Tamara Toumanova, (Tumanishvili) a child-prodigy ballerina of the 1930's who became familiar to American audiences as one of the most glamorous stars of 20th-century dance. Adoring fans nicknamed Miss Toumanova "the black pearl of the Russian ballet." Even as a teen-ager, her beauty was as remarkable as her technique. She was the daughter of a czarist army colonel and his wife, who were fleeing the Bolsheviks. The couple settled in Paris, where their daughter became a pupil of Olga Preobrajenska, a Russian-born teacher. Miss Toumanova was internationally acclaimed as one of the three so-called baby ballerinas of Col. W. de Basil's Ballets Russes. She and two other phenomenally gifted daughters of Russian emigres were discovered in Parisian ballet studios by George Balanchine. Later she became a member of Massine's new Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and later was a star of Ballet Theater. Miss Toumanova acted and danced in several movies. She made her screen debut in "Days of Glory" in 1944. That same year, she married the film's producer and screen writer, Casey Robinson, Toumanova played the ballerina Anna Pavlova in "Tonight We Sing" and appeared in "Deep in My Heart". She had a starring role in "Invitation to the Dance," a ballet film directed by Gene Kelly. She was also in Alfred Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain" and Billy Wilder's "Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. She died in 1996 in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 77 and lived in Beverly Hills.
