Ann Miller

A lovely and talented star of movie musicals for over two decades who then enjoyed an equally long run on the stage, Ann Miller was one of the prime practitioners of "machine gun tap dancing" and was capable of several hundred taps per minute. Starting in small productions from studios like RKO and Columbia, the long-legged brunette gradually worked her way up to the big-budget musical extravaganzas produced by MGM, where she received guidance from top flight choreographers like Busby Berkeley, Hermes Pan and Nick Castle, and was dubbed Ann "Legs" Miller by influential gossip columnist Walter Winchell. Though her 5 foot-7-inch frame reportedly intimidated screen partners Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, Miller's beauty and irrefutable dancing and singing abilities won her a following, thanks to hits like "Easter Parade" (1948), "On the Town" (1949), "Two Tickets to Broadway" (1951), "Small Town Girl" (1952) and "Kiss Me Kate" (1953). When her MGM contract ended in the mid-1950s, Miller took her talents to the stage and went on to star in various productions, including a hugely successful nine-year run in the musical comedy smash "Sugar Babies" alongside Mickey Rooney. Cast mostly as the second lead in her movies, she did not attain the heights of popularity enjoyed by Ginger Rogers or Eleanor Powell, but Miller was a dazzler in her own right and one of the premiere tap dancers and all-around performers in the Golden Age of movie musicals.