Fred Astaire, in his 1959 memoir "Steps in Time," referred to Cyd as "beautiful dynamite".
Although one of the greatest female dancers in the history of the movie musical, her singing in films was almost always dubbed, most notably by Carol Richards in Brigadoon (1954) and a young Vikki Carr in The Silencers (1966).
Although she is interred in a niche at Hillside Memorial Park, a well-known Jewish cemetery in Los Angeles, Charrise was in fact a practicing Methodist. Her funeral was even presided by Dr. Gary Allen Dicky, pastor of the United Methodist Church of Westlake Village.
Daughter-in-law, Sheila Charisse, killed in the May 25, 1979 crash of American Airlines flight 191 shortly after takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
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 Charise.
First gained notice with the famed Ballet Russe, becoming a member of the corps de ballet at age 14 and touring the U.S. and Europe. The company requested that their members use Russian-sounding names so she was billed at different times Natacha Tulaelis, Celia Siderova and Maria Istromena.
First started taking lessons at the encouragement of her father, Ernest. She was frail and sickly at the time and had a bout with polio. Dance lessons were encouraged to build up her strength and she took to it quickly.
Got her start in Hollywood when Ballet Russe star David Lichine was hired by Columbia for a ballet sequence in the musical film Something to Shout About (1943). Cyd, who was then billed as Lily Norwood, appeared in the scene and attracted attention. Movie offers, including a dancing role opposite Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies (1945), led to a seven-year contract offer by MGM.
Grew up in the Texas dust-bowl town of Amarillo. Her Baptist jeweler father, a closet balletomane, encouraged her to begin her ballet lessons for health reasons.
Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Her dark looks initially had her cast as ethnic lovelies. She was cast as Ricardo Montalban's fiancée in the film Fiesta (1947), and as a Polynesian in the Esther Williams' starrer On an Island with You (1948).
Her father, Ernest Enos Finklea, Jr., was a jeweler. Her mother was Lela Norwood Finklea.
In Call Her Mom (1972) (TV), she was originally to have done the part played by Gloria DeHaven, but was replaced by Ann Miller before DeHaven finally took over the role.
In 1952 she had a $5-million insurance policy accepted on her legs.
Lost out on two of MGM's biggest movie musical roles. She fell and injured her knee during a dance leap on a film which forced her out of the role of Nadina Hale in Easter Parade (1948). Ann Miller replaced her. She also had to relinquish the lead femme role in An American in Paris (1951) due to pregnancy. Leslie Caron took over the part and became a star.
Measurements: 34 1/2B-22-37 (in 1953), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Met first husband Nico Charise, as a very young dancer. She had studied with him for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939 when she was still a teenager. When the Ballet Russe disbanded after WWII broke out, the still newlyweds moved to Hollywood.
One of the few actresses to have danced with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in the movies, other actresses that have also done this includes Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Vera-Ellen, Debbie Reynolds, and Leslie Caron.
One of the few, if not only, world renowned prima ballerinas to be featured in a popular hip-hop music video. She had a cameo in "Alright" (1990) by Janet Jackson.