Jane Powell

Jane Powell (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929 – September 16, 2021) was an American actress, singer, and dancer who appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door image, Powell appeared in films, television and on the stage, performing in the musicals A Date with Judy (1948), Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Hit the Deck (1955).

In the 1950s Powell starred in the film noir The Female Animal (1958) and adventure film Enchanted Island (1958). She made appearances on stage in My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music, and television appearances in guest roles on The Love Boat (1981–1982) and the sitcom Growing Pains (1988–1992). She was a veteran of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Powell starred in off-Broadway productions of Avow and Bounce in 2000.

In December 2007, she united with the musical group Pink Martini, performing as a vocalist with them in their shared hometown of Portland. She appeared in local theatre productions in Wilton, Connecticut before her death.

Early years

Powell was born Suzanne Lorraine Burce, the only child of Paul Emerson Burce and Eileen Baker Burce, on April 1, 1929, in Portland, Oregon.Template:Sfn Powell began dance lessons when she was 2 years old.Template:Sfn By age 5, Powell had appeared on the Portland children's radio program Stars of Tomorrow.Template:Sfn She took dance lessons at the Agnes Peters School of Dance, where the Burce family met a talent scout and dance instructor who persuaded the family to move to Oakland, California, to attract Hollywood talent agents.Template:Sfn After three months of living in a hotel room, the family returned to Portland, and her father took a job managing a Banbury Cross apartment building.Template:Sfn While living in Banbury Cross, Powell took singing lessons.Template:Sfn

When Powell was 12 years old, a talent promoter helped her get selected as the Oregon Victory Girl. She began singing on Portland radio station KOIN and traveled Oregon for two years, singing and selling victory bonds. While vacationing in California in 1943, Powell won a Hollywood talent show and signed a contract with MGM Theaters in Hollywood the next day at the age of 14.

She wanted to go back to high school and to university, but her mother forbade this as she was the only one in the family making good money.

Career

1943–1950

After signing with MGM, Powell was lent to United Artists for her first film, Song of the Open Road (1944), where she played the character of Jane Powell and took that as her professional name. In 1945, Powell sang "Because" at the wedding of Esther Williams and Ben Gage.Template:Sfn

Powell's second feature film was Delightfully Dangerous (1945), then she appeared in Holiday in Mexico (1946), where she met Roddy McDowall, who became a life-long friend.Template:Sfn

File:Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Powell in A Date with Judy.jpg

Powell with Elizabeth Taylor in A Date with Judy (1948)

More films followed, including Three Daring Daughters (1948), A Date with Judy (1948), Luxury Liner (1948), Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), and Two Weeks with Love (1950).Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Powell lamented that, at the age of 25 and with children of her own, she found herself typecast in teenage roles, but she accepted the roles because she needed to support her family.

In 1949, Powell sang at Harry S. Truman’s inaugural ball, and she sang for five U.S. presidents and the queen of England.

1951–1958

File:Jane Powell c. 1953.jpg

Powell in 1953

In 1951, Powell co-starred in the musical comedy Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire as performing siblings. She also appeared that year in Rich, Young and Pretty.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

She starred in Small Town Girl and Three Sailors and a Girl in 1953.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Powell starred in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in 1954. In 2006, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was named one of the greatest American musicals of all time by the American Film Institute. Powell starred in Athena and Deep in My Heart in 1954.Template:Sfn

In 1955, Powell starred opposite Tony Martin, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller, and Russ Tamblyn in Hit the Deck, which was a commercial failure, underperforming at the box office.Template:Sfn The following year, she recorded the song "True Love", which rose to number 15 on the Billboard charts and number 107 on the pop charts for that year, according to the Joel Whitburn compilation. This was her only single to make the charts. Also in 1956, Powell performed the song "I'll Never Stop Loving You" at the 28th Academy Awards. Next, Powell appeared in RKO Pictures' musical comedy The Girl Most Likely, playing a woman who becomes engaged to three men simultaneously.Template:Sfn Though shot in 1956, the film was not released until 1958, after RKO went out of business.Template:Sfn

Known mainly for her roles in musical comedies, Powell appeared in a rare dramatic role in the film noir The Female Animal (1958) from Universal Pictures, which marked the final film of co-star Hedy Lamarr.

1959–1980

By the late 1950s, after Powell's contract with MGM expired and her film offers began to slow, she turned to theater. Her first summer stock role was in a production of Oklahoma! in Dallas, Texas, in 1958.Template:Sfn The following year, she co-starred with Tab Hunter, Patty Duke, and Myrna Loy in a television remake of the musical Meet Me in St. Louis. She starred in a stage production of The Most Happy Fella (1962).Template:Sfn In 1962, Powell made her debut appearance on the television series The Red Skelton Show, in which she appeared in numerous episodes until 1972.

File:Jane Powell Red Skelton Red Skelton Show 1968.JPG

Powell plays a girlfriend to Red Skelton's "Junior" on The Red Skelton Show, 1968

In 1964, Powell starred as Eliza Doolittle in a production of My Fair Lady at Los Angeles' Valley West Theatre, which established a record gross for West Coast-based productions of the play.Template:Sfn She also toured in 1964 in a musical review titled Just 20 Plus Me! It was done to a recorded track and featured Powell with 20 handsome "chorus boys". Asked after the performance if the production was going to be made available on a commercial recording, she said simply "No."

She had the title role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1966, as well as the female lead in an Atlanta-based production of Carousel,Template:Sfn followed by The Boy Friend at the Carousel Theater in Los Angeles in 1967. Also in 1967, she starred in a touring production of Brigadoon.Template:Sfn Next, she portrayed Maria von Trapp in a production of The Sound of Music in 1968.Template:Sfn In addition to her stage work, Powell appeared in three television films: Wheeler and Murdoch (1972), The Letters (1973), and Mayday at 40,000 Feet! (1976).

In 1972, Powell appeared in a Cincinnati-based stage production of Meet Me In St. Louis. The following year, Powell made her Broadway debut playing the title character in Irene, following Debbie Reynolds' performance in the title role. Mel Gussow of The New York Times praised Powell's performance, writing: "The two stars are an equal match for peppiness. Miss Reynolds may score a point for clowning, but Miss Powell wins two for softness."

Howard Keel and she appeared on stage together in a revival of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, I Do! I Do! and South Pacific.

1981–2021

In the early 1980s, Powell toured in the comedies Same Time, Next Year; The Marriage-Go-Round, and Chapter Two.

Between 1981 and 1982, Powell had guest-starring role on The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. In 1985, she started a 9-month run in the daytime soap opera Loving, playing a tough mother and businesswoman, followed by another guest-starring part on Murder, She Wrote in 1985. In 1988, Powell was cast in a recurring guest role on the popular sitcom Growing Pains, in which she played Irma Seaver, the mother of Dr. Jason Roland Seaver (Alan Thicke). The same year, in May 1988, Powell married her longtime companion, former child actor Dickie Moore. The couple had met while Moore was performing research for his autobiography Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, but Don't Have Sex or Take the Car.

File:Jane Powell.jpg

Powell in September 1998

In the early 1990s, Powell was a temporary replacement on the soap opera As the World Turns for Eileen Fulton as Lisa Grimaldi. In 1996 and 1997, she appeared in the off-Broadway production After-Play. She also performed the role of the Queen in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella at New York City Opera. In 2000, Powell appeared in the Off-Broadway production Avow, in which she portrayed a devout Catholic woman whose gay son wishes to marry his partner in the church. This was followed by a stage production of 70, Girls, 70, the same year. In 2002, she guest-starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, followed by a role in the Showtime film The Sandy Bottom Orchestra (2003).

In 2003, she made a return to the stage as Mama Mizner in the Stephen Sondheim musical Bounce, which held performances in Chicago and Washington, DC. "I auditioned just to meet Sondheim, who was nice and a very funny man,” Powell admitted. "But I was disappointed when I got the part. I didn't really want to be away from home, but I had never done a new show and that seemed exciting at first. But I didn't have much to do and the part wasn't too jovial."

On New Year's Eve 2007, Powell returned to her hometown of Portland, Oregon, to narrate Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with the Portland-based musical group Pink Martini. She also appeared on March 9, 2008, with Pink Martini at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, singing a duet of "Aba Daba Honeymoon" with lead singer China Forbes.

In March 2009, she appeared and sang "Love Is Where You Find It" in a show in which Michael Feinstein celebrated movie musicals and MGM musicals in particular. She performed again with Pink Martini at the Hollywood Bowl on September 10, 2010. Powell filled in as guest host on Turner Classic Movies for Robert Osborne when he was on medical leave from July 17–23, 2011.

Personal life and death

On November 5, 1949, Powell married former figure skater Gearhardt Anthony Steffen. The union produced two children, Gearhardt III (born July 21, 1951) and Suzanne Ilene (born November 21, 1952). In 1953, Powell began an affair with Gene Nelson, her married co-star in Three Sailors and a Girl. Powell and Nelson planned to marry after divorcing their spouses, but after divorcing his wife, Nelson backed out of marrying Powell.

Powell married car dealer Patrick W. Nerney on November 8, 1954. Their daughter, Lindsay Averill, was born on February 1, 1956. Powell and Nerney divorced in May 1963.

In 1965, Powell married Hollywood publicist and manager Jim Fitzgerald, who managed her career. They divorced in 1975. She married David Stellar Parlour in 1978 and divorced him in 1981.

Powell married former child star Dickie Moore in 1988. After Moore died in 2015, Powell moved to their home in Wilton, Connecticut, where she died of natural causes on September 16, 2021, at the age of 92.

Legacy

File:Jane Powell Hollywood Walk of Fame.jpg

Powell's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Powell was referred to as one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She secured her place in history with her performance in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Despite bouts with severe depression, anxiety and insecurity, Powell retained a public image of the all-American girl-next-door and was a symbol of simpler times. Powell's role in Song of the Open Road in 1944, a film that presented Powell as a wholesome girl next door, was suspected to have pigeon-holed her in future musicals.

In 1960, Powell was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes	Ref.
1944	Song of the Open Road	Jane Powell
1945	Delightfully Dangerous	Sherry Williams
1946	Holiday in Mexico	Christine Evans			Template:Sfn
1948	Three Daring Daughters	Tess Morgan
		Judy Foster			Template:Sfn
	Luxury Liner	Polly Bradford			Template:Sfn
1950	Nancy Goes to Rio	Nancy Barklay			Template:Sfn
	Two Weeks with Love	Patti Robinson			Template:Sfn
1951	Royal Wedding	Ellen Bowen			Template:Sfn
	Rich, Young and Pretty	Elizabeth Rogers			Template:Sfn
1953	Small Town Girl	Cindy Kimbell			Template:Sfn
	Three Sailors and a Girl	Penny Weston			Template:Sfn
1954	Seven Brides for Seven Brothers	Milly Pontipee			Template:Sfn
	Athena	Athena Mulvain			Template:Sfn
	Deep in My Heart	Ottilie van Zandt in Maytime			Template:Sfn
1955	Hit the Deck	Susan Smith			Template:Sfn
1958		Dodie			Template:Sfn
		Penny Windsor
	Enchanted Island	Fayaway		Alternate title: Typee
1959	Meet Me In St. Louis			Television movie
1975	Tubby the Tuba	Celeste		Voice role
1999	Picture This
2003	Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There	Herself		Documentary

Short subjects

• Screen Snapshots: Motion Picture Mothers, Inc. (1949)
• 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (1955)

Stage work

• Allegro (1951)
• Oklahoma! (1958)
• The Most Happy Fella (1962)
• The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1963; 1966; 1981)
• Carousel (1966)
• The Boy Friend (1967)
• The Sound of Music (1968; 1972)
• My Fair Lady (1969; 1971)
• I Do! I Do! (1970)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1972)
• Brigadoon (1973)
• Irene (1974; 1975–76)
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1978)
• South Pacific (1978)
• The Marriage-Go-Round (1981)
• Sweethearts (1983)
• Cinderella (1995)
• After-Play (1996)
• Ancestral Voices (2000)
• Avow (2000)
• Nothing Like a Dame (2000)
• 70, Girls, 70 (2000)
• Bounce (2003; 2004)

Radio

• 1944 — Powell played the title role in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on Screen Guild Theatre on CBS.
• 1947 — Powell co-starred with Frank Sinatra in Songs by Sinatra.
• 1952 — Lux Radio Theatre (episode Royal Wedding)

Jane Powell played main roles as guest star in 4 musicals with Gordon MacRae in a series of musicals («Railroad Hour»)on radio in 1949. «Sweethearts», «Music in the Air», «Brigadoon» and «Good News».

Recordings

• 1949: Romance — Columbia Masterworks LP (ML 2034)
• 1949: A Date with Jane Powell — Columbia Masterworks LP (ML 2045)
• 1956: Can't We Be Friends? — Verve Records LP (MGV 2023), re-released as a Limited Edition Japanese import CD in a mini-LP slip case in 2004.
• 1956: Something Wonderful (with David Rose and His Orchestra) — MGM Records (E3451)
• 2000: Hansel and Gretel/Alice in Wonderland — Collectables Records CD
• 2001: Romance/A Date with Jane Powell — Collectables Records CD (COL-CD-6670 / Sony A-50271)

External links

• Template:First word Template:PAGENAMEBASE at the Internet Broadway DatabaseTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck
• Template:Iobdb name
• Template:Trim/ Template:PAGENAMEBASE at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidata
• Jane Powell at Virtual History
• Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs