Cyd Charisse Net Worth

#Fact1Following her death, she was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.2She was an honorary member of the National Federation of Republican Women along with Laraine Day, Rhonda Fleming and Coleen Gray.3Is one of several, 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.4Although 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.5Prior to her feature film debut in Something to Shout About (1943) (filmed in 1942), Cyd appeared in at least six Soundies, short musical films played in the popular television-like jukeboxes of that era. Her actual film debut may have most likely been in Escort Girl (1941), (copyrighted 4 November 1941), in which an uncredited dancer looking amazingly like Cyd, does a number, very much in Cyd's unique style, in a café sequence. Just for the record, since this is an exploitation film, the dancer in question is properly attired at all times, and the sequence contains no nudity nor suggests any improper behavior.6One 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.7She was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in Austin, Texas in March 2002.8She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1601 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.9Her dark looks initially had her cast as ethnic beauties. She was cast as Ricardo Montalban's fiancée in the film Fiesta (1947), and as a Polynesian in the Esther Williams' musical On an Island with You (1948).10She and husband Tony Martin became a popular song-and-dance couple on television and in nightclubs/cabaret shows after their heyday in film.11Fred Astaire, in his 1959 memoir "Steps in Time", referred to Cyd as "beautiful dynamite".12First gained notice with the famed Ballet Russe, becoming a member of the corps de ballet at age 14 and touring the United States 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.13Got 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 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.14First 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.15Met first husband Nico Charisse, 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 World War II broke out, the still newlyweds moved to Hollywood.16Was 70 years old when she made her Broadway debut in "Grand Hotel".17Said her husband could tell who she had been dancing with that day on a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer set. If she came home covered with bruises on her, it was the very physically-demanding Gene Kelly, if not it was the smooth and agile Fred Astaire.18Her father, Ernest Enos Finklea, Jr., was a jeweler. Her mother was Lela Norwood Finklea.19Grew 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.20During 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.21The director of the Ballet Russe dance company, Colonel W. de Basil visited the school and saw her dance. He invited her to join his company, and she toured with it. 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 1947.22Unlike many top female dancers in the era of movie musicals, she was trained as a ballerina in the Russian tradition.23Has two sons: Nicholas Charisse (born May 7, 1942) and Tony Martin Jr. (born August 28, 1950).24Had appeared with Ricardo Montalban in six films: Fiesta (1947), On an Island with You (1948), The Kissing Bandit (1948), The Mark of the Renegade (1951), Sombrero (1953) and Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976).25She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 2006 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington, D.C. for her services to dance.26Her daughter-in-law, Sheila Charisse, was killed in the May 25, 1979 crash of American Airlines flight 191 shortly after takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.27Has one son with her second husband, Tony Martin: Tony Martin Jr.28Was offered the lead role of Jo Stockton in Funny Face (1957) but declined. The role was eventually played by Audrey Hepburn.29Lost out on two of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer'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 role and became a star.30When casting the film Damn Yankees! (1958), the studio was initially interested in pursuing Cyd as Lola and Cary Grant as Applegate. In the end, Gwen Verdon won the right to recreate her stage role with Ray Walston the devilish Applegate. Cyd was supposedly unavailable but later played the role on the legit stage.31In Call Her Mom (1972), she was originally to have done the role played by Gloria DeHaven, but was replaced by Ann Miller before DeHaven finally took over the role.32In 1952, she had a $5-million insurance policy accepted on her legs.33Was "the other woman" in Marilyn Monroe's last and unfinished film Something's Got to Give (1962).34Aunt, by marriage, of actress Nana Visitor, Ian Tucker and Zan Charisse. Mother-in-law of Liv Lindeland.35Although 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).36Took her name Cyd from a nickname originated from her brother. Initially, he could not say sister and called her Sid. She took the nickname and convinced her agent to keep the name with the present spelling. He feared that Sid was too masculine.37She danced with the Ballet Russe using the names Maria Istomina and Felia Sidorova.