Miriam Nelson
1922 - 2018At 19 she made her Broadway debut, in “Sing Out the News” (1938), a musical revue, with June Allyson, whose songs included “Sing Ho for Private Enterprise.”
In 1941, two weeks after Pearl Harbor, she married Gene Nelson, a fellow dancer and actor. They moved to Los Angeles, and good luck followed. Having lunch at Paramount one day with a friend, she ran into a New York pal and came home with a seven-year acting-dancing contract.
Ms. Nelson’s onscreen appearances included “Lady in the Dark” (1944), a straight acting role as Edward G. Robinson’s secretary in “Double Indemnity” (1944) and versatile dance work in “Duffy’s Tavern” (1945).
After the Nelsons divorced in 1956, she took up choreography full time. Her television projects included “The Red Skelton Hour,” “Father Knows Best,” “The Lucy Show,” “The Love Boat” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
Ms. Nelson’s first credited big-screen choreography was on Blake Edwards’s “He Laughed Last” (1956), a crime comedy about a chorus girl. Her final screen credit was “Out of the Cold,” a romantic drama starring Keith Carradine, released on DVD in 2001.
Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder
Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck
A rich woman and a calculating insurance agent plot to kill her unsuspecting husband after he signs a double indemnity policy. Against a backdrop of distinctly Californian settings, the partners in crime plan the perfect murder to collect the insurance, which pays double if the death is accidental.
Double Indemnity
Hail the Conquering Hero
Preston Sturges
Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines
Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge.
Hail the Conquering Hero
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Blake Edwards
Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard
Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Darcey Bussell's Looking for Audrey
Marion Milne
Darcey Bussell, Audrey Hepburn
Behind Audrey Hepburn's dazzling image, Darcey Bussell unravels an epic tale of betrayal, courage, heartache and broken dreams. For as long as she can remember Darcey has been fascinated by Audrey Hepburn: style icon, star of Breakfast at Tiffany's, an Oscar winner at 24. Now, Darcey follows in Audrey's footsteps through Holland, London, Rome, Switzerland and Hollywood to find out more. She discovers Audrey started out as a dancer, risked her life in the war and, although adored the world over, was always looking for love.
Darcey Bussell's Looking for Audrey
Let's Face It
Sidney Lanfield
Bob Hope, Betty Hutton
A soldier stationed on an army base and his fiancé, who runs a women's "fat farm" nearby, want to get married but don't have enough money. Three customers of the "fat farm" scheme to get back at their philandering husbands by hiring the soldier and two of his buddies as "escorts" for the weekend. Complications ensue when the husbands show up unexpectedly.
Let's Face It
Masquerade in Mexico
Mitchell Leisen
Dorothy Lamour, Arturo de Córdova
An American singer stranded in Mexico is hired by a banker to distract a Mexican matador who is making a play for the banker's wife. They hatch a scheme whereby she pretends to be a Spanish countess.
Masquerade in Mexico
The Two Lives of Carol Letner
Philip Leacock
Meredith Baxter, Don Johnson
A former call-girl who has left the profession behind to pursue a college career is recruited by the police to turn one more trick in order to trap the person laundering syndicate money.
The Two Lives of Carol Letner
