Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse was born in Amarillo, Texas, United States on March 8th, 1922 and is the Movie Actress. At the age of 86, Cyd Charisse biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, movies, and networth are available.
At 86 years old, Cyd Charisse has this physical status:
Tula Ellice Charisse (née Finklea; March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008), known professionally as Cyd Charisse, was an American dancer and actress. After recovering from polio as a child and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s.
Her roles usually featured her abilities as a dancer, and she was paired with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; her films include Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953), Brigadoon with Gene Kelly and Van Johnson (1954) and Silk Stockings (1957).
She stopped dancing in films in the late 1950s, but continued acting in film and television, and in 1992 made her Broadway debut.
In her later years, she discussed the history of the Hollywood musical in documentaries, and was featured in That's Entertainment! III in 1994.
She was awarded the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities in 2006.
Early life
Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Lela (née Norwood) and Ernest Enos Finklea, Sr., who was a jeweler. Her nickname "Sid" was taken from her older brother Ernest E. Finklea jr., who tried to say "Sis". It was later given the spelling of "Cyd" by Arthur Freed.
She was a sickly girl who started dancing lessons at six to build up her strength after a bout of polio. At 12, she studied ballet in Los Angeles with Adolph Bolm and Bronislava Nijinska, and at 14, she auditioned for and subsequently danced in the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo as "Felia Siderova" and, later, "Maria Istomina". She was educated at the Hollywood Professional School.
During a European tour, she met up again with Nico Charisse, a young dancer she had studied with for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939 and had a son, Nicky, born in 1942.
Personal life
Charisse's first husband, whose surname she kept, was Nico Charisse (March 1906 – April 1970); they were married in 1939 and had a son, Nico "Nicky" Charisse, before divorcing in 1947. In 1948, Charisse married singer Tony Martin, and remained married until her death in 2008. They had a son, Tony Martin, Jr. (1950–2011).
Her daughter-in-law is actress and model Liv Lindeland, who was married to Tony Martin, Jr. until his death in 2011. Sheila Charisse, another daughter-in-law and the wife of Nicky Charisse, who was the son from her first marriage to Nico, died in the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 on May 25, 1979. Charisse, like her husband Tony Martin, Sr., was a staunch Republican and campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and Richard Nixon in 1968. She was the aunt of the actress Nana Visitor.
Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California on June 16, 2008, after suffering an apparent heart attack. She died the following day at age 86. She was a practicing Methodist, but due to her husband's religion she was buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Culver City, California, following a Methodist ceremony.
Career
She appeared in several films like Escort Girl (1941), as well as a short for Warner Bros, The Gay Parisian (1942).
The outbreak of World War II brought the ballet company's dissolution, and when Charisse returned to Los Angeles, David Lichine gave her a performance in Gregory Ratoff's Something to Shout About (1943) at Columbia. She was immediately attracted to choreographer Robert Alton, who had also discovered Gene Kelly, and shortly she joined the Freed Unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she became the resident MGM ballet dancer.
Charisse made some poor appearances in Mission to Moscow (1943) (as a ballet dancer) and Thousands Cheer (1943). In Our Time (1944), Warners' In Our Time (1944), she was loaned to a ballerina.
Charisse was a ballerina in Ziegfeld Follies (born in 1944 and released in 1946), dancing with Fred Astaire. Feedback was positive, and Charisse was given her first speaking role in the 1946 film The Harvey Girls.
In Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), she followed it with Three Wise Fools (1946) and danced with Gower Champion to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946). She appeared in the Esther Williams musical Fiesta (1947).
Charisse was second in The Unfinished Dance (1947), with Margaret O'Brien, but the film was a box office flop. In On an Island with You (1948), she had a good support role, performed in The Kissing Bandit (1948). She appeared in Words and Music (1948), and she was a supporting actor.
Charisse was given another chance in a "B" film, Tension (1950), where she was third billed, but it was a box office disappointment. She was rated fifth on the prestigious East Side, West Side (1949) and was loaned by Universal to play the female lead in The Mark of the Renegade (1951).
MGM Charisse, the leading lady in The Wild North (1951), which was a huge success, is back. Kelly selected Charisse to partner with him in the celebrated "Broadway Melody" ballet finale from Singin' in the Rain (1952), which was acclaimed right away as one of the finest musicals of all time.
Charisse was involved in both Sombrero (1953) and "Girl Hunt Ballet" routines, as well as Astaire's leading female role in The Band Wagon (1953), where she performed with Astaire in the acclaimed "Dancing in the Dark" and "Girl Hunt Ballet" routines. Vincente Minnelli directed the film. "When the befuddled Charisse wraps her magnificent legs around Astaire, she can be forgiven everything," critic Pauline Kael said, even though she reads her lines as if she understood them phonetically." The film was another hit, but MGM lost money.
Charisse appeared in Easy to Love (1953), later co-starring Kelly in the Scottish-themed musical film Brigadoon (1954), directed by Minnelli. It was a box office disappointment. In his MGM musical It's Always Fair Weather (1955), she appeared as the lead female character (alongside Kelly) again. She made an appearance in Deep in My Heart (1954).
Charisse appeared in Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956), which also lost money. She reprised Astaire in the film version of Silk Stockings (1957), a musical revival of 1939's Ninotchka, with Charisse taking over Greta Garbo's role. In his autobiography, Astaire paid tribute to Charisse by saying "that Cyd!" and writing: "Beautiful dynamite." "You'll danced with her the rest of your life." The film was well received but MGM lost money.
Charisse reflected on her time with Astaire and Kelly in her autobiography:
Charisse had a barely significant role in Party Girl (1958), in which she played a showgirl and a crooked prosecutor, although the film did include two dance routines. MGM's radio show was much more profitable for her than her musicals.
She went to Universal to co-star with Rock Hudson in Twilight for the Gods (1958).
Charisse retired from dancing after the demise of the Hollywood musical in the late 1950s, but she continued to appear in film and TV productions from the 1960s to the 1990s. She went to Europe to make Five Golden Hours (1961) and Minnelli's Two Weeks in Another Town.
She appeared in Something's Got to Give (1962), Marilyn Monroe's last, unfinished film. She was assassinated in Rome (1965) in Italy.
Charisse performed a striptease number in the movie's theme song in 1966, The Silencers, a Dean Martin spy spoof, and she appeared as a fashion magazine editor in the 1967 caper film Maroc 7.
With seven appearances on The Hollywood Palace, she also appeared on television variety series such as The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dean Martin Show, she appeared on dance numbers on television variety series such as The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dean Martin Show. Fol-de-Rol first appeared in 1968, which was captured and broadcast in 1972.
Charisse appeared on television programs in the 1970s and 1980s, including Medical Center, Hawaii Five-O, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, Glitter, Murder, She Wrote, and Crazy Like a Fox.
In the 1978 fantasy film Warlords of Atlantis, she appeared in Won Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) and played Atsil, an Atlantean high priestess.
Charisse appeared in the television shows Portrait of an Escort (1980) and Swimsuit (1989).
She also appeared in "I Want to Be Your Property" (1987) and Janet Jackson's "Alright" (1990) music videos.
Charisse was a replacement for Liliane Montevecchi in the Grand Hotel from late 1991. That's Entertainment, 1994, she made her last film appearance. Onscreen narrators of a tribute to the best MGM musical films, III. She appeared in episodes of Burke's Law and Frasier in 1995 before dropping from acting. She made a short and posthumous comeback in the television film Empire State Building Murders, which aired just two months after she died in 2008.