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Ann Miller (April 12, 1923 – January
22, 2004) was an American dancer, singer and actress.
At the age of 11 Miller had been hired
as a dancer in the "Black Cat Club" in San Francisco (she had told them
she was 18). It was there she was discovered by Lucille Ball and talent
scout/comic Benny Rubin. This led Miller to be given a contract with RKO
in 1936 at the age of 13 (she had also told them she was 18) and she
remained there until 1940. The following year, Miller was offered a
contract at Columbia Pictures. She finally hit her mark (starting in the
late 1940s) in her roles in MGM musicals such as Kiss Me, Kate, Easter
Parade, and On the Town.
Miller invented pantyhose in the 1940s as a solution to the problem of
continual torn stockings during the filming of dance production numbers.
The common practice had been to sew hosiery to briefs worn by Miller. If
torn, the entire garment had to be removed and resewn with a new pair. At
Miller's request, hosiery was manufactured for her as a single pantyhose.
Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing. Studio publicists concocted
press releases claiming she could tap 500 times per minute, but in truth,
the sound of ultra-fast "500" taps was looped in later. Because the stage
floors were slick and slippery, she actually danced in shoes with rubber
soles. Later she would loop the sound of the taps while watching the film
and actually dancing on a "tap board" to match her steps in the film.
She was known, especially later in her career, for her distinctive
appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamor: massive black
bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a slash of crimson lipstick, and fashions
that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs. Her film career
effectively ended in 1956 as the studio system lost steam to television,
but she remained active in the theatre and on television. She starred on
Broadway in the musical "Mame" in 1969, in which she wowed the audience in
a tap number created just for her. In 1979 she astounded audiences in the
Broadway show Sugar Babies with fellow MGM veteran Mickey Rooney, which
toured the United States extensively after its Broadway run. In 1983 she
won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.
She appeared in a special 1982 episode of The Love Boat, joined by fellow
showbiz legends Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Della Reese, Van Johnson,
and Cab Calloway in a storyline that cast them as older relatives of the
show's regular characters. In 2001 she took her last role, playing Coco in
auteur director David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive. Her
last stage performance was a 1998 production of Stephen Sondheim's
Follies, in which she played the hardboiled survivor Carlotta Campion and
received rave reviews for her rendition of the anthemic "I'm Still Here".
Miller also performed a guest appearance on Home
Improvement as a dance instructor to Tim and Jill. For her contribution to
the motion picture industry, Ann Miller has a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Blvd.
Miller was parodied on Saturday Night Live. She was played by Molly
Shannon as a talk show host, with Debbie Reynolds (played by Cheri Oteri),
on a show called Legs Up.
She died at the age of 80 from cancer, which had metastasized to her
lungs, and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City,
California. |