Ann Miller (1923 - 2004)

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Ann Miller, Tap-Dancer Starring in Musicals, Dies
By RICHARD SEVERO JAN. 23, 2004

Ann Miller, the long-legged tap-dancer with the lacquered raven hair and Nefertiti eye makeup whose athleticism made her a staple of big-screen musicals in the 1940's and 50's, died on Thursday at a Los Angeles hospital. She was believed to be about 80.
The cause was lung cancer, Esme Chandlee, her friend and former publicist, told The Associated Press.
She was, in her heyday, America's female tap star, inheriting the mantle of Ginger Rogers and Eleanor Powell. She always took a vigorous approach to dancing, and her agent said she could produce 500 taps a minute. Nobody ever disputed him.
As a young actress, she consistently won praise for her roles in movies like ''Easter Parade'' (1948), in which she danced most gracefully with Fred Astaire as she tried to woo him away from Judy Garland; ''Kiss Me Kate'' (1953), in which she portrayed Lois Lane, the nightclub hoofer who became Bianca in Cole Porter's version of ''Taming of the Shrew''; and ''On the Town'' (1949), which paired her with Jules Munshin, the sidekick of Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, sailors desperately looking for girls on their 24-hour leave in New York. These, she said, were her favorite movies, and most fans and critics would agree.
She first attracted attention in 1938, when she played the fudge-making, ballet-dancing daughter in Frank Capra's ''You Can't Take It With You.'' And in 1979, after a long hiatus, she made a tremendous comeback, starring with Mickey Rooney in ''Sugar Babies,'' a musical salute to vaudeville that ran for nearly three years on Broadway. She enjoyed the stardom that she felt she had been denied earlier.
''At MGM I always played the second feminine lead,'' she told the writer Bob Thomas in 1990. ''I was never the star in films. I was the brassy, good-hearted showgirl. I never really had my big moment on the screen. 'Sugar Babies' gave me the stardom that my soul kind of yearned for.''
Johnnie Lucille Ann Collier was born in Chireno, Tex. Her father, John Alfred Collier, was a successful criminal lawyer who counted among his clients Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker and Baby Face Nelson. He dreamed of having a son he could call John Jr.; instead, he named his daughter Johnnie. Her mother was the former Clara Birdwell, whose mother was a Cherokee.
The Colliers soon moved to Houston, where her mother saw to it that she studied piano and violin but mostly dancing, partly to build up legs affected by rickets, a condition caused by a vitamin D deficiency that can lead to softening of the bones and deformity.
When Ms. Miller was about 10 her parents' marriage fell apart and her mother took her to California. There she developed a dance routine and performed at meetings of local civic organization. She earned $5 a night, plus tips.
A few years later she was seen by Benny Rubin, a comic and talent scout, who happened to be escorting Lucille Ball. They arranged a movie audition, which led to her first film, a nonspeaking part in ''New Faces of 1937'' for RKO.
Other light films followed, and while she aspired to the romantic roles that were being enjoyed by other dancing stars, like Ginger Rogers and Eleanor Powell, she was offered none.
In the 1940's she appeared in a string of forgettable films. Among them were ''Melody Ranch'' (1940), which is recalled now only because it was the first time Gene Autry kissed a woman for the cameras; ''Time Out for Rhythm'' (1941), a vehicle for Rudy Vallee; ''Priorities on Parade'' (1942), a feel-good movie for soldiers starring Jerry Colonna; ''Reveille With Beverly'' (1943); ''What's Buzzin' Cousin?'' (1943); ''Jam Session'' (1944) and ''Eadie Was a Lady'' (1945).
In 1946 she married a millionaire, Reese Llewellyn Milner. The marriage failed within a year, and she went back to work, winning a big part in perhaps her most memorable film, MGM's ''Easter Parade.'' She got the part only when Cyd Charisse, the first choice for the role, broke a leg, and she had to dance in flats because Fred Astaire was barely taller than she was.
In 1951 and 1952 she appeared in ''Two Tickets to Broadway'' and ''Lovely to Look At,'' a remake of Jerome Kern's ''Roberta.'' Later that decade she was in ''Deep in My Heart,'' a tribute to Sigmund Romberg; ''Hit the Deck,'' set to Vincent Youmans's music; and ''The Opposite Sex,'' a musical version of Clare Boothe Luce's play, ''The Women.''
By the late 50's she had moved from movies to nightclubs and also appeared frequently on television programs like ''The Ed Sullivan Show,'' ''The Hollywood Palace'' and ''Laugh-In.''
In 1969 she scored a Broadway triumph when she took on the title role of ''Mame,'' which had been originated by Angela Lansbury. The critics felt she rivaled Ms. Lansbury, and Clive Barnes said in The New York Times that she gave the show ''a real shot in the arm.''
Jobs were scarce after that, though in 1972 she made a memorable commercial for Heinz's ''Great American Soups'' commercial, in which she danced atop an eight-foot soup can.
She went on the road with touring companies of ''Can-Can,'' ''Panama Hattie,'' ''Hello, Dolly!'' and ''Blithe Spirit.'' Her biggest comeback of all came in 1979, with ''Sugar Babies.''
Two more marriages, to William Moss in 1958 and to Arthur Cameron in 1961, ended in divorce. In between marriages she dated Conrad Hilton, Howard Hughes and Louis B. Mayer, among others. There are no immediate survivors.
In her prime, Ms. Miller's flamboyantly glamorous appearance, especially her hair, which was often a bouffant, lacquered wig, sometimes made her the butt of jokes about falling down and breaking her hair.
In later years, she seemed to revel in making television appearances in her wig and Egyptian-style makeup. In her 1972 autobiography, ''Miller's High Life,'' and in other writings about her serious spiritual interests, she even laid claim to having been Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt in an earlier life.
But she said that throughout her life she wondered ''whatever happened to Lucille Collier from Texas.''
''There's a part of me that will always be Lucille Collier, and she's just waiting for this long-winded Hollywood love affair to end with the Ann Miller creature.''

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