Ann Miller

Ann Miller (born Johnnie Lucille Collier; April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American actress and dancer. She is best remembered for her work in the classical Hollywood cinema musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Her early work included roles in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It with You (1938) and the Marx Brothers film Room Service (1938). She later starred in the musical classics Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953). Her final film role was in Mulholland Drive (2001).
In 1960, Miller received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, The Daily Telegraph named her one of the greatest actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
Early life
Johnnie Lucille Collier (some sources provide other names, such as Lucille Collier and Lucy Ann Collier) was born at St. Joseph's Infirmary in Houston, Texas on April 12, 1923. She was the only child of mother Clara Emma (née Birdwell) and father John Alfred Collier, a criminal lawyer who represented the Barrow gang, Machine Gun Kelly and Baby Face Nelson. Her maternal grandmother was of Cherokee descent.
Miller began dance classes at the age of five in an attempt to strengthen her legs after suffering from rickets. She came to be considered a child dance prodigy. In a documentary on the making of the compilation film That's Entertainment! Part III (1994), she said that Eleanor Powell was an early inspiration.
When Miller was nine, her parents divorced, reportedly due to her father's infidelities. Miller later noted that her father "wasn't a very good dad." After the divorce, she and her mother moved to Los Angeles, but her mother struggled to find work due to deafness. Because Miller appeared much older than her true age, she began to work as a dancer in nightclubs and supported her mother. She adopted the stage name Ann Miller, which she kept throughout her career.
Career
1936-56: Film actress
At age 13 in 1936, Miller became a showgirl at the Bal Tabarin. Due to laws regarding employment at establishments that sold liquor, Miller lied about her age and said she was 18. While working at Bal Tarbin, Miller was discovered by Lucille Ball and talent scout/comic Benny Rubin there. This led to a contract with RKO, who were under the belief that Miller was 18. When they discovered her true age later, her father provided a fake birth certificate with the name Lucy Ann Collier. Miller's first major role came as Ginger Rogers’ dancing partner in Gregory La Cava’s Stage Door in 1937. In 1938 and 1939, Miller was a supporting actress in many of the studio's films such as Radio City Revels, Room Service, and most notably as the quirky Essie Carmichael in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You. In 1939, Miller made her Broadway debut in George White's Scandals of 1939. She remained at RKO until 1940.
Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing. Studio publicists drafted press releases claiming that she could tap 500 times per minute, but the sound of 500 taps was artificial. Because the stage floors were waxed and too slick for regular tap shoes, she had to dance in shoes with rubber treads on the soles. She would then loop the sound of the taps while watching the film and dance on a "tap board" to match her steps in the film. In later life, Miller claimed to have invented pantyhose in the 1940s as a solution to the continual problem of torn stockings during the filming of dance-production numbers. The common practice had been to sew hosiery to briefs, and if torn, the entire garment had to be removed and resewn with a new pair. Miller asked a hosiery maker to produce a single combined garment.
In 1941, she signed with Columbia Pictures starred in 11 B musicals from 1941 to 1945, beginning with Time Out for Rhythm. In July 1945, she posed in a bathing suit as a Yank magazine pin-up girl. She ended her contract in 1946 with one A film, The Thrill of Brazil. An advertisement for the film in Life magazine featured Miller's leg in a stocking tied with a large red bow as the "T" in "Thrill."
After leaving Columbia and recovering from a personal injury, Miller signed a contract with MGM. Her first appearance was in Easter Parade (1948), in which she co-starred alongside Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. During her time at MGM, Miller mostly appeared as the secondary female lead in films such as On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953).
1957-89: Stage work
As the studio system and musical films began to fade in the late 1950s, Miller turned her attention to theater and television appearances. She became known later for her distinctive appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamour: large black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a splash of crimson lipstick and fashions that emphasized her figure and long legs.
In May 1969, Miller made a comeback on Broadway when she took over the title role in the musical Mame, dancing a tap number created for her. Miller remained in the role until the show closed in January 1970. The following year, she headlined a television production of Dames at Sea alongside Ann-Margret for NBC. She also appeared in an iconic television commercial for “The Great American Soup” (created by Stan Freberg) in which she rose through the floor atop an eight-foot high cylinder designed to resemble a giant soup can. The advertisement was intended as a spectacular song and dance number in the tradition of the musicals in which she had starred.
Miller began touring with theater productions such as Hello, Dolly! and Panama Hattie. In 1979, she appeared in the Broadway show Sugar Babies with fellow MGM veteran Mickey Rooney, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. The duo toured the country extensively after the show's Broadway run. In 1983, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. At the age of 63, Miller sang and tap-danced to "42nd Street" at the opening of the Disney MGM Studios on May 1, 1989, her last live dance performance.
Miller appeared in a special 1982 episode of The Love Boat, joined by fellow showbiz legends Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Della Reese, Van Johnson and Cab Calloway in a storyline that cast them as older relatives of the show's regular characters. Miller also published two books. Her first was an autobiography, Miller's High Life (1972). Her second was Tapping into the Force (1990), a book about her experiences in the psychic world.
1990-2004: Final projects
During the 1990s, Miller rose as a popular figure to interview for her time in the Golden Age of Hollywood. She was the subject of This Is Your Life on British television in 1993 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at the studios of CBS Television City. That same year, she appeared as a dance instructor in the Home Improvement episode "Dances with Tools".
Miller's last stage performance was a 1998 Paper Mill Playhouse production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, in which she played hard-boiled Carlotta Campion and received rave reviews for her rendition of the song "I'm Still Here." In 2001, Miller played her last role as landlady Coco in director David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive.
Between 1995 and 2001, Molly Shannon parodied Miller several times on Saturday Night Live in a recurring sketch titled "Leg-Up!"
Personal life
Miller was married three times: to Reese Llewellyn Milner from 1946 to 1947; to William Moss from 1958 to 1961; and to Arthur Cameron from 1961 to 1962. Between marriages, she dated well-known men such as Howard Hughes and Conrad Hilton. In 1944, Louis B. Mayer, proposed to her despite him being married.
During her marriage to Milner, Miller became pregnant. During her last trimester, Milner threw her down a flight of stairs, breaking her back and causing her to experience premature labor. Her baby, Mary, lived only three hours on November 12, 1946. Miller filed for divorce shortly after. She alleged that her second husband was also abusive.
Death
Miller died at the age of 80 from lung cancer on January 22, 2004, and her remains were interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
For her contribution to the motion-picture industry, Miller has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California Walk of Stars was dedicated to her. To honor Miller's contribution to dance, the Smithsonian Institution displays her favorite pair of tap shoes, which she playfully nicknamed "Moe and Joe."
Work
Film
Television
Theatre
Awards and nominations
On February 8, 1960, Miller received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Blvd.
See also
List of dancers
Ann Dvorak
References
Further reading
Miller, Ann, Miller's High Life. Doubleday, 1972. .
Oderman, Stuart, Talking to the Piano Player 2. BearManor Media, 2009. .
External links
Profile @ Turner Classic Movies
Photos of Ann Miller from 'Eadie Was A Lady' by Ned Scott
1923 births
2004 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Houston
Age controversies
American child actresses
American female dancers
American film actresses
American musical theatre actresses
American people who self-identify as being of Cherokee descent
American Shakespearean actresses
American stage actresses
American tap dancers
Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
California Republicans
Catholics from Texas
Columbia Pictures contract players
Dancers from Texas
Deaths from lung cancer in California
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
Musicians from Houston
People from Harris County, Texas
RKO Pictures contract players
Singers from Texas