Cyd Charisse who was known for her dancing in classic films with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly died Tuesday in Los Angeles She was in her mid-80s Her publicist confirmed to press that Charisse was admitted to the hospital Monday after suffering a heart attack and did not recoverA Texas native she got her start with the Ballet Russe but became known as a darling of the musicals of the 1940s and 50s Along with Rain Charisse starred in numerous classics including Ziegfeld Follies The Band Wagon and Brigadoon MGM was her home studio and she once described it as a fairyland says the AP Born as Tula Ellice Finklea Charisse married Nico Charisse in 1939 and then Tony Martin in 1948 She has two sons Tony Jr and NickySilk Stockings was the last of her dancing roles in films but she continued to act in dramatic roles making her Broadway debut in 1992 One of her more famous subsequent roles was as Dean Martins new wife in 1962s Somethings Got to Give which wa
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Question: My wife and I were having dinner recently at an Italian restaurant and the background music was Dean Martin singing songs from Guys and Dolls. We agreed that Martin would have been much better than Marlon Brando in the movie — was Martin too new on the Hollywood scene to be considered, or was the studio pushing Brando?
Answer: Producer Sam Goldman wanted Gene Kelly to play Sky Masterson in the movie version of the Broadway hit Guys and Dolls (1955), but Kelly couldn't get released from his MGM contract. (Though MGM stands for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sam Goldwyn was only part of the studio, which was formed by merging three existing companies, for a couple of years; in 1923, he formed his own Samuel Goldwyn Productions. MGM kept the
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