Actress and dancer Cyd Charisse, the impossibly long-legged movie musical star who gained fame for her on-screen pairings with Hollywood dance greats Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died on Tuesday at age 86.

Charisse, a sinuous, athletic performer once described by Astaire as "beautiful dynamite," died early in the morning of a heart attack at a Los Angeles-area hospital, according to her agent, Scott Stander.

Publicist Gene Schwam said she had only recently celebrated her 60th wedding anniversary with her second husband, singer Tony Martin, whom she married after a romance with millionaire Howard Hughes.

[reuters]