Bob Fosse - Personal Life and Death

Personal Life and Death

Fosse was first married in 1949 to dance partner Mary Ann Niles. The marriage lasted until 1951. Fosse's second marriage was to dancer Joan McCracken (December 1952-59). His third wife was dancer/actress Gwen Verdon in 1960; they had a daughter, Nicole Providence Fosse, who is an actress and dancer. He separated from Verdon in the 1970s, but they remained legally married until his death. Verdon never remarried. During rehearsals for The Conquering Hero in 1961, it became known that Fosse had epilepsy, when he suffered a seizure on the stage.

On September 23, 1987, Bob Fosse died from a heart attack at George Washington University Hospital. He died as the revival of Sweet Charity was opening at the nearby National Theatre. Fosse was cremated. In late September, his wife and daughter took his ashes to Quogue, New York, where Fosse had been openly living with his girlfriend of four years, and scattered his ashes in the Atlantic Ocean.

His first wife, and former dance partner, Mary Ann Niles, died one month later from lung cancer, aged 64.