CYD CHARISSE, SILKEN DANCER OF MOVIES
Correction Appended
Cyd Charisse, the leggy beauty whose balletic grace made her a memorable partner for Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in classic MGM musicals like “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Band Wagon” and “Brigadoon,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. She was believed to be 86.
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MGM, via Photofest
Cyd Charisse with Fred Astaire in “The Band Wagon” (1953). More Photos »
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Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
Ms. Charisse with her husband, Tony Martin, this year. More Photos >
Readers’ Comments
“Cyd Charisse was the essence of style and elegance and oh! how she danced. I would leave the movie theater floating on a cloud.”
Gemma Arban, Jupiter, Fl
Her death, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was apparently caused by a heart attack, said her agent, Scott Stander.
Ms. Charisse came of age in a sparkling era of Hollywood musicals, and though she had some dramatic film roles, it was in musicals that she achieved her lasting renown. That fame later helped power a successful song-and-dance partnership with her husband, Tony Martin, in nightclubs and on television.
In his 1959 memoir, “Steps in Time,” Astaire called Ms. Charisse “beautiful dynamite.” She was a striking presence on film: slender and graceful with jet black hair. She stood 5 feet 6, but in high heels and full-length stockings — a familiar costume for her — she seemed even taller.
She made her film debut in 1943 under the name Lily Norwood in “Something to Shout About,” with Don Ameche and Janet Blair, and then spent almost a decade performing in small roles and sometimes anonymously before she got her big break. That came with “Singin’ in the Rain,” released in 1952.
Written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, the film established her as one of Hollywood’s most glamorous and seductive talents.
Set during the dawn of talking pictures, “Singin’ in the Rain” starred Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds and Jean Hagen. Ms. Charisse appeared in only one of the movie’s many indelible dance sequences, but one was enough. During the “Broadway Melody Ballet,” opposite Kelly, she was both sultry vamp and diaphanous dream girl.
A year later, “The Band Wagon” brought Ms. Charisse her first leading role. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, with a book by Comden and Green and songs by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz, the film starred Astaire, Ms. Charisse, Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray.
Astaire played a fading Hollywood song-and-dance man hoping to make a comeback on Broadway and who finds himself cast in a show opposite a snooty ballerina (Ms. Charisse).
The couple do not see eye-to-eye until they take a nighttime carriage ride through a moonlit Central Park and wind up embracing languorously to the strains of ”Dancing in the Dark.”
One of the most famous sequences from the film, if not in the history of dance on film, is “The Girl Hunt Ballet,” in which Ms. Charisse plays the vamp to Astaire’s private-eye stage character.
In “Brigadoon” (1954), also directed by Minnelli and adapted from the 1947 Broadway show by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Kelly and Van Johnson played American tourists who stumble on a mysterious Scottish village that materializes only once every 100 years. Kelly falls hard for a beautiful villager, Fiona (Ms. Charisse). They danced to “The Heather on the Hill.”
Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Tex. Though some sources say she was born on March 8, 1921, her agent said the year was 1922. She began taking dance lessons as a little girl. Her many name changes began, so the story goes, when her brother had trouble pronouncing “sister” and settled for “Sid.”
While still a teenager, she was sent to California for professional dance training and quickly became a member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a touring troupe, adopting the name Felia Sidorova. She was on a European tour when she met Nico Charisse, a handsome young dancer and dance instructor. They married in Paris when she was 18. In 1942, they had a son, Nicky.
By the early 1940s, Ms. Charisse had been spotted by studio scouts and her first film roles — as Lily Norwood — followed. (She also appeared anonymously in 1943 as a ballerina in “Mission to Moscow.”) In 1946, MGM, by then the king of Hollywood musicals, signed her to a contract and gave her minor roles in several films, including “The Harvey Girls,” “Till the Clouds Roll By” and “Ziegfeld Follies,” in which she danced a brief opening sequence with Astaire. When she was chosen to appear in “Ziegfeld Follies,” the producer Arthur Freed preferred the name Charisse to Norwood and changed the spelling of Sid to Cyd.
The next year, Ms. Charisse played a ballerina once again in “The Unfinished Dance,” which featured the child star Margaret O’Brien as a dance student.
Ms. Charisse was reunited with Kelly in the 1955 Comden and Green musical “It’s Always Fair Weather,” and was teamed with Fred Astaire in “Silk Stockings” (1957). In the latter, an update of the Greta Garbo vehicle “Ninotchka,” she played an icy Soviet functionary who is sent to Paris where she meets and is romanced by a Hollywood producer (Astaire).
Needless to say, she melts for Fred as they sing and dance to Cole Porter songs like “All of You” and “Fated to Be Mated.” It was the twilight of the Hollywood musical.
Ms. Charisse’s marriage to Nico Charisse ended in divorce in 1947. She married Mr. Martin in 1948. He survives her, along with their son, Tony Jr., and her son, Nicky, by her first marriage.
In November 2006, Ms. Charisse was one of the recipients of the National Medal of Arts presented by President Bush in a White House ceremony.
Looking back on her work with Kelly and Astaire during a 2002 interview in The New York Times, Ms. Charisse said that her husband, Mr. Martin, always knew whom she had been dancing with. “If I was black and blue,” she said, “it was Gene. And if it was Fred, I didn’t have a scratch.”
In a 1992 interview with The Times, she remembered dancing with Astaire to the demanding choreography, by Eugene Loring and Hermes Pan, in “Silk Stockings” and said admiringly, “Fred moved like glass.”
As it turned out, “Silk Stockings” was her last major musical. She appeared in a few more movies, chiefly in dramatic roles in films like “Party Girl” (1958) and “Two Weeks in Another Town” (1962). She and Mr. Martin took their nightclub act to Las Vegas and other cities. Her last film was an Italian drama, “Private Screenings” (1989).
Ms. Charisse made her belated Broadway debut in 1992 in “Grand Hotel,” when she replaced Liliane Montevecchi in the leading role of a famous but aging ballerina in 1920s Berlin. “I think that in all my dancing I play a role,” she told The Times that year. “To me, that’s what dancing is about. It’s not just steps.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 20, 2008
An obituary on Wednesday about the dancer and actress Cyd Charisse misidentified the choreographer for the 1957 film “Silk Stockings,” in which Ms. Charisse appeared with Fred Astaire . The choreography was by Eugene Loring and Hermes Pan, not Michael Kidd.
An obituary on Wednesday about the dancer and actress Cyd Charisse misidentified the choreographer for the 1957 film “Silk Stockings,” in which Ms. Charisse appeared with Fred Astaire . The choreography was by Eugene Loring and Hermes Pan, not Michael Kidd.
SOURCE: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
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STAN WINSTON, HOLLYWOOD SPECIAL-EFFECTS ARTIST
Stan Winston, the Oscar-winning special-effects artist who created the animatronic dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park,” the slimy 14-foot alien queen in “Aliens” and the liquid-metal assassin in “Terminator 2,” died Sunday at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 62.
Stan Winston Studio
Stan Winston with one of his creatures from “Jurassic Park.” He was awarded an Oscar for the film’s effects, one of four he won in his career.
The cause was multiple myeloma, said a spokesman for Stan Winston Studio.
Although he created some of the most famous special effects in movie history, Mr. Winston insisted that he cared less about technical wizardry than he did about storytelling. “It’s not about technology,” he once said. “It’s about writers writing wonderful stories with fantastic characters and me being able to create a visual image that’s beyond what you would expect.”
Courtesy of Mr. Winston, the unexpected leapt from the screen in dozens of films. He created the extraterrestrial assassin who hunts Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Predator,” the hands of “Edward Scissorhands” and the Penguin (from the neck up) in “Batman Returns.”
Mr. Winston won four Oscars for his film work and in 2001 he became the first special-effects artist to receive a star in the sidewalk on Hollywood Boulevard.
Stan Winston was born in Arlington, Va., and as a child was fascinated with puppets, monster movies and special effects. Disneyland’s animatronic Abraham Lincoln only deepened his obsessions. He earned a degree in art at the University of Virginia then set out for Hollywood.
After seeing “Planet of the Apes,” he entered a Disney apprenticeship program and became a makeup artist in 1972. His work on the television movie “Gargoyles” won him an Emmy Award, as did his makeup effects for “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” in which the title character ages from 19 to 110.
In the early 1980s, Mr. Winston entered into a collaboration with James Cameron, the director of the “Terminator” films and “Aliens.” His creepy exoskeleton effect for the villain in the first “Terminator” film inspired a host of imitations.
His second collaboration with Mr. Cameron, on “Aliens,” earned him his first Academy Award, in 1986. He would receive three more: two for “Terminator 2: Judgment Day (special effects and makeup) and one for “Jurassic Park.”
In 1988, Mr. Winston directed his own film, “Pumpkinhead,” in which a rural father summons an ancient demon to wreak vengeance on the city slickers who accidentally kill his son. He teamed up with Mr. Cameron for “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and created a protean villain resembling quicksilver that was able to transform itself into almost anything.
Mr. Winston returned to dinosaurs in “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic Park III.” And again with Mr. Spielberg, he contributed special effect to “A.I.,” notably Teddy, a walking, talking animatronic teddy bear.
In 2001, Mr. Winston produced five films for the HBO series “Creature Features,” a tribute to the cheaply made horror films of the 1950s. At the same time he started Stan Winston Creatures, a toy company whose first line was based on characters in the Creature Features series.
More recently, he contributed to “Iron Man,” released earlier this year, and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He also worked on the unreleased films “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins,” “G.I. Joe,” “Shutter Island” and Mr. Cameron’s “Avatar.”
He is survived by his wife, Karen; a son, Matt, of Encino, Calif.; a daughter, Debbie Litoff, of Woodland Hills, Calif.; and four grandchildren.
SOURCE: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
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LAWRENCE MARSHALL, CAR DEALER WHO GAINED REPUTATION FOR GOOD SERVICE
Lawrence Marshall embodied a ‘rags-to-riches story’ with his automobile dealerships
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Lawrence Marshall, who transformed a rural automobile dealership into one of the most successful such operations in the Houston area, has died. He was 84.
Beginning in the 1950s as a small-town operation in Hempstead, Marshall’s dealerships won a reputation for reasonable prices and customer satisfaction, said his son, Ricky Marshall.
“It’s a rags-to-riches story. For my dad, it wasn’t just low prices,” he said. “It was hands-on service, and during the 1970s and 1980s he sold lots of the vehicles himself. When they asked to see Lawrence, the customers usually got to see Lawrence.”
Marshall won such sales awards as the Chevrolet Century Club and Oldsmobile’s Vanguard Elites. For excellence in customer service, he won the Chevrolet Service Supremacy Medallion.
Started career as mechanic
Lawrence Connie Marshall was born on June 3, 1924, in Houston, the son of Louis Connie Marshall, a carpenter, and Lillie Bertha Frey Marshall. He graduated from Reagan High School.
Turned down for military service in World War II because of asthma, Marshall began his career as a mechanic and crew chief at auto races in the Houston area.
After operating a used car dealership on Washington Avenue with Houston businessman Charles Allred, Marshall in the 1950s bought a Chevrolet-Oldsmobile dealership in Hempstead. He later acquired Ford-Mercury and Dodge-Chrysler-Plymouth dealerships in Hempstead, Cadillac-Oldsmobile and Pontiac-Buick dealerships in Bryan and a Chevrolet dealership in Giddings.
In 1999, former Houston Oilers defensive lineman Ray Childress bought five of the dealerships. In 2001, a group in Austin acquired the Giddings dealership.
Lawrence Marshall also operated the Lawrence Marshall Antique Cars Museum and developed the Legendary Oaks subdivision and golf course in Hempstead.
He was a former president of the Waller County Fair Association. Marshall owned an exotic game ranch, Carta Valley Wildlife, between Rocksprings and Del Rio.
“He loved that place. It was a spiritual release for him,” Ricky Marshall said.
“I wouldn’t swap my dad for any daddy on earth. He didn’t drink or smoke, was a one-wife man, a churchgoer,” his son said. “His philosophy was God, family and business, in that order.”
Defeated prostate cancer
Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996, Lawrence Marshall was given a few years to live but defeated the disease. He died in his Hempstead home on June 15 of a series of strokes, his son said.
Lawrence Marshall was predeceased by his parents and a sister, Grace Stern, and a brother, Vernie Marshall.
In addition to his son Ricky Marshall of Navasota, survivors include his wife of 64 years, Mavanelle Clendennen “Nell” Marshall of Hempstead; and another son, Monte Marshall of Bellville.
Services were held Thursday at the Church of Christ, 100 FM 359, in Hempstead. Burial was in Woodlawn Cemetery in Houston under direction of McWilliams Funeral Home in Hempstead.
SOURCE: Houston Chronicle; http://www.chron.com
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TONY SCHWARTZ, CO-CREATOR OF PIVOTAL ‘DAISY AD’
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Tony Schwartz, who helped create the infamous “daisy ad” that ran only once during the 1964 presidential race but changed political advertising forever, has died.
Schwartz, 84, died Sunday at his Manhattan home, said his daughter Kayla Schwartz-Burridge. He had been suffering from heart valve stenosis.
Schwartz collaborated with a team from the Doyle Dean Bernbach ad agency to create the spot featuring a little girl counting aloud as she removed the petals of a daisy.
The scene then changed into a countdown to an atomic blast. President Johnson, the Democratic incumbent seeking re-election, did the voiceover with the line, “We must either love each other, or we must die” — a paraphrase of a famous W.H. Auden poem.
The ad made no mention of Johnson’s Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, but the implication was clear.
After public criticism, it was withdrawn.
Johnson went on to win re-election, and the spot has been credited with ushering in an era of negative political ads.
Schwartz worked on other campaigns for politicians and corporate clients, including Coca-Cola and Chrysler.
“He thought you could best influence people and best reach people by touching something in them,” Schwartz-Burridge said.
The author of two books, Schwartz taught media studies at several universities.
But because he suffered from agoraphobia, he relied on technology to teach from home.
His work was acquired by the Library of Congress in 2007.
SOURCE: Houston Chronicle: http://www.chron.com
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FROM THE ARCHIVES:
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(June 22, 1965)
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Grover Cleveland, 22nd President, Dies at 71
(June 24, 1908)
Nancy Mitford, Satiric Novelist, Dies at 68
(June 30, 1973)
Lillian Hellman, Playwright and Author, Dies at 79
(June 30, 1984)
Ann
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