Joey Sagal, Jean Sagal, and Liz Sagal.
Marge was filmed as a reference model for Disney animators, supervised by her then-husband Art Babbitt, for Snow White, the Blue Fairy, and Hyacinth Hippo. She also helped choreograph the Hyacinth Hippo sequence and recalled modeling for Mr. Stork in Dumbo 1941. The Snow White sequence was later reused for Maid Marian in Robin Hood 1973.
Her remains were cremated and her ashes scattered at sea.
With Gower Champion, Marge had two sons: Gregg Champion and Blake Champion.
Her father, Ernest Belcher, was a Hollywood dance director who taught Shirley Temple, Betty Grable, Ramon Novarro, Cyd Charisse, Fay Wray, Joan Crawford, and her future husband Gower Champion.
Marge was the daughter of Ernest Belcher.
She was the younger half-sister of Lina Basquette.
Marge credited her good health and long career to her father’s teaching principles: careful progression, alignment, precise placement, attention to detail, and focus on dynamics and phrasing.
She was hired by The Walt Disney Studio as a dance model for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937, even modeling while wrapped in a baggy overcoat for the Silly Song dance.
Champion married Art Babbitt, an animator and creator of Goofy, in 1937; they divorced three years later.
During the summer of 1957, the Champions had their own TV series, The Marge and Gower Champion Show, a sitcom with song and dance numbers featuring drummer Buddy Rich.
She married dancer Gower Champion in 1947. Together they performed in MGM musicals of the 1940s and 50s, including Till the Clouds Roll By 1946, Show Boat 1951, Everything I Have Is Yours 1952, Mr. Music 1950, Give a Girl a Break 1953, Jupiter’s Darling 1955, Three for the Show 1955, and Lovely to Look At 1952.
Marge appeared on Broadway in a limited-run revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies as the wife of a song-and-dance team.
Lina Basquette claimed to have chosen the name Marjorie for her half-sister after the song Margie by Con Conrad and J. Russel Robinson.
Marge was ex-sister-in-law of John C. Champion.
In 2013, Champion received The Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award at the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards.
By age twelve, she became a ballet instructor at her father’s studio.
Champion choreographed Whose Life Is It Anyway?, The Day of the Locust, and Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, for which she received an Emmy Award.
She was sister-in-law of Daniil Sagal.
She was honored with the Disney Legends Award in 2007. Two years later, she was inducted into the National Museum of Dance’s Hall of Fame.
In the 1970s, Champion, actress Marilee Zdenek, and choreographer John West created creative worship services at Bel Aire Presbyterian Church, later co-authoring two books: Catch the New Wind and God Is a Verb.
In 1930, she made her debut at the Hollywood Bowl at age 11 in the ballet Carnival in Venice.
Belcher modeled for characters in animated films: Blue Fairy in Pinocchio 1940 and Hyacinth Hippo in Fantasia’s Dance of the Hours, which she also helped choreograph. She also modeled for Mr. Stork in Dumbo.
She sang in the Hollywood High School Girls’ Senior Glee Club and graduated in 1936.
Marjorie began dancing at an early age, studying with her father from age five until she left for New York.
Champion appeared in several Broadway stage musicals: What’s Up 1943, Dark of the Moon 1945 as the Fair Witch, Beggar’s Holiday 1946, and 3 for Tonight 1955.
At fourteen, she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios animated films. Later, she performed as an actress and dancer in film musicals and had a television show in 1957.
She did creative choreography for liturgy and served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries The Awakening Land.
Marge played Tina in the Hollywood High School operetta The Red Mill.
Her first dance partner was Louis Hightower.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Marge Champion.
Celebrities similar to Marge Champion — same craft, ranked by reach.
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🌍 Hong Kong
🇺🇸 United States
