Ilona Murai

Ilona Murai Kerman, born Ellen Josephine Muray in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1923 or 1924, was an American dancer whose career spanned the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Broadway, and early television. Her father was Stephen Muray and her mother was Ethel Muray, both of Hungarian birth. Photographer Nickolas Muray was her uncle. She attended Public School 89 in Queens before embarking on a professional dance career at a remarkably young age.

Murai joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in 1940 at approximately fifteen years old, a distinction that earned her recognition as the youngest dancer ever admitted to its ranks at that time. She remained with the company through 1948, performing in productions that included Samson et Dalila, Tannhäuser, Aida, Mignon, Le Coq d'Or, La Gioconda, Manon, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and La Traviata. During this period she also danced in several works choreographed by Herbert Ross, among them the world premiere of Caprichos in 1950 with the American Ballet Theatre. She additionally performed at Jacob's Pillow in Winesburg, Ohio in 1958, and appeared in the European company of Oklahoma!

Her Broadway debut came in 1949, launching a fourteen-year association with the stage. Her credits included Touch and Go, which ran from 1949 to 1950, followed by Bless You All from 1950 to 1951. She appeared as a dancer in Paint Your Wagon from 1951 to 1952, and in John Murray Anderson's Almanac from 1953 to 1954. By the Beautiful Sea followed in 1954, and Shangri-La in 1956. She performed in the musical Goldilocks from 1958 to 1959, and her final Broadway credit was The Girl Who Came to Supper, which ran from 1963 to 1964. Alongside her stage work, Murai appeared on several early television programs.

In 1957, Murai married playwright and actor Sheppard Kerman in San Francisco. Kerman, who lived from 1928 to 1991, was her husband until his death. The couple had one daughter, Christina. After 1970, Murai worked as a choreographer and taught dance on Long Island.

Murai died on April 8, 2020, at a care home in New Hyde Park, from coronavirus, at the age of 96, having experienced dementia in her final years. Her name appeared on the front page of The New York Times on May 24, 2020, as part of a tribute published under the headline "U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An Incalculable Loss." She was also remembered at the Episcopal Actors' Guild annual memorial service in November 2020.