Cyd Charisse Dies; Danced With Astaire, Kelly
There were dancers. And then there was Cyd Charisse. She was, as Fred Astaire put it, “beautiful dynamite.”
The leggy on-screen partner of Hollywood legends Astaire and Gene Kelly died early today at her Los Angeles home of a heart attack. Her rep said Charisse was 86.
To movie musical fans, Charisse will be remembered for joining Kelly in the famous “Broadway Melody” dream sequence from Singin’ in the Rain, and for taking on hard-boiled detectives with Astaire in “The Girl Hunt” number from The Band Wagon.
Rat Pack aficionados will remember Charisse, 45 and frisky, for heating up the screen as a showgirl in Dean Martin’s first Matt Helm movie, The Silencers.
And movie buffs will remember Charisse as a costar in Marilyn Monroe’s last, uncompleted movie, Something’s Got to Give, which fell apart following Monroe’s death in 1962.
Born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, Charisse earned a Golden Globe nomination for Silk Stockings, the 1957 musical that reunited her with Astaire.
Survivors include singer-actor Tony Martin, her husband of 60 years.
Catherine Bach Biography
This curvaceous brunette is best-known for her role as the feisty sister of “good ol’ boys” John Schneider and Tom Wopat on the popular CBS comedy-drama “The Dukes of Hazzard” (1979-85). Bach moved to California at 16 to study acting (at USC, and with coaches Milton Katselas and Anna Strasberg). She first came to the notice of TV viewers in the telefilms “Strange New World” and the “Matt Helm” pilot (both ABC, 1975). Her roles were small, and even smaller was her next billed part in “Murder in Peyton Place” (NBC, 1977).
But “The Dukes of Hazzard” came to her rescue, and from 1979-1985, Bach cavorted in cutoffs and tank-tops, the idol of male viewers in this mindless and popular rural comedy. The athletic and outgoing Bach also graced such ongoing TV specials as “The Battle of the Network Stars”, “Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes”, “Circus of the Stars” and “World’s Greatest Stunts”, as well as one-time shots on “The Nashville Palace” (ABC, 1980), “The Magic of David Copperfield” (CBS, 1981), and “Willie Nelson’s Picnic” (syndicated, 1987). She also provided the voice of Daisy in an animated version of the series, “The Dukes” (CBS, 1983).
Buoyed by her popularity but tied to the backwoods image, Bach appeared in two TV-movies: as a photojournalist up against “White Water Rebels” (CBS, 1983), and as “the other woman” in the PBS comedy “Drive, She Said” (1987). From 1992-1994, Bach returned to series TV as a businesswoman who moves to Africa with her teenaged son in “African Skies” (Family Channel). She agreed to reprise Daisy in “Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion” (CBS, 1997).
Bach’s forays into theatrical releases have not been as high-profile. She had small roles in Michael Cimino’s action comedy “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” and the drama “The Midnight Man” (both 1974) as well as Robert Aldrich’s thriller “Hustle” (1975), co-starring Burt Reynolds. She reteamed with Reynolds for “Cannonball Run II” (1983) and had her first starring role in the low-budget actioner “Driving Force” (1989). Since then it’s been large roles in small films: another actioner, “Street Justice” and the horror flick “Criminal Act” (both 1989); the biker road comedy “Masters of Menace” (1991); and the martial arts film “Rage & Honor” (1992). Former co-star Burt Reynolds gave Bach a theatrical showcase in the drama “Extremities” (1986), at his Florida dinner theater.
- Also Credited As:
Catherine Bachman - Born:
on 03/01/54 in Faith, South Dakota - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Brother: Phillip Bachman. born 1955
- Daughter: Sophia Isa-Bella Lopez. born c. January 1996
- Father: Bernard Bachman. divorced from Bach’s mother in 1960
- Mother: Norma Kucera. divorced from Bach’s father in 1960
Significant Others
- Husband: David Shaw. steps-n of Angela Lansbury; divorced 1982
- Husband: Peter Lopez. married in 1990
Milestones
- 1970 Moved to California to take drama courses
- 1974 Feature acting debut, “The Midnight Man”
- 1975 TV-movie acting debut, “Matt Helm”
- 1979 Starred as Daisy Duke on the popular CBS action series, “The Dukes of Hazzard”
- 1983 Provided voice of Daisy in the animated series “The Dukes”
- 1986 Starred onstage in “Extremities” (Jupiter, FL)
- 1989 First starring film role, in “Driving Force”
- 1994 Testified before Congress on behalf of the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act
- 1997 Reprised role of Daisy Duke in “Dukes of Hazard: Reunion”
- Raised in South Dakota
- Starred in series “African Skies” (Family Channel)