A biography for Cyd Charissehasn’t been written yet.
“There was a technique to making a musical. It took a long time for the studios to learn it, and it was very complicated.”
“Have you ever noticed how a cat stretches after a nap? We can learn from watching animals.”
“Ballet is a closed world and very rigid; MGM was a fairyland. You'd walk down the lot, seeing all these fabulous movies being made with the greatest talent in the world sitting there. It was a dream to walk through that lot.”
“Tap was against everything I had learned to do. I was pulled up as a ballet dancer, and I wasn't used to pounding the floor with bent knees.”
“I have never been extroverted.”
“I like to work. It gets boring sitting around.”
“I've done about everything in show business except to play on Broadway. I always hoped that I would one day. It's the World Series of show business. If anybody tells you they're not intimidated, they're lying.”
“I never considered going into motion pictures.”
“Making a movie is like sprinting. Nightclub work is a long-distance event. You have to pace yourself and sustain it for a long period.”
“If I had to give up either acting or dancing, I'd choose to keep dancing.”
“He was a wonderful gentleman, elegant, with great humility. All the wonderful things you can say about a person, you have to say about Fred Astaire.”
“I think that in all my dancing I play a role,' she told The Times that year. 'To me, that's what dancing is about. It's not just steps.”
“Everything has come to me without my having to look for it. I signed with Metro because someone thought I had talent, and it was the same thing with the ballet.”
“I was christened Tula Ellice Finklea.”
“Fred Astaire was special, and such a marvelous human being.”
“I never know which camera is on me when I'm dancing and the director picks the shot he likes but it usually isn't the best shot for showing the steps I want the audience to see.”
“A lot of people resented MGM because it could be very paternalistic but for me, the experience was very good.”
“If I have any strength as a dancer, I got it all from Nijinska. Her barre was tough, and there were very difficult combinations.”
“I danced with the Ballet Russe in Paris when I was 16 and did not need a companion.”
“I had no delusions about myself. I couldn't act - I had never acted. So how could I be a movie star?”