Dancer, actress Ann Miller dead.

[terrya]

She made an appearance in David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive".


By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - Ann Miller (news), the raven-haired, long-legged actress and dancer whose machine-gun taps won her stardom during the golden age of movie musicals, died Thursday of lung cancer. She was 81.

Miller died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Esme Chandlee, her longtime friend and former publicist.

A onetime childhood dance prodigy, she reached the peak of her film career at MGM in the late 1940s and early '50s with "On the Town," "Easter Parade" and "Kiss Me Kate."

She remained a dazzling tapper in her 60s and earned millions on Broadway and touring with Mickey Rooney (news) in "Sugar Babies," a razzmatazz tribute to the era of burlesque.

"At MGM, I always played the second feminine lead; I was never the star in films," she once recalled. "I was the brassy, good-hearted showgirl. I never really had my big moment on the screen.

"`Sugar Babies' gave me the stardom that my soul kind of yearned for."

Rooney said Thursday that Miller "was a great talent. She is a great talent. I'll never think of her as being gone."

"She told me the last time I spoke to her she wasn't feeling too well, and I said, 'Keep your head up, kid.' I'm just very sad."

Miller's legs, pretty face and fast tapping (she claimed the record of 500 taps a minute) earned her jobs in vaudeville and night clubs when she first came to Hollywood. She adopted the stage name of Anne Miller. Her early film career included working as a child extra in films and as a chorus girl in a minor musical, "The Devil on Horseback."

An appearance at the popular Bal Tabarin in San Francisco won a contract at RKO studio, where her name was shortened to Ann.

Her first film at RKO, "New Faces of 1937," featured her dancing. She next played an acting hopeful in "Stage Door," with Katharine Hepburn (news), Ginger Rogers (news), Lucille Ball (news) and Eve Arden.

Most of her RKO films were low-budget musicals and comedies. A contract at Columbia Pictures started impressively with the role of the would-be ballerina in Frank Capra (news)'s Oscar-winning "You Can't Take It with You."

Then she was cast in a series of wartime B musicals with titles like "True to the Army," "Priorities on Parade" and "Hey Rookie."

When Cyd Charisse (news) broke a leg before starting "Easter Parade" at MGM with Fred Astaire (news), Miller replaced her. That led to an MGM contract and her most enduring work.

She was teamed with Gene Kelly (news) and Frank Sinatra (news) in "On the Town," Red Skelton (news) in "Watch the Birdie," and Bob Fosse in "Kiss Me Kate."

Other MGM films included: "Texas Carnival," "Lovely to Look At," "Small Town Girl," "Deep in My Heart," "Hit the Deck" and "The Opposite Sex."

The popularity of musicals declined in the 1950s, and her film career ended in 1956. Miller remained active in television and the theater, dancing and belting songs on Broadway in "Hello, Dolly" and "Mame."

In later years, she astounded audiences in New York, Las Vegas and on the road with her dynamic tapping in "Sugar Babies" when. The show, starring her and Rooney, opened on Broadway in 1979 and toured for years. In 1990, she commented that "Sugar Babies" had made her financially independent.

Before each performance, she practiced for an hour.

"Honestly, I have had to live like a high priestess in this show," she remarked in a 1984 interview. "It is a very, very lonely life. When you work the way I work — that means hard — there's no time for play."

She was born Johnnie Lucille Collier in Chireno, Texas, the first name dictated by her father, who had wanted a boy. After her parents divorced, she was called Annie, for reasons she never knew.

Growing up in Houston, Annie suffered from rickets, and dancing lessons helped straighten her legs. Her mother was almost totally deaf and could not find work. By the age of 12, Annie was almost full grown at 5 feet 5, and she danced to support her mother and herself.

While her career in Hollywood prospered, Miller became a regular figure in the town's night life, and she caught the eye of Louis B. Mayer, all-powerful head of MGM. They began dating and could be seen on the dance floors of Ciro's and Mocambo.

"I think one reason Mr. Mayer fancied himself in love with me was that he was lonely," she wrote in her 1972 autobiography, "Miller's High Life." Another reason: "He knew or reasoned that I was as virginal as the day I was born."

She declared that Mayer pleaded for marriage, but her ever-watchful mother would not allow it. She decided to accept the offer of marriage from steel heir Reese Milner.

It was a mistake. After giving birth to a daughter who died three hours later, she divorced Milner. Marriages to oilmen William Moss and Arthur Cameron also ended in divorce.

[Skittles]

1. WHAT A BROAD SHE WAS

OUTSTANDING; A REAL LADY

[xultar]

2. Wow, Sad! n/t

[CBHagman]

3. Thanks for providing the profile.

She was a talented woman who had LEGS in every sense of the word -- as a dancer, as a long-lived entertainer, and as an eye-catching actress. Do check out her movies, DUers.

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. My grandfather toured with her

in the road company of "Sugar Babies". They also made the movies "Too Many Girls" and "Two Tickets To Broadway" together.

She was a vey nice woman, and a very talented dancer. RIP, Ann.

[arwalden]

5. I Met Her When She Came To My Waldenbooks For A Booksigning

for her book "Tapping Into The Force". After the signing was over, she autographed the big poster we had made for the event and I kept it for many years. One day it mysteriously disappeared from the store.

Back in 2000, I wrote to Miss Miller to remind her of our brief meeting and to tell her the story about what happened to the autographed poster. She wrote back and sent to me a personalized autographed photo of her!

It is one of my most prized possessions and I'll treasure it always!!

-- Allen

[arwalden]

6. Her Autographed Photo To Me

Check out those fake eyelashes and that mascara... FIERCE!

[terrya]

7. GORGEOUS picture!

What a lady.

Thanks for posting this, Allen.

Terry

[Hell Hath No Fury]

13. That picture would invoke...

some SERIOUS make-up envy out here in SF in the drag community! ;)

[blondeatlast]

8. What a great entertainer, with an intelligent, saucy wit to boot.

RIP, Ann. You will be missed.

[joeybee12]

9. Very sad--recently watched Stage Door with her, Kate, Ginger, Lucy

and Eve.

And if you have to ask what their last names are, shame on you!

Ann cracked me up in it--she was so young and gangly--but that voice and attitude, she even had those back then!

Godspeed!

[DS1]

10. saw clips of her dancing on CNN, what great legs she had

That's all I have to say about that

[nostamj]

11. one of her last stage appearances was in a revival of FOLLIES

at the Papermill Playhouse in NJ.

didn't see it, but have the recording.

Ann played Carlotta and had the BIG song: I'M STILL HERE

she utterly nailed it with an authority only someone of her caliber and career could.

rest in peace Ann! you gave this musical movie fan many hours of joy

[Hell Hath No Fury]

12. She was amazing!

Being a fan of classic Hollywood films, I spent many an afternoon watching such greats as "Kiss Me kate" and "On the Town". That lady DANCED. :)

It's a shame that such an American art form as tap dancing, especially that old-school tap that folks like Miller, Powell, and Astair specialized in, is going the wayside of horse and buggy. I hope one day that some little girl or boy is watching one of Ann's musicals and is inspired to pick up their first pair of tap shoes.

[Cleita]

14. An Ann Miller story.

My mother used to drag me to a champagne Sunday brunch to the Beverly Hilton Hotel in the early sixties. I was in my early twenties. I resented going because I had to dress up and would have preferred to be at the beach. They had a small restaurant by the pool where the brunch was served. A small band played dance music like the night club music of the forties.

Ann Miller was there every Sunday with three or four male escorts of various ages. I don't know who they were or if one of them was her husband. But it was obvious the younger guys were there to dance. They tangoed and fox trotted and did swing and all those wonderful ballroom dances of an earlier era. I really started to enjoy it and looked forward to it.

This lasted until my dad got too sick to be left alone so we didn't go anymore, but I have those memories of Ann, elegantly dressed and coiffed dancing on a late Sunday morning until the band and everyone else left at 2:00 PM.

May she be dancing forever now.

Edited the hotels. Not the Beverly Hills, but the Beverly Hilton.