The Festival screening of Vincente Minnelli’s Brigadoon will allow us to once more see Cyd Charisse, the dance icon of film who died in 2008, in the unforgettable role of Fiona Campbell alongside Gene Kelly.

Born Tula Ellice Finklea in 1921 in Amarillo (Texas), she took dancing lessons as a child and in 1934 joined the Ballets Russes troupe, performing as “Celia Siderova” and “Maria Istromena.”  Her adopted name Cyd came from her brother’s childhood nickname for her (he couldn’t pronounce “Sis”).  She married dancer Nico Charisse in Paris in 1939.

When the Ballets Russes disbanded at the start of World War II, she went to Hollywood and got small dancing parts before being spotted for her skills with Fred Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies (1945). MGM gave her a seven-year contract.

In 1948 she married singer Tony Martin and in 1952 Gene Kelly chose her as his partner for the “Broadway Melody” number in Singin’ in the Rain.  She was nicknamed “The Legs” and hers were insured for $5 million that year.  Her dancing and artistic talent led to her first lead speaking part in Minnelli’s The Band Wagon (1953), when she played opposite Astaire. 

She became a star with further musical film hits in the 1950s, including Rouben Mamoulian’s Silk Stockings (1957), a remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s Ninotchka. She faded as musical films went out of fashion in the 1960s.

See IMDb article