Cyd Charisse, dead at 87
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:08 am
A very sad day for classic movie fans. Legendary MGM star Cyd Charisse has passed away after suffering a heart attack at home. She was 87.
Ms Charisse, one of the MGM studio's most popular female musical stars, appeared in such classics as The Band Wagon, Silk Stockings, Singin' in the Rain, Brigadoon and Black Tights. Regarded by many as quite possibly the most talented all-round female dancer to have been employed during the glory days of the MGM musicals, Ms Charisse got to dance with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; and later reinvented herself as a Broadway star.
Despite her exotic screen name, Cyd was born Tula Ellice Finklea in 1921; she started dancing as a way to help combat the symptoms of childhood polio. At the age of 14, Cyd left her small Texas town and set forth for extensive dance training in Los Angeles; shortly thereafter she was hired as a corps dancer for the Ballet Ruse. Following marriage to former dance teacher Nico Charisse, she made her way to Hollywood and landed her film debut in 1943's Something to Shout About. It wasn't until producer Arthur Freed spotted the leggy dancer that she received her first big gig, with a lovely supporting role in the 1946 Judy Garland musical The Harvey Girls. That same year, she danced a specialty in Freed's star-studded Ziegfeld Follies. She was offered the Leslie Caron role in 1951's An American in Paris, but decided to take time out to establish a family with second husband, popular singer Tony Martin.
Cyd made her most important film appearance to date in 1952's Singin' in the Rain, dancing the "Broadway Rhythm" ballet pas de deux with Gene Kelly. She made an even bigger splash a year later, co-starring with Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon; and showcased in the film's two key musical sequences ("Dancing in the Dark" and "The Girl Hunt Ballet"). Despite being clunkily filmed on sound-stages instead of Scotland's heathered hills, the 1954 screen version of Brigadoon, co-starring Gene Kelly, was enlivened by the duo's shimmering dance numbers. In 1957, Cyd played icy Russian communist Ninotchka in a screen version of Cole Porter's Broadway hit Silk Stockings, again with Fred Astaire.
By the end of the decade, the era of the MGM movie musicals had ground to a halt. Cyd instead moved her star wattage to the Las Vegas nightclub scene, where she wowed fans with a floorshow which also starred husband Tony Martin. Cyd still made the occasional return to Hollywood, and with a singing voice supplied by Vikki Carr, she once again dazzled in the Dean Martin spy spoof The Silencers (1966).
In 1991 she made her Broadway debut replacing Liliane Montevecchi as the lovelorn ballerina, Grushinskaya, in the musical version of Grand Hotel (co-incidentally, her second musicalisation of a Greta Garbo role following Silk Stockings). Fans were finally able to hear Charisse sing in her own voice--for all of her MGM musical roles her singing had been dubbed, most notably by Carole Richards and India Adams.
Charisse is now immortalised by her magical musical film roles; fans will be most saddened by her passing. She was truly a class act.
Ms Charisse, one of the MGM studio's most popular female musical stars, appeared in such classics as The Band Wagon, Silk Stockings, Singin' in the Rain, Brigadoon and Black Tights. Regarded by many as quite possibly the most talented all-round female dancer to have been employed during the glory days of the MGM musicals, Ms Charisse got to dance with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; and later reinvented herself as a Broadway star.
Despite her exotic screen name, Cyd was born Tula Ellice Finklea in 1921; she started dancing as a way to help combat the symptoms of childhood polio. At the age of 14, Cyd left her small Texas town and set forth for extensive dance training in Los Angeles; shortly thereafter she was hired as a corps dancer for the Ballet Ruse. Following marriage to former dance teacher Nico Charisse, she made her way to Hollywood and landed her film debut in 1943's Something to Shout About. It wasn't until producer Arthur Freed spotted the leggy dancer that she received her first big gig, with a lovely supporting role in the 1946 Judy Garland musical The Harvey Girls. That same year, she danced a specialty in Freed's star-studded Ziegfeld Follies. She was offered the Leslie Caron role in 1951's An American in Paris, but decided to take time out to establish a family with second husband, popular singer Tony Martin.
Cyd made her most important film appearance to date in 1952's Singin' in the Rain, dancing the "Broadway Rhythm" ballet pas de deux with Gene Kelly. She made an even bigger splash a year later, co-starring with Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon; and showcased in the film's two key musical sequences ("Dancing in the Dark" and "The Girl Hunt Ballet"). Despite being clunkily filmed on sound-stages instead of Scotland's heathered hills, the 1954 screen version of Brigadoon, co-starring Gene Kelly, was enlivened by the duo's shimmering dance numbers. In 1957, Cyd played icy Russian communist Ninotchka in a screen version of Cole Porter's Broadway hit Silk Stockings, again with Fred Astaire.
By the end of the decade, the era of the MGM movie musicals had ground to a halt. Cyd instead moved her star wattage to the Las Vegas nightclub scene, where she wowed fans with a floorshow which also starred husband Tony Martin. Cyd still made the occasional return to Hollywood, and with a singing voice supplied by Vikki Carr, she once again dazzled in the Dean Martin spy spoof The Silencers (1966).
In 1991 she made her Broadway debut replacing Liliane Montevecchi as the lovelorn ballerina, Grushinskaya, in the musical version of Grand Hotel (co-incidentally, her second musicalisation of a Greta Garbo role following Silk Stockings). Fans were finally able to hear Charisse sing in her own voice--for all of her MGM musical roles her singing had been dubbed, most notably by Carole Richards and India Adams.
Charisse is now immortalised by her magical musical film roles; fans will be most saddened by her passing. She was truly a class act.
