Jane Powell

Jane Powell, born Suzanne Lorraine Burce on April 1, 1929, in Portland, Oregon, was an American actress, singer, and dancer who became one of the defining performers of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She died on September 16, 2021. The only child of Paul Emerson Burce and Eileen Baker Burce, she began dance lessons at age two and by age five had performed on the Portland children's radio program Stars of Tomorrow. She studied at the Agnes Peters School of Dance, where the family encountered a talent scout and dance instructor who encouraged them to relocate to Oakland, California, in pursuit of Hollywood representation. After three months in a hotel, the family returned to Portland, where her father managed the Banbury Cross apartment building and Powell continued her training with singing lessons.

At twelve, a talent promoter helped her earn the title of Oregon Victory Girl. She sang on Portland radio station KOIN and spent two years traveling the state performing and selling victory bonds. During a California vacation in 1943, she won a Hollywood talent show and signed a contract with MGM the following day at age fourteen. Her mother prevented her from returning to high school or pursuing university, as Powell was the primary earner in the family. Loaned to United Artists for her debut film, Song of the Open Road (1944), she played a character named Jane Powell and adopted it as her professional name.

Her early MGM career produced a steady run of musical films, including Delightfully Dangerous (1945), Holiday in Mexico (1946), Three Daring Daughters (1948), A Date with Judy (1948), Luxury Liner (1948), Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), and Two Weeks with Love (1950). During this period she also sang "Because" at the 1945 wedding of Esther Williams and Ben Gage, and in 1949 performed at President Harry S. Truman's inaugural ball. She would go on to sing for five U.S. presidents and the Queen of England. In 1951, she co-starred with Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding, playing performing siblings, and also appeared in Rich, Young and Pretty that same year. Small Town Girl and Three Sailors and a Girl followed in 1953. Her most celebrated film, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), was named one of the greatest American musicals of all time by the American Film Institute in 2006. That same year she starred in Athena and Deep in My Heart. In 1955, she appeared alongside Tony Martin, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller, and Russ Tamblyn in Hit the Deck.

In 1956, Powell recorded the single "True Love," which reached number fifteen on the Billboard charts — her only charting single. That year she also performed "I'll Never Stop Loving You" at the 28th Academy Awards. She next appeared in RKO Pictures' The Girl Most Likely, filmed in 1956 but released in 1958 after RKO ceased operations. That same year she took on a rare dramatic role in the Universal Pictures film noir The Female Animal, which also marked the final screen appearance of Hedy Lamarr. She also appeared in the adventure film Enchanted Island (1958).

As her MGM contract expired and film offers declined, Powell transitioned to theater. Her first summer stock engagement was a production of Oklahoma! in Dallas, Texas, in 1958. In 1959, she co-starred with Tab Hunter, Patty Duke, and Myrna Loy in a television remake of Meet Me in St. Louis. Stage work continued through the 1960s, including The Most Happy Fella (1962), a production of My Fair Lady at Los Angeles' Valley West Theatre in 1964 in which she played Eliza Doolittle and which set a record gross for West Coast productions of the show, and a 1964 touring musical review titled Just 20 Plus Me! She also took the title role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1966, appeared in Carousel in Atlanta, and starred in The Boy Friend at the Carousel Theater in Los Angeles in 1967. A touring production of Brigadoon also occupied her in 1967, and in 1968 she portrayed Maria von Trapp in a production of The Sound of Music. She made her debut on The Red Skelton Show in 1962 and appeared in numerous episodes through 1972. Television films during this period included 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 she made her Broadway debut, playing the title character in Irene from 1973 to 1974, succeeding Debbie Reynolds in the role. Critic Mel Gussow of The New York Times noted that while Reynolds may have had an edge in clowning, Powell distinguished herself with softness. She also appeared on stage with Howard Keel in productions of a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers revival, I Do! I Do!, and South Pacific.

In the early 1980s, Powell toured in the comedies Same Time, Next Year, The Marriage-Go-Round, and Chapter Two. Between 1981 and 1982, she had guest-starring roles on The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. In 1985, she began a nine-month run on the daytime soap opera Loving, playing a tough mother and businesswoman, and also guest-starred on Murder, She Wrote. From 1988 to 1992, she appeared in a recurring role on the sitcom Growing Pains as Irma Seaver, mother of the character played by Alan Thicke. In May 1988, she married former child actor Dickie Moore, whom she had met while he was researching his autobiography Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, but Don't Have Sex or Take the Car. In the early 1990s, she temporarily replaced Eileen Fulton as Lisa Grimaldi on the soap opera As the World Turns. In 1996 and 1997, she appeared in the off-Broadway production After-Play, and in 2000 she starred in the off-Broadway productions Avow and Bounce.

In December 2007, Powell joined the musical group Pink Martini as a vocalist for a performance in their shared hometown of Portland. She provided a voice role in the 2010 DreamWorks Animation film The Berry & Bitty Movie. In her later years she participated in local theater productions in Wilton, Connecticut.