Biography for
Cyd Charisse More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

8 March 1921, Amarillo, Texas, USA

Date of Death

17 June 2008, Los Angeles, California, USA (complications from a heart attack)

Birth Name

Tula Ellice Finklea

Height

5' 7½" (1.71 m)

Mini Biography

Cyd Charisse was born to be a dancer. She spent her early childhood taking ballet lessons and joined the Ballet Russe at 13. In 1939 she married Nico Charise, her ex-dance teacher. In 1943 she appeared in her first film, Something to Shout About (1943), billed as Lily Norwood. The same year she played a Russian dancer in Mission to Moscow (1943), directed by Michael Curtiz. In 1945 she was hired to dance with Fred Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies (1945), and that uncredited appearance got her a seven-year contract with MGM. She appeared in a number of musicals over the next few years, but it was Singin' in the Rain (1952) with Gene Kelly that made her a star. That was quickly followed by her great performance in The Band Wagon (1953). As the 1960s dawned, musicals faded from the screen, as did her career. She made appearances on television and performed in a nightclub revue with her second husband, singer Tony Martin.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana

Spouse

Tony Martin	(15 May 1948 - 17 June 2008) (her death) 1 child
Nico Charise	(12 August 1939 - 1947) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

She danced with the Ballet Russe using the names Maria Istomina and Felia Sidorova.

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.

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).

Aunt, by marriage, of actress Nana Visitor, Ian Tucker and Zan Charisse.

Measurements: 34 1/2B-22-37 (in 1953), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Was "the other woman" in Marilyn Monroe's last and unfinished film, Something's Got to Give (1962).

In 1952 she had a $5-million insurance policy accepted on her legs.

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.

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.

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.

Was offered the lead role of Jo Stockton in Funny Face (1957) but declined. The role was eventually played by Audrey Hepburn.

One son with her husband, Tony Martin: Tony Martin Jr.

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.

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.

Son Nicholas was born May 7, 1942.

Son Tony Martin Jr. was born August 28, 1950.

Unlike many top female dancers in the era of movie musicals, she was trained as a ballerina in the Russian tradition.

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.

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.

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.

Her father, Ernest Enos Finklea, Jr., was a jeweler. Her mother was Lela Norwood Finklea.

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.

Was 70 years old when she made her Broadway debut in "Grand Hotel".

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.

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.

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.

Fred Astaire, in his 1959 memoir "Steps in Time," referred to Cyd as "beautiful dynamite".

She and husband Tony Martin became a popular song-and-dance couple on TV and in nightclubs/cabaret shows after their heyday in film.

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).

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in March 2002 in Austin, Texas.

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.

Personal Quotes

[On Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly] I can watch Astaire anytime. I don't think he ever made a wrong move. He was a perfectionist. He would work on a few bars for hours until it was just the way he wanted it. Gene was the same way. They both wanted perfection, even though they were completely different personalities.

[On Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly] Fred could never do the lifts Gene did and never wanted to. I'd say they were the two greatest dancing personalities who were ever on the screen. Each has a distinctive style. Each is a joy to work with. But it's like comparing apples and oranges. They're both delicious.

[On explaining why she never tapped on-screen] I was pulled up as a ballet dancer and I wasn't used to pounding the floor with bent knees.

The censors were always there when I was on the set. When I was held up, in a lift [in Deep in My Heart (1954)], they were up on ladders to see if I was properly covered.

Fred moved like glass. Physically it was easy to dance with him. It was not as demanding on me. I didn't need the same vitality and strength.

If I had to give up either acting or dancing, I'd choose to keep dancing.

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