Johnnie Lucille Collier (some sources provide other names, such as Lucille Collier[2] and Lucy Ann Collier)[3][4] was born on April 12, 1923, at St. Joseph's Infirmary in Houston, Texas.[5] 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.[6] Her maternal grandmother was of Cherokee descent.[6]
Miller was put in dance classes at the age of five in an attempt to strengthen her legs after suffering from rickets.[7] 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.[8]
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."[9] 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.[7]
Career
1936–1956: Film actress
Miller in 1946
RKO
In 1936, at age 13, Miller was hired as a showgirl at the Bal Tabarin. Due to employment laws regarding establishments that sold liquor, Miller lied and gave her age as 18. Miller appeared in small roles in films like Anne of Green Gables (1934), The Good Fairy (1935), and The Devil on Horseback (1936).
While working at Bal Tabarin, Miller was discovered by Lucille Ball and talent scout/comic Benny Rubin.[10][9] This led to a contract with RKO Pictures, who also believed that Miller was 18. When RKO discovered her true age later, Miller's father provided a fake birth certificate with the name Lucy Ann Collier.[11][12][9]
Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing. Studio publicists drafted press releases claiming that she could tap 500 times per minute. But 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. Then, like all other film dancers of the time -- including Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, Gene Kelly, etc., -- she would then loop or 'dub' the sound of the taps while watching the film and dance on a "tap board" to match her steps in the film.[14]
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.[14][15]
In July 1945, Miller 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."[16]
MGM
After leaving Columbia and recovering from an injury, Miller was hired as a contract player at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first appearance was in Easter Parade (1948), in which she co-starred alongside Fred Astaire and Judy Garland.
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.[17]
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,[18] On May 1, 1989, at the age of 66, Miller sang and tap-danced to "42nd Street" at the opening of the Disney MGM Studios, her last live dance performance.[citation needed]
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).[19] Her second was Tapping into the Force (1990), a book about her experiences in the psychic world.[20][21]
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."[22] In 2001, Miller played her last role as landlady Coco in director David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive.
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 his being married.[15][24]
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.[24] Miller filed for divorce shortly after.[24] She alleged that her second husband was also abusive.[24]
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.[28] To honor Miller's contribution to dance, the Smithsonian Institution displays her favorite pair of tap shoes, which she playfully nicknamed "Moe and Joe."[29]
Episode - "The Musical/My Ex-Mom/The Show Must Go On/The Pest/My Aunt, the Worrier" (Part 1) Episode - "The Musical/My Ex-Mom/The Show Must Go On/The Pest/My Aunt, the Worrier" (Part 2)
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