Cyd Charisse, Dancer: 1921 - 2008
Dancer, actress, movie star Cyd Charisse died in Los Angeles today after apparently suffering a heart attack on Monday.
I didn’t really grow to love movie musicals until later in life, so my first real memory of her was in college. A couple of friends and I drove up to catch an all night screening of a bunch of Cinemascope pictures as a part of the Seattle International Film Festival. The program included Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress, Pakula’s The Parallax View and Donen & Kelly’s It’s Always Fair Weather.
It was a long night and by the time Weather came on, I was more than a little bleary-eyed. Fatigue is no match for Ms. Cyd Charisse however, and I’ll never forget her in that green sweater and skirt dancing to Baby You Knock Me Out. “What a dame. What a dame. She belongs in the hall of fame. Baby you knock me out.” Indeed.
It’s an enduring memory from college and one of my all-time favorite movie experiences ever. Charisse held her own up there on the screen, not only with Gene Kelly’s roller skates, but also with Clint Eastwood’s scowl, Toshiro Mifune’s sword and Warren Beatty’s conspiracy; no small task.
If she was sexy in Weather, three years earlier she had been downright dangerous in the Broadway Melody fantasy sequence of what would become one of my all time favorite movies: Singin’ in the Rain.
One year after Rain, Charisse got her first starring role in Vincente Minnelli’s The Band Wagon alongside Fred Astaire. Said Astaire of his partner: “When you’ve danced with Cyd Charisse, you stay danced with.”
It’s too bad that the big MGM musicals were starting to wane by the mid-’50s because Charisse didn’t get to shine as long as she might have. Among her other roles throughout the decade, she would dance with Kelly one more time in Brigadoon and with Astaire again in Silk Stockings.
Born Tula Ellice Finklea in 1921 in Amarillo, Texas, Charisse was dancing with the Ballet Russe by the age of 14. She carried her childhood nickname “Sid” into show business, but changed the spelling. Her last name came from her first husband, Nico Charisse, with whom she studied dance upon moving to Los Angeles.
After movie musicals fell out of audience favor, Charisse continued on stage and television. She finally appeared on Broadway in a 1992 musical production of Grand Hotel.
Cyd Charisse is survived by her husband of 60 years, singer Tony Martin; two sons, Tony Martin Jr., and Nico Charisse Jr.; and two grandchildren. She was 87 years old.
Filed under: News, Obituaries
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I just saw this on another site. Very sad. She’s in one of my favorite movies of all time.
It’s Singing in the Rain in case you haven’t guessed.
RIP, Cyd.
Yeah, and she sure kicks some serious ass in The Band Wagon. RIP Tula!
RIP.
She was quite a sight as you say, Craig. Loved her contributions to the three films mentioned here thus far (It’s Always Fair Weather, Singin’ in the Rain and The Band Wagon). I also liked her a good deal in numerous other films, including Mervyn LeRoy’s East Side, West Side and Minnelli’s Two Weeks in Another Town. (As a side note, I say “bah” to a certain blogger who shall not be named who recently attacked LeRoy’s entire output even though he does have at least a handful of genuine classics to his name. Same blogger used Stan Winston’s death as a way to bash one of the films on which he worked. Bah to that as well.)
Another iconic figure gone, and this one from the Golden Age of Musicals, as Alison, Alexander, Joel and of course Craig have mentioned with her sterling resume. Had she appeared in SINGIN IN THE RAIN alone, her name would still be immortalized. R.I.P.
Man, this one hurts. She was an absolute favorite.
http://antidisartsandent.blogspot.com/2008/06/cyd-charisse-rest-in-peace.html
In The Band Wagon she and Astaire put up two of the shortlisters for greatest movie dance routines with Dancing in the Dark and The Girl Hunt Ballet within maybe an hour of film time of each other.
As I say in my post, she was practically a human special effect.
Oh, and thanks, Craig. I’ve seen that sequence, or parts of it, in the That’s Entertainment documentary, but didn’t recall what it was from.
I was trying HARD (grrrr…) on my site to imbed a YouTube video of the goddess Cyd and Mr. Astaire from The Band Wagon. But it just wouldn’t happen.
CYD CHARISSE was beyond gorgeous. Her dancing talent was profound and unsurpassed. She moved like a dark, exotic cat and every single second she was on screen she was mesmerizing.
My uncle was in love with her his whole life. Takes me back a few years because I remember how he used to talk about her in wide eyed wonder.
Now they’re both gone.
RIP, Ms. Charisse. You will surely be missed…
I only saw her in [i]Singin’ in the Rain[/i], and she has only one number in that movie, but you know what? That’s enough to realize this is a loss, indeed. She was amazing, long-legged and, indeed, downright dangerous.
It makes me sad that so many legends are almost forgotten now. That many people don’t even know who she is, or was. But the cinephiles will remember her.
Hedwig, try The Band Wagon and you won’t be disappointed.
TMC already had The Band Wagon on their schedule this month. It airs Monday morning (June 23) at 9:15 a.m. ET.
Like Hegwig, I’ve only ever seen Cyd Charisse in Singin’ In the Rain, and a few brief clips, so Monday I’ll get to fill in a major gap in my education.
You first-time viewers will enjoy The Band Wagon - it’s pure entertainment, with fabulous dancing.
Don’t overlook It’s Always Fair Weather damnit! It doesn’t get any of the press, but it’s pretty great in its own right.
Seriously, Gene Kelly tap dancing in roller skates. Come on!
I didn’t care for Fred Astaire’s character in Band Wagon, but he dances his @ss off and Charisse is amazing. As Alyson said, the narrative is entirely secondary to all the crazy dance numbers. Vincent Minnelli just went to town on that movie.
Not overlooking, Craig. I intend to revisit It’s Always Fair Weather. :-)
I rewatched the Broadway Melody sequence from Singin’ in the Rain after work last night. 31 flavors of sexy.
Definitely. One of the best parts of a completely sublime movie.
Why don’t you like Astaire’s character in The Band Wagon, Joel? Think he should have been more confrontational with the director when his awaited comeback became, as TCM calls it, a pretentious flop?
The Band Wagon was given Essential status back when Peter Bogdanovich hosted The Essentials. Do they keep a record of which films have been given Essential status? It’s another list, this time non-AFI, to keep track of…
There are a ton of Cyd Charisse clips up on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0ePfbiElmo&feature=related
There are a ton of Charisse videos on Youtube. It’s one of the great things about Youtube. It’s perfect for musicals.
Defintely see The Band Wagon, when you get the chance. The Girl Hunt would make a strong claim to greatest dance sequence ever. It’s also one of the craziest and funniest. Plus, I swear there’s a moment, during the blue outfit sequence, where Fred Astaire cops a feel. :) OK, OK, he probably doesn’t. But it’s a close call.
The advantage of actually picking up the DVD is that as an extra it has a great Cyd dance routine called “Two-Faced Woman. ” Another MGM star performed the song in a different musical around the same time, so the routine got nixed in this film. But it’s an amazingly intricate solo dance. And she wears possibly the sexiest outfit you will ever see her in. That’s saying something.