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01-22-2004, 07:16 PM
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=443899§ion=news
Dancer-actress Ann Miller dies
Thu 22 January, 2004 23:05
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Whirlwind tap dancer and actress Ann Miller, who starred in such Hollywood musical classics as "Easter Parade", "On the Town" and "Kiss Me Kate", has died of lung cancer at age 81, a spokeswoman says.
Miller, whose last screen performance was her supporting role as landlady Catherine "Coco" Lenoix in David Lynch's bizarre 2001 mystery "Mulholland Dr.", died on Thursday at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, her longtime spokeswoman Esme Chandlee said.
"She was a much better actress than people gave her credit for because she was always singing and dancing," Chandlee told Reuters.
Born and raised in Texas, Miller began dancing aged five as therapy for a childhood case of rickets and signed her first Hollywood contract with RKO as a teenager in the 1930s.
Winning notice as Ginger Rogers' dancing partner in the 1937 film "Stage Door", she landed supporting roles in a string of movies through the remainder of the decade, including "Room Service" with the Marx Brothers in 1938.
In the early 1940s, she set a record for the fastest tap dancing, producing more than 500 tap sounds per minute. In 1948, she signed with MGM and danced with Fred Astaire in her first film for that studio, "Easter Parade".
She co-starred with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Betty Garrett the following year in "On the Town" and played Lois Lane "Bianca" in the 1953 film version of "Kiss Me Kate".
Dancer-actress Ann Miller dies
Thu 22 January, 2004 23:05
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Whirlwind tap dancer and actress Ann Miller, who starred in such Hollywood musical classics as "Easter Parade", "On the Town" and "Kiss Me Kate", has died of lung cancer at age 81, a spokeswoman says.
Miller, whose last screen performance was her supporting role as landlady Catherine "Coco" Lenoix in David Lynch's bizarre 2001 mystery "Mulholland Dr.", died on Thursday at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, her longtime spokeswoman Esme Chandlee said.
"She was a much better actress than people gave her credit for because she was always singing and dancing," Chandlee told Reuters.
Born and raised in Texas, Miller began dancing aged five as therapy for a childhood case of rickets and signed her first Hollywood contract with RKO as a teenager in the 1930s.
Winning notice as Ginger Rogers' dancing partner in the 1937 film "Stage Door", she landed supporting roles in a string of movies through the remainder of the decade, including "Room Service" with the Marx Brothers in 1938.
In the early 1940s, she set a record for the fastest tap dancing, producing more than 500 tap sounds per minute. In 1948, she signed with MGM and danced with Fred Astaire in her first film for that studio, "Easter Parade".
She co-starred with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Betty Garrett the following year in "On the Town" and played Lois Lane "Bianca" in the 1953 film version of "Kiss Me Kate".