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James Cagney, but I'm biased.
shareFred AStaire was the greater dancer, CAgney the greater actor. Astaire would have been totally wrong for the part however, wrong as Cohan and not suited to the Warner Brothers style of musicals.
share Astaire may have been a more skilled dancer, but Cagney's exuberance,
especially in the "Yankee Doodle Dandy" number, is irresistible.
Fred was the better dancer but could anyone have played the part better than Cagney? The role called for someone that could dance and act and Cagney was so much the better actor.
It's sacrilegious (no, really ;)) to even compare the two.
They were TOTALLY different.
In fact, Cagney wasn't a "dancer" proper (which - obviously - doesn't mean that he couldn't dance).
More to the point, Astaire was pure elegance and dance-floor smoothness, while Cagney was - much like Gene Kelly (one of the greatest dancers of all times)- a pure "dynamo".
Perfect answer. Astaire has always been my favorite dancer, but it's just in the last 10-15 years that I've been able to appreciate Kelly for what he is (was), not to compare him with Astaire's perfection of elegance. His style was very different, and this becomes obvious through observation of their body types - Kelly's was much more muscly-athletic.
“No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.”
--- Mikhail Baryshnikov
To answer th OP's post, Astaire by a country mile. But anyone else as George M Cohan is koo-koo talk. Jimmy always said that at heart he was a song and dance man even tho he acheived most of his fame acting and punching out guys bigger than he. It was in his contract not to beat on a smaller men. Check it out.
Hi, Bob.
Cagney
shareFred Astaire was indisputably the better dancer -- Cagney always referred to himself as a "hoofer" and discounted any claim that he was a "better" dancer than Astaire. But equally, Jimmy was indisputably the better actor/"hoofer" for this part. In every way, he was vastly superior to Fred for the role of Cohan. Each man had his performing strengths and limitations -- Cagney couldn't have come close to dancing like Fred in his films with Ginger, any more than Astaire could have gunned down Humphrey Bogart half a dozen times.
shareIts not really a hard one to answer.
Astaire was the greatest dancer that ever lived, and that was a fact that Cagney acknowledged himself many times.
Cagney was a good dancer and joy to watch as either dancer or tough guy, but Astaire was an extraordinary dancer who was first foremost and primaraly a dancer.
In short Astaire was a dancer who could act, Cagney was an actor who could dance.
Astaire was the better dancer; more elegant and graceful. Astaire was also a better interpreter of songs. Many composers wrote songs with Fred Astaire in mind and indeed, Astaire had many top ten hits.
Cagney was far better suited to play the part of Cohan. I've seen the only existing movie starring the real George M. Cohan, and believe me, Cohan was not a great singer or dancer. His singing was nasal speak-sing and his dancing was energetic but not smooth and graceful.
What Cagney did was capture the dynamic energetic genius of Cohan. Cohan may have been a so-so singer and a decent but not great dancer, but he wrote melody and words for his songs, wrote plays, acted in plays, adapted existing plays and managed theaters. he even found time to act in movies and act in a Eugene O'Neill play "Ah Wilderness". It was as if Irving Berlin or Richard Rodgers sang, danced, acted, wrote plays as well as wrote songs.
Cohan must have been a ball of energy. A one man industry. Even though Cohan was not a tough guy like Cagney, he must have sensed that Cagney's kinetic persona would be perfect for a bio-pic.
And it was.
That's a great question! I don't think I can say who was a better dancer. I didn't realize that Cagney took such lengths to immitate Cohan's dance moves till I read it recently. I also didn't realize until recently that he and his first Wife divorced after only a few years. Apparently, their acting egos just couldn't get along. In any case, I absolutley LOVE this movie in every way.
shareNo contest! Fred Astaire was a much better dancer, period.
In the other hand, James Cagney was a much better actor, which IMO is way more important for any "actor".