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Her ability as a dancer, "so very long legs" and sexy outfits - 'nuf said!
Her ability as a dancer, "so very long legs" and sexy outfits - 'nuf said!
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Revision as of 07:31, 27 June 2022

Cyd Charisse


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Cyd Charisse (✦March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American actress and dancer.

Career

After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s. Her roles usually focused on her abilities as a dancer.

Charisse was principally celebrated for her on-screen pairings with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. She first appeared with Astaire in a brief routine in Ziegfeld Follies (produced in 1944 and released in 1946). Her next appearance with him was as lead female role in The Band Wagon (1953), where she danced with Astaire in the acclaimed Dancing in the Dark and Girl Hunt Ballet routines. Another early role cast her opposite Judy Garland in the 1946 film The Harvey Girls.

As Debbie Reynolds was not a trained dancer, Gene Kelly chose Charisse to partner him in the celebrated "Broadway Melody" ballet finale from Singin' in the Rain (1952), and she co-starred with Kelly in 1954's Scottish-themed musical film Brigadoon. She again took the lead female role alongside Kelly in his penultimate MGM musical It's Always Fair Weather (1956).

In 1957, she rejoined Astaire in the film version of Silk Stockings, a musical remake of 1939's Ninotchka with Charisse taking over Greta Garbo's role. In his autobiography, Astaire paid tribute to Charisse, calling her "beautiful dynamite" and writing: "That Cyd! When you've danced with her you stay danced with."

In her autobiography, Charisse reflected on her experience with Astaire and Kelly

"As one of the handfuls of girls who worked with both of those dance geniuses, I think I can give an honest comparison. In my opinion, Kelly is the more inventive choreographer of the two. Astaire, with Hermes Pan's help, creates fabulous numbers - for himself and his partner. But Kelly can create an entire number for somebody else ... I think, however, that Astaire's coordination is better than Kelly's ... his sense of rhythm is uncanny. Kelly, on the other hand, is the stronger of the two. When he lifts you, he lifts you! ... To sum it up, I'd say they were the two greatest dancing personalities who were ever on screen. But it's like comparing apples and oranges. They're both delicious."

After the decline of the Hollywood musical in the late 1950s, Charisse retired from dancing but continued to appear in film and TV productions from the 1960s through the 1990s. She had a supporting role in "Something's Got to Give" (1962), the last, unfinished film of Marilyn Monroe. She made cameo appearances in Blue Mercedes's I Want to Be Your Property (1987) and Janet Jackson 's Alright (1990) music videos.

Her last film appearance was in 1994 in That's Entertainment! III as one of the on-screen narrators of a tribute to the great MGM musical films.

Gallery

A Personal Note from Robin

Cyd Charisse provided the seeds of many of my early fantasies.

Her ability as a dancer, "so very long legs" and sexy outfits - 'nuf said!

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