In Remembrance: Ann Miller

     Ann Miller, the long legged dancer and actress who graced many movie musicals including On The Town (1949), Easter Parade (1948) and Kiss Me Kate (1953), has passed away on Thursday January 22, 2004. She was 81.

     Born April 12, 1923 in Chireno, Texas, Miller was named Johnnie Lucille Collier by her father, a prominent criminal lawyer who had wanted a son. She started taking dance lessons at age five as part of her therapy from an attack of rickets. Her parents divorced when she was 10 and she moved with her mother to Hollywood. As her mother was deaf and not receiving alimony, Miller soon took up dancing in nightclubs to help put food on the table under the name Annie Miller.

     It was after being seen at San Francisco’s popular Bal Tabarin nightclub by studio talent scout Benny Rubin, she was offered a contract with RKO Studios. Shortening her name to Ann, she debuted as a featured dancer in the appropriately named New Faces of 1937 revue. Her next film, Stage Door, which contained her first acting role, cast her along side Katherine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. She continued to act and dance in a number of low budget RKO features including Radio City Revels (1937) in a role originally destined for Joan Fonatine and Room Service (1938) with the Marx Brothers. She was loaned out to Columbia Pictures for the role of a would-be ballerina in Frank Capra’s Academy Award winning You Can’t Take It With You.

     In 1938 Miller asked to be let out of her RKO contract due to a conflict of interests. Her agent also represented Eleanor Powell who was at MGM, which didn’t like the idea of Miller developing into a rival for Powell at the box office. Heading back east she starred in the final edition of George White’s Scandals on Broadway in 1939.

     She returned to Hollywood in 1940 where she appeared in a pair of pictures for Republic Pictures (Melody Ranch with Gene Autry and Hit Parade of 1941) before singing with Columbia Pictures. Starting with 1941’s Time Out For Rhythm, Miller would star in a series of wartime musicals and comedies for the studio, earning the nickname “The Queen of the Bs.”

     Miller was loaned out to MGM for the Fred Astaire musical Easter Parade (1948) to replace dancer Cyd Charisse who broke her leg before the start of filming. (Ironically Astaire was a last minute substitution for Gene Kelly who had broken his ankle two days before filming had been set to begin.) Her work in the film lead to a contract with the studio. At MGM, she would make her best-remembered films including On The Town (1949) with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra and Kiss Me Kate (1953). Other films include Lovely To Look At (1952), Deep In My Heart (1954) and The Opposite Sex (1956). Her final film at MGM was 1956’s The Great American Pastime after which she retired from movie making.

     Miller continued to act on television and in theatre, appearing in Broadway productions of Hello, Dolly and Mame. Starting in 1979, she co-starred with Mickey Rooney in a successful run of the show Sugar Babies, first on Broadway and then on tour.

     Miller only made two screen appearances after her retirement. The first was a cameo in the 1976 comedy Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood. In 2001, she appeared in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.