Jerry Antes, dancer, singer and actor who appeared in Rear Window and worked with Joan Collins

Jerry Antes, who has died aged 91, was a dancer and actor who began his career during the Second World War at Universal Studios and continued to perform for the next seven decades.

Antes’s nimble feet were a regular feature during Hollywood’s Technicolor musical era, though often uncredited – as he was in the role that gave him most exposure, as the dance teacher of Miss Torso (Georgine Darcy), viewed through binoculars by James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). In the 1960s he launched a second career as a singer.

He was born Gerald Irvin Antes on June 2 1927 in Seattle, Washington, and began performing as a child under the tutelage of his father. In 1935 the family moved to California, and he attended the Hollywood Professional School, graduating in 1943.

The following year he successfully auditioned for a place in a dance troupe assembled by Universal Studios to rival MGM’s. He made his screen debut alongside Donald O’Connor and Peggy Ryan in Chip Off the Old Block, followed by Babes on Swing Street.

In 1950 he was signed by CBS as one of four regular dancers on The Alan Young Show, then in 1953, when it came to an end, Antes headed to Las Vegas, supporting Barbara Perry as a dancer in her act at The Flamingo.

There were other uncredited dance roles, for example in The Opposite Sex (1956), which featured Joan Collins as a showgirl, and he also worked as a choreographer, as in the Western A Lawless Street (1955), which co-starred Angela Lansbury as the leader of a show troupe.

In 1957 he had a small-screen spot on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, and by the end of the decade he had joined the Desilu Workshop for aspiring performers, acting in 1959 in The Desilu Playhouse for CBS.

Antes and Rica Owen demonstrate the 'Bunny Hop'  Credit: Bettmann

In the ensuing decade Antes began to focus more on his singing career, appearing in Las Vegas. “Jerry Antes has developed a big voice with both resonance and emotional depth,” one critic wrote.

In 1966 he released an album, Paris Smiles, and its follow-up the following year, Jerry Antes Sings and Sings and Sings and Sings. He also supported Hollywood stars on television, including The Judy Garland Show and The Danny Kaye Show.

During the early 1970s, he was back in Las Vegas, dancing in Debbie Reynolds’s vibrant musical revue at The Desert Inn, and he starred as Billy in a revival of No, No Nanette in Cincinnati. In 1980, he reprised his role in Sacramento.

In the 1980s, Antes took a job as an estate agent, only to be lured back to the stage a decade later after watching The Fabulous Palm Spring Follies, a Ziegfeld-style revue for the more mature performer. “Somebody told me it was an over-50 show and I thought, ‘Isn’t that cute! Community theatre.’ But I had nothing else to do that evening. What I saw floored me.”

Antes performed with the show for more than five years and in 1997, he featured in a documentary about the dance troupe, Still Kicking: The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, which was Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Short.

His career as an estate agent took a back seat as he continued to tread the boards, supporting an array of stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age, including Florence Henderson in The Florida Follies at the Parker Playhouse Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and with Debbie Reynolds in her one-woman show.

“What does it take to be a great performer – talent, magic?” she asked at the time. “Whatever it is, Jerry Antes has it.”

Jerry Antes was married in the late 1950s and divorced in the early 1970s. He is survived by a daughter and two sons.

Jerry Antes, born June 2 1927, died February 8 2019     

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