April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004
Ann Miller was a dancer. A good dancer. You know who says so? Me. Her last film appearance in the David Lynch flick, Mulholland Drive. To see her list of credits, go here.
She had been in poor health for years. Anne used to get cortisone shots for her legs because it was painful to do what she did, but she wouldn’t consider slowing down or retiring. She blamed those shots for the osteoporosis she eventually acquired. She also contracted cancer, both breast and colon and eventually lung.
She lived in this house in Beverly Hills for several years.
On January 17th, she checked in to Cedars Sinai Medical Center with a broken leg, and trouble breathing.
She lost a lot of weight because the cancer had returned.
On January 21st 2004, Anthony Hopkins supposedly asked her to appear in an upcoming project. Just after midnight on January 22nd, she succumbed to lung cancer. Apparently she only recently converted to Catholicism, and asked that a priest giver her last rites. She was 81 years old, though other sources claim her to be older.
Upon hearing of her death, munchkin whore Mickey Rooney said, “Annie was an angel and a dear friend I loved very much.”
Her body was ravaged by disease, but she had fab teeth.
A mass was held at St. Mel Catholic Church in Woodland Hills, which was decorated with yellow and red roses. Those attending were Anne Jeffreys, Jane Withers, Ann Rutherford, Rose Marie, June Haver, Esther Williams, Francesca Hilton, Kathryn Grayson, Renee Taylor, Rosemarie Bowe (Mrs. Robert) Stack, and Rip Torn. The casket was closed, though my buddy Steve told me that it was open, and only the bottom half was open, which I believed and it made me laugh a lot. My pal Bonnie got this terrific memorial program from the funeral.
Thanks Bonnie.
Her body was taken to Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, to be buried with her daughter that died 3 hours after she was born (Anne fell down stairs while 9 months preggers. shit.). My friends Brian and Christine went with me today to take this picture of a freshly planted Miller.
Trivia: Ann claimed she could tap 500 times a minute.
More: Ann said that she never had to worry about her weight, until Jimmy Stewart turned her on to Butterfingers.
She had a sense of humor. Her autobiography was called Miller’s High Life.
And that is it: Her tap shoes, that she named Moe and Joe, are on display at the Smithsonian.
Thanks Steve, Bonnie the Possum Queen, Kim, Patrick and Roger.
She didn’t fall down the stairs, she was thrown down them by her husband.
I’d read the same thing. Ann’s first husband, Reese Llewellyn Milner, was apparently either mentally deranged or an alcoholic/drug addict (my guesses). Not only was it reported that he shoved the pregnant Ann down the stairs, he was also believed to have taken pistol shots at her!! Sick individual –
Also read Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM Studios, asked Ann to marry him in 1947! Mayer’s divorce from his first wife was finalized 04.29.47 so he was 64 years old & Ann was 24! EWWW! Ann wisely declined his offer, but erred greatly in telling him she was already in love…with her first husband, the monster. Ann didn’t have an easy go of it, which I thought was a shame because she was genuinely talented with a “sunny” personality.
Along with alcoholism, it was said that Reese had been thrown from a horse in his youth and suffered some amount of brain damage and had a steel plate in his head, all of which caused him to be mentally unbalanced and irrational. That’s not to excuse his abuses, but there was clearly a lot going on with him.
Ann had a long history of choosing men based solely on the amount of money they had, and they were all horrible.