In "Brigadoon" (1954), also directed by Minnelli and adapted from the 1947 Broadway show by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Kelly and Van Johnson played two American tourists who stumble on a mysterious Scottish village that materializes only once every 100 years. Kelly falls hard for a beautiful villager, Fiona (Charisse). They danced to "The Heather on the Hill."

Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas. Though some sources say she was born on March 8, 1921, her agent said the year was 1922. She began taking dance lessons as a little girl. Her many name changes began, so the story goes, when her brother had trouble pronouncing "sister" and settled for "Sid."

While still a teenager, she was sent to California for professional dance training and quickly became a member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a touring troupe, adopting the name Felia Sidorova. She was on a European tour when she met Nico Charisse, a handsome young dancer and dance instructor. They married in Paris when she was 18. In 1942, they had a son, Nicky.

By the early 1940s, Charisse had been spotted by studio scouts and her first film roles — as Lily Norwood — followed. (She also appeared anonymously in 1943 as a ballerina in "Mission to Moscow.")

In 1946, MGM, by then the king of Hollywood musicals, signed her to a contract and, in quick order, gave her minor roles in several films, including "The Harvey Girls," "Till the Clouds Roll By" and "Ziegfeld Follies," in which she danced a brief opening sequence with Astaire. When she was chosen to appear in "Ziegfeld Follies," the producer Arthur Freed preferred the name Charisse to Norwood and changed the spelling of Sid to Cyd.

The next year, Charisse played a ballerina once again in "The Unfinished Dance," which featured the child star Margaret O'Brien as an ambitious dance student.

Charisse was reunited with Kelly in the 1955 Comden and Green musical "It's Always Fair Weather," and was teamed with Fred Astaire in "Silk Stockings" (1957). In the latter, an update of the Greta Garbo vehicle "Ninotchka," she played an icy Soviet functionary who is sent to Paris where she meets and is romanced by a Hollywood producer (Astaire). Needless to say, she melts for Fred as they sing and dance to Cole Porter songs like "All of You" and "Fated to Be Mated." It was the twilight of the Hollywood musical.

Charisse's marriage to Nico Charisse ended in divorce in 1947. She married Martin in 1948. He survives her, along with their son, Tony Jr., and her son, Nicky, by her first marriage.

In November 2006, Charisse was one of the recipients of the National Medal of Arts presented by President Bush in a White House ceremony.