Cyd Charisse
Gender: Female
Born: 8th March 1922
Died: 17th June 2008
Nationality: United States of America
TV programs: Fol-de-Rol, Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special
Movies: Party Girl, Something's Got to Give, The Band Wagon, It's Always Fair Weather, Silk Stockings, Brigadoon, Ziegfeld Follies, Singin' in the Rain, The Harvey Girls, Black Tights, Twilight for the Gods, East Side, West Side, Tension, Meet Me in Las Vegas, Three Wise Fools, On an Island with You, Till the Clouds Roll By, The Silencers, Five Golden Hours, Words and Music, Fiesta, Maroc 7, The Wild North, Mission to Moscow, Fol-de-Rol, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, Sombrero, Warlords of Atlantis, Thousands Cheer, Something to Shout About, Deep in My Heart, Swimsuit, The Kissing Bandit, Escort Girl, Assassination in Rome, Mark of the Renegade, Two Weeks in Another Town, Easy to Love, The Unfinished Dance
Cyd Charisse (March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American actress and dancer.
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, and she was paired with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; her films include Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953) 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 participated in That's Entertainment! III in 1994. She was awarded the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities in 2006.
Charisse was born as 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 a sibling trying to say "Sis". (It was later spelled "Cyd" at MGM to give her an air of mystery.) She was a sickly girl who started dancing lessons at six to build up her strength after a bout with polio. At 12, she studied ballet in Los Angeles with Adolph Bolm and Bronislava Nijinska, and
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Internet Movie Database