Cyd Charisse, 86; her dancing and glamour lit up movie screens

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse danced in the 1953 film "The Band Wagon." He said she was "beautiful dynamite" on screen. (Associated Press/file)

LOS ANGELES - Cyd Charisse, who brought sizzle and sophistication to dance in classic movie musicals such as "Singin' in the Rain" and "Silk Stockings," died yesterday. She was 86.

Ms. Charisse died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering an apparent heart attack Monday, publicist Gene Schwam said.

Ms. Charisse captured moviegoers' attention in a quick succession of films, starting with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1952 in which she partnered with dancer and actor Gene Kelly in a steamy ballet.

She was strong, lithe, and "drop-dead gorgeous to look at," said Larry Billman, a dance/film historian and author of her breakthrough performance. She partnered with Kelly again in "Brigadoon" in 1954 and "It's Always Fair Weather" the following year.

"After years when Hollywood's leading dancers were cute and fluffy, Cyd took dance to a more sensual realm in the 1950s," Billman said in a September 2007 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Ms. Charisse also danced with Fred Astaire, the premier dancer of his age, in major production numbers in the '50s. In "The Band Wagon" (1953), they danced to the music of "Dancing in the Dark" on a set that looked like New York City's Central Park. Four years later, Ms. Charisse and Astaire were partners in "Silk Stockings." Astaire said that Ms. Charisse was "beautiful dynamite" on screen.

Ms. Charisse's other star-maker roles of the 1950s included "Deep in My Heart" (1954), in which she danced a sexy duet with James Mitchell.

Her glamorous looks fit well with an emerging trend. "In the '50s, Hollywood was all about sex," Billman said. While actresses Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren dominated their field, "Cyd ruled dance," Billman said. "She personified dancing sophistication."

Earlier in her movie career, Ms. Charisse's dark hair and eyes led to some roles as "ethnic-exotic" characters in B movies such as "Fiesta" (1947), in which she played the Latina fiancée of actor Ricardo Montalban.

She was cast as Polynesian in "On an Island With You," a song, dance, and swim film starring Esther Williams in 1948. Ms. Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea on March 8, 1922, in Amarillo, Texas. Her older brother nicknamed her Sid, a variation on Sis. In Hollywood, she changed the spelling to Cyd.

She began ballet lessons at 6, encouraged by her father, Ernest, after she developed a mild case of polio that left her with a slight atrophy on her right side.

"I was this tiny, frail little girl, I needed to build up muscle, and I fell in love with dancing from the first lesson," she said in a 1996 interview with the Calgary Herald.

During a family vacation in Los Angeles when she was 12, her parents enrolled her in ballet classes at a school in Hollywood. One of her teachers was Nico Charisse.

As a teenager, she returned to the school as a full-time student. Not long afterward, Colonel W. de Basil, the director of the Ballet Russe dance company, visited the school and saw her dance. He invited her to join his company.

In 1939, while she was in France on tour with the ballet company, she and Nico Charisse eloped. They had one son, Nico, before their marriage ended in divorce in 1947.

Ms. Charisse then married singer and night club entertainer Tony Martin in 1948. The couple had one son, Tony Jr. Martin and her sons survive her, along with two grandchildren.

In the 1960s, Ms. Charisse performed cabaret shows while she continued working in Hollywood in films such as "Two Weeks in Another Town" (1962). She made frequent guest appearances on popular television series, including "Hawaii Five-O" and "The Love Boat" in the 1970s and "Murder She Wrote" in the 1980s.

She also worked in theater, performing in "Charlie's Girls" in London in the 1980s and making her Broadway debut as an aging Russian ballerina in "Grand Hotel" in 1992.