Cyd Charisse (born Tula Ellice Finklea; March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008)[1][2] was an American dancer and actress.

[9] During a European tour, she met up again with Nico Charisse, a young dancer she had studied with for a time in Los Angeles.

The outbreak of World War II led to the breakup of the ballet company, and when Charisse returned to Los Angeles, David Lichine offered her a dancing role in Gregory Ratoff's Something to Shout About (1943) at Columbia.

This brought her to the attention of choreographer Robert Alton—who had also discovered Gene Kelly—and soon she joined the Freed Unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she became the resident MGM ballet dancer.

Because Debbie Reynolds was not a trained dancer, Kelly chose Charisse to partner with him in the celebrated "Broadway Melody" ballet finale from Singin' in the Rain (1952), which was acknowledged soon after release as one of the greatest musicals of all time.

Critic Pauline Kael said that "when the bespangled Charisse wraps her phenomenal legs around Astaire, she can be forgiven everything, even her three minutes of 'classical' ballet and the fact that she reads her lines as if she learned them phonetically.

[11] Charisse had a cameo in Easy to Love (1953) then co-starred with Kelly in the Scottish-themed musical film Brigadoon (1954), directed by Minnelli.

She rejoined Astaire in the film version of Silk Stockings (1957), a musical remake of 1939's Ninotchka, with Charisse taking over Greta Garbo's role.

After the decline of the Hollywood musical in the late 1950s, Charisse retired from dancing but continued to appear in film and TV productions from the 1960s through the 1990s.

A striptease number by Charisse set to the movie's theme song opened the 1966 Dean Martin spy spoof, The Silencers, and she played a fashion magazine editor in the 1967 caper film Maroc 7.

In the 1970s and 1980s Charisse guest-starred on shows such as Medical Center, Hawaii Five-O, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, Glitter, Murder, She Wrote, and Crazy Like a Fox.

She also made cameo appearances in Blue Mercedes's "I Want to Be Your Property" (1987) and Janet Jackson's "Alright" (1990) music videos.

Subsequently, she made a final appearance in the TV movie Empire State Building Murders, which aired two months after her death in 2008.

In 1990, following similar moves by MGM colleagues Debbie Reynolds and Angela Lansbury, Charisse produced the exercise video Easy Energy Shape Up, targeted for active senior citizens.

[20] Charisse, like her husband Tony Martin Sr., was a staunch Republican and campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election[21] and Richard Nixon in 1968.

[23] Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California on June 16, 2008, after suffering an apparent heart attack.