20 Facts About Ann Miller

Ann Miller is best remembered for her work in the Classical Hollywood cinema musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.

Ann Miller later starred in the movie musical classics Charles Walters' Easter Parade, Stanley Donen's On the Town and George Sidney's Kiss Me Kate.

In 1960, Miller received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Ann Miller began to take dance classes at the age of five, after suffering from rickets.

Ann Miller's mother believed that these classes would help strengthen her young daughter's legs.

Ann Miller lived in Houston, Texas, until she was nine, when her parents divorced, reportedly due to her father's infidelities.

At age 13, in 1936, Ann Miller became a showgirl at the Bal Tabarin.

Ann Miller was hired as a dancer in the "Black Cat Club" in San Francisco.

Ann Miller ended her contract in 1946 with one "A" film, The Thrill of Brazil.

In later life, Ann Miller claimed to have invented pantyhose in the 1940s as a solution to the continual problem of tearing stockings during the filming of dance production numbers.

Ann Miller asked a hosiery maker to produce a single combined garment.

Ann Miller was known later in life for her distinctive appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamour: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a splash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs.

Ann 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.

Ann 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".

At the age of 63, Ann Miller sang and tap danced to "42nd Street" at the opening of the Disney MGM Studios on May 1,1989.

Ann Miller was the subject of This Is Your Life on British television in 1993 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at the studios of CBS Television City, Hollywood.

Ann Miller's first book was an autobiography, Miller's High Life.

Ann Miller married three times, to Reese Llewellyn Milner in 1946, to William Moss in 1958, and to Arthur Cameron in 1961, and in between marriages dated such well-known men as Howard Hughes, and Conrad Hilton.

Ann Miller died, aged 80, from lung cancer on January 22,2004, and her remains were interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

On February 8,1960, Ann Miller received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Blvd.