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| Birth Name(s) : Johnnie Lucille Collier |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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| Profession:
Actor |
Official Site
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Full Ann Miller Biography
The star of forty motion pictures and Broadway shows, national tours and innumerable television appearances, Ann Miller has been tap dancing since her earliest childhood days.
Ann began her Hollywood career at age eleven, and with her vibrant personality, great legs and her tap dancing, won a seven year contract with R.K.O. at the age of thirteen (claiming to be eighteen). She was so remarkable that by age fourteen, she played Ginger Roger's dancing partner in "Stage Door", which started a Motion Picture Career that spanned 20 years. During that period, Ann appeared in more than 40 films. At fifteen, Ann was "borrowed" by Columbia to appear with James Stewart and Jean Arthur in "You Can't Take It With You" which won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1938. That same year, back at R.K.O., she appeared with the Marx Brothers in "Room Service". She left R.K.O. and starred on Broadway in the George White Scandals of 1939 and 1940. Following her initial contract with R.K.O., Ann came back to appear in the Rogers and Hart musical, "Too Many Girls". She went on to make twelve movies in six years at Columbia Studios. She was borrowed by Republic Studio to star in Gene Autry's first musical "Melody Ranch" in 1940 and "Hit Parade" of 1941. |
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Additional Ann Miller Biography
Miller was born Johnnie Lucille Ann Collier in Chireno, Texas, daughter of Clara Emma (née Birdwell) and John Alfred Collier, a criminal lawyer who represented Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow and Baby Face Nelson, among others. Miller's maternal grandmother was Cherokee. Miller's father insisted on the name Johnnie because he had wanted a boy, but she was often called Annie. She took up dancing to exercise her legs to help her rickets. She was considered a child dance prodigy. In an interview featured in a "behind the scenes" documentary on the making of the compilation That's Entertainment III, she said that Eleanor Powell was an early inspiration.
Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing; she claimed to be able to tap 500 times per minute. She was known as well, especially later in her career, for her distinctive appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamor: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a slash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs. Her film career effectively ended in 1956 as the studio system lost steam to television, but she remained active in the theatre and on television. In 1979 she astounded audiences in the Broadway show Sugar Babies with fellow MGM veteran Mickey Rooney, which toured the United States extensively after its Broadway run. In 1983 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.
She 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. In 2001 she took her last role, playing Coco in auteur director David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive. Her last stage performance was a 1998 production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, in which she played the hardboiled survivor Carlotta Campion and received rave reviews for her rendition of the anthemic "I'm Still Here".
Miller also performed a guest appearance on Home Improvement as a dance instructor to Tim and Jill. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Ann Miller has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Blvd.
She died at the age of 80 from cancer which had metastasized to her lungs, and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Features:
- Anne of Green Gables (1934)
- The Good Fairy (1935)
- The Devil on Horseback (1936)
- New Faces of 1937 (1937)
- The Life of the Party (1937)
- Stage Door (1937)
- Radio City Revels (1938)
- Having Wonderful Time (1938)
- You Can't Take It with You (1938)
- Room Service (1938)
- Tarnished Angel (1938)
- Too Many Girls (1940)
- Hit Parade of 1941 (1940)
- Melody Ranch (1940)
- Time Out for Rhythm (1941)
- Go West, Young Lady (1941)
- True to the Army (1942)
- Priorities on Parade (1942)
- Reveille with Beverly (1943)
- What's Buzzin', Cousin? (1943)
- Hey, Rookie (1944)
- Jam Session (1944)
- Carolina Blues (1944)
- Eadie Was a Lady (1945)
- Eve Knew Her Apples (1945)
- The Thrill of Brazil (1946)
- Easter Parade (1948)
- The Kissing Bandit (1948)
- On the Town (1949)
- Watch the Birdie (1950)
- Texas Carnival (1951)
- Two Tickets to Broadway (1951)
- Lovely to Look At (1952)
- Small Town Girl (1953)
- Kiss Me, Kate (1953)
- Deep in My Heart (1954)
- Hit the Deck (1955)
- The Opposite Sex (1956)
- The Great American Pastime (1956)
- Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
- A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
- That's Entertainment! III (1994)
- Mulholland Drive (2001)
- Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003) (documentary)
- Goodnight, We Love You (2004) (documentary)
Short Subjects:
- Meet the Stars #8: Stars Past and Present (1941)
- Screen Snapshots Series 21, No. 1 (1941)
- Some of the Best (1949)
- Mighty Manhattan, New York's Wonder City (1949) |
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