Cyd Charisse, Golden Age of Hollywood Dance Star, Dies at 86

Cyd Charisse drives Gene Kelly a little crazy in Singin’ in the Rain. 

I, at least. was sad to hear that Cyd Charisse died today at age 86.

I know, many of you are like, who’s that? Well, Cyd Charisse was a dancer in some of the biggest, splashiest MGM movie musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, most notably two of my favorites, The Band Wagon and Singin’ in the Rain, the former with Fred Astaire and the latter with Gene Kelly. She was awesomely sexy, somewhat like–as I heard someone say today and regrettably can’t remember who–an Ava Gardner who can dance (for a more contemporary reference, think of Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago). But she also always seemed to have a sense of humor about her gorgeousness, as if she was winking a little at the stereotype of the femme fatale that she embodied.

Charisse did act in some non-musical films as well, probably most notably Nicholas Ray’s Party Girl–notable not because it’s great, but it is Nicholas Ray and that means never a dull day at the movies. My favorite, though, is a strange film from the 1940s starring that strangest of child stars, Margaret O’Brien, called The Unfinished Dance. Charisse plays a talented but shallow young prima ballerina on the rise who is so idolized by a little girl (O’Brien) that the young fan causes an accident that ends the career of a perceived rival to her favorite. It’s an astonishing movie (albeit with a little too many not great dance sequences) that unfortunately is not on video, so you just have to hope it turns up on Turner Classic occasionally.

If you’re ever wondering (and I hope some of you do) who she was and what all those old movie musicals are like, I recommend The Band Wagon (of course see Singin’ in the Rain, too, because it’s one of the greatest movies, not just musicals of all time, but Charisse has just a cameo in that). She and Fred Astaire have great chemistry, and the movie’s biggest number–”The Girl Hunt Ballet” is a very funny spoof of hard-boiled, Mickey Spillane type detective movies. And in that number, Fred Astaire’s character sums up Cyd Charisse’s onscreen persona in a way that many would agree with: “She was bad. She was dangerous. I wouldn’t trust her any farther than I could throw her. But she was my kind of woman.”

And the type of woman who inspires clumsy awkward little girls like myself to take dancing lessons…and eventually, wisely quit.

Cyd Charisse was only 5′ 6″ but onscreen her legs alone looked about 6′ long.