Inside the Quiet Lives and Tragic Losses of Cyd Charisse’s Two Sons
To understand the upbringing of Charisse's sons, one must track the two relationships that defined her adulthood. Born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, Charisse married her first ballet teacher, European-born dance master Nico Charisse, in Paris in 1939. She was barely 17 years old. The pairing gave her the professional stage name that stayed with her through seven decades of stardom.
In 1942, Charisse gave birth to Nicholas "Nicky" Charisse. While the marriage dissolved by 1947 amid the escalating pressures of her contract work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the split lacked the venom typical of Hollywood divorces. Nico maintained his dance studio, and young Nicky grew up with a father who understood technical movement as a rigorous discipline rather than a glamorous spectacle.
The dynamic shifted dramatically in 1948 when Charisse married Alvin Morris, better known to international audiences as the baritone crooner Tony Martin. Their union became an anomaly in show business: a rock-solid, 60-year marriage that survived until Charisse's death in 2008. In August 1950, they welcomed Tony Martin Jr. The two half-brothers grew up under the same roof, surrounded by high-profile peers but anchored by parents who treated entertainment strictly as employment.
