1936-56: Film actress

At age 13 in 1936, Miller became a showgirl at the Bal Tabarin. Due to laws regarding employment at establishments that sold liquor, Miller lied about her age and said she was 18. While working at Bal Tarbin, Miller was discovered by Lucille Ball and talent scout/comic Benny Rubin there.^[10][9] This led to a contract with RKO, who were under the belief that Miller was 18. When they discovered her true age later, her father provided a fake birth certificate with the name Lucy Ann Collier.^[11][12][9] Miller's first major role came as Ginger Rogers’ dancing partner in Gregory La Cava’s Stage Door in 1937. In 1938 and 1939, Miller was a supporting actress in many of the studio's films such as Radio City Revels, Room Service, and most notably as the quirky Essie Carmichael in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You. In 1939, Miller made her Broadway debut in George White's Scandals of 1939. She remained at RKO until 1940.^[13]

Miller in 1948

Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing. Studio publicists drafted press releases claiming that she could tap 500 times per minute, but the sound of 500 taps was artificial. Because the stage floors were waxed and too slick for regular tap shoes, she had to dance in shoes with rubber treads on the soles. She would then loop the sound of the taps while watching the film and dance on a "tap board" to match her steps in the film.^[14] In later life, Miller claimed to have invented pantyhose in the 1940s as a solution to the continual problem of torn stockings during the filming of dance-production numbers. The common practice had been to sew hosiery to briefs, and if torn, the entire garment had to be removed and resewn with a new pair. Miller asked a hosiery maker to produce a single combined garment.^[14][15]

In 1941, she signed with Columbia Pictures starring in eleven B musicals from 1941 to 1945, beginning with Time Out for Rhythm. In July 1945, she posed in a bathing suit as a Yank magazine pin-up girl. She ended her contract in 1946 with one A film, The Thrill of Brazil. An advertisement for the film in Life magazine featured Miller's leg in a stocking tied with a large red bow as the "T" in "Thrill."

After leaving Columbia and recovering from a personal injury, Miller signed a contract with MGM. Her first appearance was in Easter Parade (1948), in which she co-starred alongside Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. During her time at MGM, Miller mostly appeared as the secondary female lead in films such as On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953).

1957-89: Stage work

Miller in Sugar Babies, 1979

As the studio system and musical films began to fade in the late 1950s, Miller turned her attention to theater and television appearances. She became known later for her distinctive appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamour: large black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a splash of crimson lipstick and fashions that emphasized her figure and long legs.^[16]

In May 1969, Miller made a comeback on Broadway when she took over the title role in the musical Mame, dancing a tap number created for her. Miller remained in the role until the show closed in January 1970. The following year, she headlined a television production of Dames at Sea alongside Ann-Margret for NBC. She also appeared in an iconic television commercial for “The Great American Soup” (created by Stan Freberg) in which she rose through the floor atop an eight-foot high cylinder designed to resemble a giant soup can. The advertisement was intended as a spectacular song and dance number in the tradition of the musicals in which she had starred.

Miller began touring with theater productions such as Hello, Dolly! and Panama Hattie. In 1979, she appeared in the Broadway show Sugar Babies with fellow MGM veteran Mickey Rooney, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. The duo toured the country extensively after the show's Broadway run. In 1983, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre,^[17] On May 1, 1989 at the age of 66, Miller sang and tap-danced to "42nd Street" at the opening of the Disney MGM Studios, her last live dance performance.

Miller appeared in a special 1982 episode of The Love Boat, joined by fellow showbiz legends Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Della Reese, Van Johnson and Cab Calloway in a storyline that cast them as older relatives of the show's regular characters. Miller also published two books. Her first was an autobiography, Miller's High Life (1972).^[18] Her second was Tapping into the Force (1990), a book about her experiences in the psychic world.^[19][20]

1990-2004: Final projects

The handprints of Ann Miller in front of the Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park

During the 1990s, Miller rose as a popular figure to interview for her time in the Golden Age of Hollywood. She was the subject of This Is Your Life on British television in 1993 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at the studios of CBS Television City. That same year, she appeared as a dance instructor in the Home Improvement episode "Dances with Tools".

Miller's last stage performance was a 1998 Paper Mill Playhouse production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, in which she played hard-boiled Carlotta Campion and received rave reviews for her rendition of the song "I'm Still Here."^[21] In 2001, Miller played her last role as landlady Coco in director David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive.

Between 1995 and 2001, Molly Shannon parodied Miller several times on Saturday Night Live in a recurring sketch titled "Leg-Up!"^[22]

Film

Television

Theatre