Frances Taylor

Frances Taylor Davis, born September 28, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois, was an American dancer and actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1946 to 1950 and extended into the late 1950s. She died on November 17, 2018, at the age of 89, survived by her son Jean-Pierre Durand, stepdaughter Cheryl Davis, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Taylor grew up in the Rosenwald Courts in Chicago, where her father worked at the post office. She began studying classical ballet at age 8 and was performing Swan Lake by age 16. Her instructor encouraged her to audition for the Edna McRae School of the Dance, where she became the only African American student enrolled. It was there that she encountered dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham, who offered her a scholarship to study with the Katherine Dunham Company. Taylor completed high school, briefly attended college, and then committed to a professional dancing career.

After joining the Katherine Dunham Company, where she trained under Walter Nicks, Taylor toured extensively with the troupe throughout Europe and South America. In December 1951, she was recruited for a special presentation with the Paris Opera Ballet, becoming the first African American to perform with that company. Her Paris performances drew significant press attention, and reviewers compared her to French ballet dancer Leslie Caron. During her time in London, she performed with Benny Goodman at the London Palladium and rehearsed with Sadler's Wells Ballet.

In 1953, Sammy Davis Jr. invited Taylor to appear as his girlfriend in the ABC television pilot Three for the Road, featuring the Will Mastin Trio. The show, which centered on struggling musicians and avoided stereotypical portrayals of African Americans, also featured Ruth Attaway, Jane White, and Frederick O'Neal, founder of the American Negro Theater. A pilot was filmed in the fall of 1953, but ABC was unable to secure a sponsor and the project was dropped. That same year, Taylor first encountered jazz musician Miles Davis while performing with the Dunham troupe at Ciro's nightclub in Los Angeles.

In 1954, Taylor rejoined the Dunham troupe as a lead dancer for engagements in Rome before relocating to New York City to pursue a Broadway career. Because an actress named Frances Taylor was already working in the industry, she performed on Broadway under the name Elizabeth Taylor, using her middle name. Her Broadway credits include Katherine Dunham and Her Company, Annie Get Your Gun, Mr. Wonderful, Shinbone Alley, and West Side Story, in which she was an original cast member. On the opening night of West Side Story in September 1957, Taylor received the company's gypsy robe, awarded to the outstanding dancer in the cast. She also appeared in Off-Broadway productions of Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess at New York City Center.

Taylor left West Side Story in March 1958. While Jet magazine reported at the time that she had departed to pursue a singing and dancing career, Taylor later disclosed that Miles Davis had pressured her to quit, stating that a woman should be with her man. Davis continued to restrict her professional activities after their marriage in Toledo, Ohio, on December 21, 1959. When choreographer Jerome Robbins, with whom Taylor had worked on the Broadway production of West Side Story, asked Davis whether she could appear in the 1961 film adaptation, Davis refused. Davis similarly refused when Sammy Davis Jr. approached him about Taylor appearing in the 1964 musical Golden Boy.

Before her marriage to Miles Davis, Taylor had married Jean-Marie Durand, a Haitian-born member of the Katherine Dunham troupe whom she had met in Argentina in 1954; the two wed in Mexico City in 1955. Their son, Jean-Pierre Durand, reportedly inspired Miles Davis's composition "Jean-Pierre." After separating from Durand, Taylor encountered Miles Davis again in New York City in 1957.

Taylor became a significant influence on Miles Davis's musical output during their marriage. Davis composed "Fran Dance" for her, which appeared on his 1959 album Jazz Track. Her involvement in the stage production of Porgy and Bess contributed to his 1959 album of the same name, and his 1960 album Sketches of Spain was inspired by a flamenco performance Taylor had insisted they attend together. Davis also featured Taylor on the covers of several albums, including Someday My Prince Will Come in 1961. The marriage was marked by domestic violence, which Davis himself acknowledged in his 1990 memoir Miles: The Autobiography. Taylor fled the marriage shortly after the two were photographed together for the cover of E.S.P. in 1965, staying with singer Nancy Wilson in California. She filed for divorce in 1966, and it was finalized in 1968.

In 1959, Davis permitted Taylor to teach dance classes; her students during that period included Julie Robinson, a Dunham trouper and wife of actor Harry Belafonte, and Edna Mae Robinson, a chorus line dancer and wife of boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. Following her split from Davis, Taylor taught private dance classes, appeared in television specials with performers including Elvis Presley, and took a role as the maid in the 1968 film The Party. In 1990, she filed a lawsuit against Eartha Kitt, alleging that Kitt had assaulted her following drinks at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. After retiring from performance, Taylor worked as a restaurant hostess in Los Angeles at establishments including Hamburger Hamlet, Roy's Restaurant, Le Dome, and Chasen's. She was interviewed for the documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, which was released posthumously in 2019.