Steve Merritt

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Steve Merritt, born Steve Thomas Michaels Ferraro on January 17, 1945, in San Jose, California, was an American dancer and choreographer. He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s to study dance with David Winter and danced on The Farmer John Dance Show.

He helped create the Las Vegas musical Dream Street with Nancy Horowitz, Ronnie Horowitz, and Mark Donnelly, which ran from 1983 to 1987. Merritt and Donnelly also developed the Broadway-style format for the Chippendales show. In 1989, he choreographed the opening number for the 61st Academy Awards. He started the Solid Gold Dancers and performed on Casey Kasem's Top Forty Countdown.

Merritt died of AIDS in Los Angeles on January 26, 1993, at age 48. He was survived by his mother, father, a brother, a sister, a half-brother, and a half-sister.