| Jane Powell |
Jane Powell in Royal Wedding (1951). |
| Born |
Suzanne Lorraine Burce
April 1, 1929 (1929-04-01) (age 80)
Portland, Oregon |
| Spouse(s) |
Geary Steffen (1949–1953)
Patrick Nerney (1954–1963)
James Fitzgerald (1965–1975)
David Parlour (1978–1981)
Dickie Moore (1988–present) |
Jane Powell (born April 1, 1929) is an American singer, dancer and actress. She was a star of MGM musicals as a teenager in the 1940s, and continued in the 1950s.
Early years
Born as Suzanne Lorraine Burce in Portland, Oregon, she sang on the radio as a child, and performed in theater before her film career began in 1944 at Universal Studios. She appeared in her first film, Song of the Open Road (1944), at the age of 15; her stage name "Jane Powell" was the name of the character she plays in the film, and prior to its release, MGM assigned this to her as her stage name.[1]
MGM years
After her contract at Universal lapsed, Powell was signed by MGM in late 1945, initially promoted as a younger version of Kathryn Grayson. Her first assignment was the musical Holiday in Mexico (1946). But Powell's charm and spunk made her stand out in her follow-up vehicle Three Daring Daughters, in which she co-starred with Jeanette MacDonald, who took the young performer under her wing. The film proved another hit and she was giving top billing in a string of Joe Pasternak-produced musicals including A Date with Judy (1948) with schoolmate Elizabeth Taylor, and Nancy Goes to Rio (1950) with Ann Sothern. Along with many other Hollywood stars, Powell performed at the Inauguration Ball for President Harry S. Truman on January 20, 1949.
Powell got the chance to sing and dance with Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding (1951), when she was brought in to replace Judy Garland. Her best-known film is probably Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), opposite Howard Keel, which gave her the opportunity to play a more mature character than previous films. Her other films include: Rich, Young and Pretty (1951), Small Town Girl (1953), Three Sailors and a Girl (1953), Athena (1954), Deep in My Heart (1954), Hit the Deck (1955), and The Girl Most Likely (1957). In 1956 Powell recorded a song, "True Love", that rose to 15 on the Billboard charts and 107 on the pop charts for that year, according to the Joel Whitburn compilation. This was her only single to make the charts.
Stage roles
Her roles include the touring productions of Unsinkable Molly Brown, South Pacific, The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, Carousel, I Do! I Do! , Meet Me in St. Louis, Peter Pan, The Girl Next Door and How She Grew, and Irene, in which she made her Broadway debut, following Debbie Reynolds in the title role. She and Howard Keel also appeared on stage together in a revival of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Ms. Powell also toured in 1964 in a musical review entitled, "Just 20 Plus Me!" It was done to a recorded track and featured Ms. 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."
In 2000 she appeared in the off-broadway production Avow, for which she received great reviews for a role which showed off her excellent comedic timing.
Television
During the 1950s and 1960s Powell appeared regularly on television. These credits included guest spots on nearly all the major variety shows of the period such as Perry Como, The Andy Williams Show, The Kraft Music Hall, Frank Sinatra, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Red Skelton Show, Eddie Fisher, The Dinah Shore Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Smothers Brothers, Alan King, This is Tom Jones, The Garry Moore Show, The Jerry Lewis Show and The Judy Garland Show. She did a stint as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday night CBS-TV programme. She also appeared as guest panelist on the same show. TV specials included "Meet Me in St. Louis", "Young at Heart", "Feathertop", "Danny Thomas Show 1967", "Victor Borge Show", "Ruggles of Red Gap" on Producers' Showcase and "Hooray for Love". Dramatic guest spots included both The Dick Powell Show and The June Allyson Show. She also had a failed TV pilot for a sitcom called "The Jane Powell Show". Powell was also a regular guest on TV variety shows in Australia when she visited there to perform her nightclub act. She also had a one-off TV special in that country in 1964.
In the 1970s she appeared in 3 TV movies Wheeler and Murdoch, The Letters and Mayday at 40,000 Feet!.
In the 1980s she again guested on "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island". Another guest spot was on "Murder She Wrote". In 1985 she started a 9 month run in the daytime soap Loving playing a tough mother and business woman.
At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s she also had a regular guest spot on Growing Pains (playing Alan Thicke's mother).
She was a temporary replacement on As The World Turns for Eileen Fulton as Lisa Grimaldi in 1991, 1993, and 1994.
In 2000 she appeared in two TV movies in supporting roles in The Sandy Bottom Orchestra and Perfect Murder, Perfect Town.
Her last major TV appearance was a guest spot on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2002.
Like nearly every star in show business she has also appeared on numerous TV Talk shows to promote her latest project. Her most significant effort here would be a week's co-hosting The Mike Douglas Show in 1970 where she talked openly for the first time about her son's drug addiction problems.
Currently
Powell lives in Connecticut and Manhattan, with her fifth husband, former child actor Dick Moore. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Actors' Fund of America, and still acts and performs to the present day, most recently in a 2002 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
In 2003, she made a return to the stage as Mama Mizner in the Stephen Sondheim musical Bounce. Despite Powell's great reviews in the part, Bounce was not critically successful and did not move to Broadway.
For one evening, she returned to her hometown, Portland, Oregon, narrating Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with Pink Martini on December 31, 2007. She also appeared on March 9, 2008, with Pink Martini at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City; she sang a duet of "Aba Daba Honeymoon" with lead singer China Forbes.
Personal life
She has three children from her first two marriages, and has been married five times in total. Her autobiography was published in 1988[2].
Filmography
Features
Short subjects
- Screen Snapshots: Motion Picture Mothers, Inc. (1949)
- 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (1955)
Recordings
References
- ^ Reel Memories: Jane Powell, Turner Classic Movies, 1995 (included with the DVD release Classic Musicals Double Feature: Nancy Goes to Rio/Two Weeks with Love (Warner Home Video, 2008)).
- ^ Autobiography: The Girl Next Door and How She Grew, William Morrow & Co, 1988, ISBN 0688067573.
- ^ a b c 1949 Recordings: All songs recorded 1946-1947. All songs conducted by Carmen Dragon and His Orchestra.
External links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Powell, Jane |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Burce, Suzanne Lorraine |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Singer, dancer, actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
April 1, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Portland, Oregon |
| DATE OF DEATH |
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| PLACE OF DEATH |
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