Ann Miller

Ann Miller (born Johnnie Lucille Collier; April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American actress and dancer. She is best remembered for her work in the classical Hollywood cinema musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Her early work included roles in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It with You (1938) and the Marx Brothers film Room Service (1938). She later starred in the musical classics Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953). Her final film role was in Mulholland Drive (2001). In 1960, Miller received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, The Daily Telegraph named her one of the greatest actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. Early life Johnnie Lucille Collier (some sources provide other names, such as Lucille Collier and Lucy Ann Collier) was born at St. Joseph's Infirmary in Houston, Texas on April 12, 1923. She was the only child of mother Clara Emma (née Birdwell) and father John Alfred Collier, a criminal lawyer who represented the Barrow gang, Machine Gun Kelly and Baby Face Nelson. Her maternal grandmother was of Cherokee descent. Miller began dance classes at the age of five in an attempt to strengthen her legs after suffering from rickets. She came to be considered a child dance prodigy. In a documentary on the making of the compilation film That's Entertainment! Part III (1994), she said that Eleanor Powell was an early inspiration.