Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse Facts
| Sign | Pisces |
| Born |
Mar 8, 1922 Amarillo, TX |
| Died |
Jun 17, 2008 Los Angeles, CA |
| Age | Died at 86 |
| Total Facts | 36 |
Fred Astaire, in his 1959 memoir "Steps in Time," referred to Cyd as "beautiful dynamite".
Although one of the greatest female dancers in the history of the movie musical, her singing in films was almost always dubbed, most notably by Carol Richards in Brigadoon (1954) and a young Vikki Carr in The Silencers (1966).
Although she is interred in a niche at Hillside Memorial Park, a well-known Jewish cemetery in Los Angeles, Charrise was in fact a practicing Methodist. Her funeral was even presided by Dr. Gary Allen Dicky, pastor of the United Methodist Church of Westlake Village.
Aunt, by marriage, of actress Nana Visitor, Ian Tucker and Zan Charisse.
Daughter-in-law, Sheila Charisse, killed in the May 25, 1979 crash of American Airlines flight 191 shortly after takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
During a family vacation in Los Angeles when she was 12, her parents enrolled her in ballet classes at a school in Hollywood. One of her teachers was Nico Charise.
First gained notice with the famed Ballet Russe, becoming a member of the corps de ballet at age 14 and touring the U.S. and Europe. The company requested that their members use Russian-sounding names so she was billed at different times Natacha Tulaelis, Celia Siderova and Maria Istromena.
First started taking lessons at the encouragement of her father, Ernest. She was frail and sickly at the time and had a bout with polio. Dance lessons were encouraged to build up her strength and she took to it quickly.
Got her start in Hollywood when Ballet Russe star David Lichine was hired by Columbia for a ballet sequence in the musical film Something to Shout About (1943). Cyd, who was then billed as Lily Norwood, appeared in the scene and attracted attention. Movie offers, including a dancing role opposite Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies (1945), led to a seven-year contract offer by MGM.
Grew up in the Texas dust-bowl town of Amarillo. Her Baptist jeweler father, a closet balletomane, encouraged her to begin her ballet lessons for health reasons.
Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Her dark looks initially had her cast as ethnic lovelies. She was cast as Ricardo Montalban's fiancée in the film Fiesta (1947), and as a Polynesian in the Esther Williams' starrer On an Island with You (1948).
Her father, Ernest Enos Finklea, Jr., was a jeweler. Her mother was Lela Norwood Finklea.
In Call Her Mom (1972) (TV), she was originally to have done the part played by Gloria DeHaven, but was replaced by Ann Miller before DeHaven finally took over the role.
In 1952 she had a $5-million insurance policy accepted on her legs.
Lost out on two of MGM's biggest movie musical roles. She fell and injured her knee during a dance leap on a film which forced her out of the role of Nadina Hale in Easter Parade (1948). Ann Miller replaced her. She also had to relinquish the lead femme role in An American in Paris (1951) due to pregnancy. Leslie Caron took over the part and became a star.
Measurements: 34 1/2B-22-37 (in 1953), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Met first husband Nico Charise, as a very young dancer. She had studied with him for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939 when she was still a teenager. When the Ballet Russe disbanded after WWII broke out, the still newlyweds moved to Hollywood.
One of the few actresses to have danced with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in the movies, other actresses that have also done this includes Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Vera-Ellen, Debbie Reynolds, and Leslie Caron.
One of the few, if not only, world renowned prima ballerinas to be featured in a popular hip-hop music video. She had a cameo in "Alright" (1990) by Janet Jackson.
One son with her husband, Tony Martin: Tony Martin Jr.
Prior to her feature film debut in _Something to Shout About (1943)_ (filmed in 1942), Cyd appeared in at least six Soundies, short musical films played in the popular television-like jukeboxes of that era. Her actual film debut may have most likely been in _Escort Girl (1941)_, (copyrighted 4 November 1941), in which an uncredited dancer looking amazingly like Cyd, does a number, very much in Cyd's unique style, in a café sequence. Just for the record, since this is an exploitation film, the dancer in question is properly attired at all times, and the sequence contains no nudity nor suggests any improper behavior.
Said her husband could tell who she had been dancing with that day on an MGM set. If she came home covered with bruises on her, it was the very physically-demanding Gene Kelly, if not it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire.
She and husband Tony Martin became a popular song-and-dance couple on TV and in nightclubs/cabaret shows after their heyday in film.
She danced with the Ballet Russe using the names Maria Istomina and Felia Sidorova.
She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 2006 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C. for her services to dance.
She was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in March 2002 in Austin, Texas.
Son Nicholas was born May 7, 1942.
Son Tony Martin Jr. was born August 28, 1950.
The director of the Ballet Russe dance company, Col. W. de Basil visited the school and saw her dance. He invited her to join his company, and she toured with it. In 1939, while she was in France on tour with the ballet company, she and Nico Charise eloped. They had one son, Nico, before their marriage ended in divorce in 1947.
Took her name Cyd from a nickname originated from her brother. Initially he could not say sister and called her Sid. She took the nickname and convinced her agent to keep the name with the present spelling. He feared that Sid was too masculine.
Unlike many top female dancers in the era of movie musicals, she was trained as a ballerina in the Russian tradition.
Was "the other woman" in Marilyn Monroe's last and unfinished film, Something's Got to Give (1962).
Was 70 years old when she made her Broadway debut in "Grand Hotel".
Was offered the lead role of Jo Stockton in Funny Face (1957) but declined. The role was eventually played by Audrey Hepburn.
When casting the film Damn Yankees! (1958), the studio was initially interested in pursuing Cyd as Lola and Cary Grant as Applegate. In the end, Gwen Verdon won the right to recreate her stage role with Ray Walston the devilish Applegate. Cyd was supposedly unavailable but later played the role on the legit stage.