Dixon's parents were a dance team, and he first appeared on stage as an encore to their performance when he was 3 years old.

[4] (He said that Rodgers and Hammerstein developed that role from watching him perform in a tryout of Heels Together.

When they saw me, they got an idea for building the part around a big, dumb cowboy who looked like me so they let me play him!

[2] As a Dancer, Dixon preferred to work solo, although producers usually wanted him to dance with a female partner or with a group of chorus girls.

[1] On July 8, 1944, he married Eileen Shirley, a member of the Ziegfeld Follies, in New York.