Cyd Charisse Dies at 86

Cyd Charisse died Tuesday at the age of 86.

According to the AP Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack.

Charisse is most famously known for her roles in 1940s and 50s movie musicals where she danced with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. As a classically trained dancer she was able to manage any style of dance that was called on her in her many films. s

She also later forged a popular song-and-dance partnership on television and in nightclub appearances with her husband, singer Tony Martin.

Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea  in Amarillo, Texas, on March 8, 1922. From her earliest years she was called Sid, because her older brother couldn't say "sister." She was a sickly girl who started dancing lessons to build up her strength after a bout with polio. At 14 she auditioned for the head of the famed Ballet Russe, and became part of the corps de ballet and toured the U.S. and Europe. To appear with the nearly all-Russian company, she was first billed as Celia Siderova, than as Maria Istromena. At one point during the European tour, she met up again with Nico Charisse, a handsome young dancer she had studied with for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939. The Ballet Russe disbanded after the war broke out, and the newlyweds returned to Hollywood. In 1942, a son, Nicky, was born.In 1948, the year after she and Nico divorced, Charisse marriEd Martin. Her second son, Tony Jr., was born in 1950.

She first gained notice as a member of the famed Ballet Russe, and got her start in Hollywood when star David Lichine was hired by Columbia Pictures for a ballet sequence in a 1943 Don Ameche-Janet Blair musical, "Something to Shout About." The film was a flop but its ballet sequence attracted wide notice, and Charisse (then billed as Lily Norwood) began receiving movie offers.

She also appeared with Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain" in the "Broadway Melody" number and many other films.

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