Dancer Ann Miller Dies of Cancer at 81

Yahooo ^ | 1/24/04

[Puppage]

[areafiftyone]

She was a great dancer. I believe she also held the world's record for the most taps per minute. I loved watching her movies.

[Puppage]

A a lovlier pair of "getaway sticks" there never were. Golden gams.

[lilylangtree]

Sad. She was a beautiful woman.

[Desdemona]

How sad. RIP to a great lady.

[GOPrincess]

Aw, shucks. We've seen most of her movies. Met her once briefly about 20 years ago, she was a very nice lady.

[Old Professer]

She was born Johnnie Lucille Collier in Chireno, Texas, the first name dictated by her father, who had wanted a boy. After her parents divorced, she was called Annie, for reasons she never knew.

My guess is that a kind-hearted friend compared her to an enormously popular cartoon character of the time: Little Orphan Annie (children of divorce are orphans, always.)

[szweig]

One of her most remembered roles was in the Stan Freberg-produced "Great American Soups" commercial. ~1970. A true classic. One hell of a dancer...SSZ

[EggsAckley]

[steveo]

RIP Nadine...

[dwd1]

I think she had her legs insured. Sad loss. My condolences to her family and loved ones. Rest in peace, pretty lady!

[afraidfortherepublic]

What a loss. She was still a beautiful woman the last time I sar her on TV -- just a few years ago -- and could still tap.

[Action-America]

She was a great dancer and actress. I just saw her in "On the Town" a couple of nights ago, with Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen. Thin plot, but what dancing!!! It's interesting that at the time, Frank Sinatra was the big draw, but now, when most people think of that movie, they think of Gene Kelly, Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen.

I'll have to watch the TV Guide listings for the next week or so, since they will probably play a lot of her shows on AMC and other classic movie channels.

[Clemenza]

She was one sexy lady in her day.

RIP Ann. First Fred, then Ginger and now another great hoofer goes...

[jocon307]

"I'll have to watch the TV Guide listings for the next week or so, since they will probably play a lot of her shows on AMC and other classic movie channels."

Good advice. I heard this sad news on the radio driving home tonight. Very sad, too much death around me these days. Again, (sigh).

[beckett]

No mention of a family. I have a feeling she never married or had kids.

What gams! She was an incredibly talented hoofer.

RIP

[independentmind]

Or perhaps there's another explantion...

She was signed by Columbia and they put her in a string of morale boosting WWII.films and a long string of B-picutures. She was even nicknamed “Queen of the B’s”! It was also during this time that the young and beautiful Ann began dating the most powerful movie mogul of all-time, L.B. Mayer. He proposed, but Ann did not want to marry such an older man, a father figure to her. She also became aware of a plot by her own studio’s boss, the notorious Harry Cohn, to set her up in a big, star-making movie to up her value in anticipation of her marrying Mayer and he wanting to buy her contract. Furious and confused, she took a radical way out- she married a recent boyfriend, steel heir Reese Milner.

He refused to let her continue her career, but compromised to let her finish a movie she had started filming before her marriage. Shortly after marrying the hard-drinking Milner, Ann discovered she was pregnant…and that her husband was a wife-beater. After a particularly bad beating, she held up production of the movie to recover, then finished under heavy make-up to hide her wounds. Unwilling to have a baby without a father, she made excuses for the violence and stayed with Milner. Columbia released her, as she requested, from her contract. Shortly before her baby was due, the couple had another fight. Ann fell down a long flight of stairs. Her spine was severely injured and she miscarried her baby. A daughter, the baby lived only 3 hours. She filed for divorce from her hospital bed.

[beckett]

I see. Tragic. Thanks for answering my question.

[archy]