Biography
Born on 31 December 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and passing away on 1 November 1961 in Fire Island, New York, McCracken displayed an affinity for movement from her earliest years. She trained under Catherine Littlefield and entered the instructor’s ensemble prior to finishing standard academic studies. As a participant in the American Ballet Company she performed across numerous domestic and international stages, among them New York’s Radio City Music Hall. A notable ballet assignment came in 1943 when she portrayed Sylvie in the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II production Oklahoma!. The next year brought her initial spoken role on Broadway in Harold Arlen’s Bloomer Girl.
Throughout the balance of the decade and into the early 1950s she focused on parts that combined dance and vocal work, appearing in Jerome Robbins’ Billion Dollar Baby in 1945, Dance Me A Song in 1950, and Me And Juliet in 1953, the last of which drew especially favorable critical response. A cardiac ailment gradually curtailed her physical capacities, prompting a shift from dance toward dramatic theater; prior stage credits in that vein included Clifford Odets’ The Big Knife in 1949 and Angel In The Pawnshop in 1951. Despite evident ability, recurring health setbacks prevented the sustained professional trajectory she envisioned. Her personal circumstances proved equally unsettled, marked by failed unions with the dancers Jack Dunphy and Bob Fosse. As her condition further declined she withdrew from performance, succumbing shortly thereafter.
Throughout the balance of the decade and into the early 1950s she focused on parts that combined dance and vocal work, appearing in Jerome Robbins’ Billion Dollar Baby in 1945, Dance Me A Song in 1950, and Me And Juliet in 1953, the last of which drew especially favorable critical response. A cardiac ailment gradually curtailed her physical capacities, prompting a shift from dance toward dramatic theater; prior stage credits in that vein included Clifford Odets’ The Big Knife in 1949 and Angel In The Pawnshop in 1951. Despite evident ability, recurring health setbacks prevented the sustained professional trajectory she envisioned. Her personal circumstances proved equally unsettled, marked by failed unions with the dancers Jack Dunphy and Bob Fosse. As her condition further declined she withdrew from performance, succumbing shortly thereafter.