Watch Cyd Charrise and Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain

Cyd Charisse, the actress-dancer whose legs were once insured for a million dollars, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 86.

Charisse became famous for dancing with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in hit movies of the 1940s and 1950s including "Singin' in the Rain" and "Brigadoon", but when the age of Technicolor musicals waned she went on to forge a successful song-and-dance career in television and clubs with her second husband, the singer Tony Martin.

In Astaire's 1959 memoir, "Steps in Time", he described Charisse as "beautiful dynamite" for her exceptional grace and good looks. She stood just 5ft 6ins in her stockinged feet, but projected an air of serene tallness.

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She died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after suffering a heart attack, not long after celebrating her sixtieth wedding anniversary. Scott Stander, her agent, described Charisse as "one of the classiest ladies you would have ever met".

Debbie Reynolds, who starred with her in "Singing in the Rain", also paid tribute. "Her beauty was breathtaking. The world will miss her dancing."

Born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, on March 8, 1922, Charisse was a classically trained ballet dancer who was recruited to the renowned Ballet Russe at the age of 14, one of very few non-Russian dancers in the corps de ballet. To conceal her nationality she danced under the name Celia Siderova.

When war broke out the Ballet Russe disbanded and Charisse moved to Hollywood with her new husband, ballet dancer Nico Charisse, whom she married in 1939. Their son, Nicky, was born in 1942.

She broke into the movies the following year, dancing opposite Don Ameche in "Something to Shout About" under the stage name Lily Norwood. That name was quickly cast aside and she settled on Cyd - a version of her childhood petname, Sid - and Charisse from her husband.

The marriage ended in divorce in 1947, but meanwhile Charisse's success in her first film led to her being signed to MGM at a time when the studio was establishing itself as the king of musicals, with a huge range of talent to draw on. Dancers, singers, directors, choreographers, composers, conducters and a full-size symphony orchestra were all under contract.

The voice training MGM offered got rid of her Texas accent, but she never managed to sing well enough for the movies and her voice was dubbed.

She rose to fame playing the vamp who entices Kelly in the 1952 classic "Singin’ in the Rain", making an unforgettable entrance by dangling Kelly’s straw hat on the toe of her high heeled shoe. She went on to play Kelly’s leading lady in Vincente Minnelli’s "Brigadoon" and partnered Fred Astaire in "Silk Stockings".

She gained a reputation as an exceptional performer able to dance anything, from a classical pas-de-deux in "Ziegfeld Follies" to the lowdown satire of "The Band Wagon".

"She wasn't a tap dancer, she's just beautiful, trained, very strong in whatever we did," said Kelly. "When we were dancing, we didn't know what time it was."

Astaire agreed, writing in his autobiography: "That Cyd! When you've danced with her, you stay danced with."

Charisse tactfully refused to say which leading man she preferred, saying: "It's like comparing apples and oranges. They're both delicious."

After a brief affair with the millionaire Howard Hughes, Charisse married Martin in 1948, and missed out on a lead role in "An American In Paris" because she was pregnant with their son, Tony Martin Jnr.

After her film career waned, she forged a successful stage career in nightclubs and theatres, often performing with Martin. She worked until quite late in life, making her first appearance on Broadway in 1991, at the age of 69, in the musical "Grand Hotel", playing a part pioneered by Greta Garbo in 1932.

Mr Schwam, her agent, paid tribute. "What was special about Cyd was that she was always stylish and graceful, and when I saw her two weeks ago, she was still dressed beautifully and her hair was done properly," he said. "She was such a loving and gracious woman throughout her life."

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