BEVERLY HILLS—Cyd Charisse, the actress and dancer from Texas, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering an apparent heart attack on Monday, Gene Schwam said. The amazing and striking long-legged actress appeared in a number of films, but her fame came from the musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Her career was filled with highlights like few others.

She sang and danced with legends Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain," and Fred Astaire in "Silk Stockings." At the height of her fame the film company said her long legs were insured for a million dollars. But her talent was enough to make her an essential part of the golden age of Technicolor musicals. Today, actresses frequently insure parts of their body, but Charisse had such talent that the “stunt” of insuring her legs didn’t eclipse the beauty and talent that she had on the screen.

"Her beauty was breathtaking," Debbie Reynolds, who starred with Charisse in the 1952 classic "Singin' in the Rain," said in a statement. Reynolds added, "The world will miss her dancing."

Born Tula Ellice Finklea in 1921, Charisse began her career dancing with the Ballet Russe as a teenager. During a European tour she met Nico Charisse, a young French dancer with whom she had trained in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939.

She appeared in her first Hollywood film in 1943, performing a ballet sequence in the musical "Something to Shout About."

Her exploits attracted the attention of the MGM studio, which gave her a seven-year contract and changed the spelling of her childhood nickname, Sid, to "Cyd."

She was married to her second husband, singer Tony Martin, and had just become a mother when she starred with Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain." Like most young MGM contract players, she was schooled in drama and voice, and diction lessons eliminated her Texas accent. The singing lessons didn't take, however, and the songs in her musicals were dubbed.

She graduated to become a featured dancer in sequences for such films as "Till the Clouds Roll By," "Fiesta," "On an Island with You," and "Words and Music." She also appeared in such dramatic films as "East Side, West Side," "Tension" and "Mark of the Renegade."

She later worked with Kelly again in "Brigadoon" and partnered with Fred Astaire in "The Band Wagon," as well as her favorite film, "Silk Stockings." After working with her, Astaire referred to Charisse as “beautiful dynamite.” He also said "She wasn't a tap dancer, she's just beautiful, trained, very strong in whatever we did.”

Charisse also appeared in "The Unfinished Dance," "Words and Music," "It's Always Fair Weather," and "Invitation to the Dance."

Later, she was in "Two Weeks in Another Town," made some films in Europe, including "Warlords of Atlantis," and appeared in several TV dramas.

She made her Broadway debut in 1992 at the age of 70 in the musical "Grand Hotel," reprising Greta Garbo's role, and continued to play small TV roles.

Peter Ford, the son of legendary dancer Eleanor Powell and actor Glenn Ford said today, “Hollywood has lost another one of our great classic stars. She was a magnificent dancer and a wonderful person.”

Another Hollywood icon, Ruta Lee spoke to only Canyon News about her experiences with Cyd Charisse.  Ruta said of her first meeting with the actress, "I was at MGM I was all of sixteen years old, in the makeup room along with the other girls from 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' getting my hair done. I looked over and there was Cyd Charisse, head in a bowl getting her hair done.  I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.  Being my not shy and bubbly self, I screamed oh my god, I think I've died and gone to heaven.  Miss Charisse.  Well, she was a cool as ice.  I remember thinking, what a terrible disappointment.  Only years later after getting to know her did I realize how incredibly shy she really was.  With maturity you sometimes learn that when people are not always friendly at first, they can sometimes as in Cyd's case be extremely shy.  As she got older, I noticed that at times she seemed aloof.  But then I realized she was losing her hearing."  Ruta Lee had great things to say about Cyd Charisse as an actress and dancer in addition to her being a quiet, dignified person.  "She has a place in Hollywood history forever and wow, those legs."  Same has been said about Ruta Lee as well.

Charisse and her husband are long time residents of Beverly Hills. The actress is survived by her longtime husband Tony Martin, and two sons.

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