Marilyn Miller

Marilyn Miller (born Mary Ellen Reynolds; September 1, 1898 – April 7, 1936) was one of the most popular Broadway musical stars of the 1920s and early 1930s. She was an accomplished tap dancer, singer and actress, and the combination of these talents endeared her to audiences. On stage, she usually played rags-to-riches Cinderella characters who lived happily ever after. She had a history of sinus infections, the last of which required hospitalization and caused a toxicity – treated by blood transfusions as antibiotics were still a few years away – that caused her death at age 37.