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Jane Powell, Spirited Star of Movie Musicals ‘Royal Wedding,’ ‘Seven Brides,’ Dies at 92

5
Carmel Dagan
·7 min read

Jane Powell, who starred as an angelically visaged young actress in a number of MGM musicals including “Royal Wedding” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” during the 1940s and ’50s, has died of natural causes. She was 92.

The blonde, blue-eyed Powell usually played characters with a gentle mischievous streak in her musical comedies, but she would shatter the light-hearted atmosphere of her films when she sang: A surprisingly powerful coloratura would emerge from the diminutive (5-foot-1) thesp. (Interestingly, she never learned to read music.)

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Her producer and mentor was MGM’s Joe Pasternak, who had earlier developed the talents of Deanna Durbin at Universal.

Auditioning for Louis B. Mayer and David O. Selznick, she quickly drew a seven-year contract with MGM in 1943. Her first film, on loan-out, was 1944 musical “Song of the Open Road,” in which the actress played a child film star who runs away. She took her character’s name, Jane Powell, as her own.

In “Holiday in Mexico” she starred with Walter Pidgeon plus pianist-conductor Jose Iturbi and bandleader Xavier Cugat as themselves; in “Three Daring Daughters” her character is threatened by a relationship between her mother (Jeanette MacDonald) and Iturbi (as himself again); and in “A Date With Judy” (Powell was Santa Barbara teen Judy) she tangled with father Wallace Beery, whom she incorrectly believes is having an affair with Cugat’s singer, played by Carmen Miranda.

These teen-centered musicals, with their similar plots, began to seem alike after a while, but in 1951 Powell starred with Fred Astaire in Stanley Donen’s “Royal Wedding,” the musical in which Astaire famously dances (solo) on the side walls and ceiling of a room. Powell (first June Allyson and then Judy Garland had been slotted for the part) and Astaire played a brother-and-sister act who head to London in 1947 at the time of Princess Elizabeth’s marriage; Powell’s aristocratic love interest was played by Peter Lawford (the storyline echoed the real lives of Fred and his sister Adele).

The New York Times said, “Mr. Astaire and Miss Powell are at their cutest in a ragtag-and-barrel-house affair called ‘How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life.’ In this one the couple shimmy-shammy and knock each other — and the audience — dead.” After “Royal Wedding,” however, Powell returned to the kind of musicals she had been making since the mid-1940s, though “Rich, Young and Pretty” was set in Paris (her long-lost mother was played by Danielle Darrieux).

She returned to work for Donen in 1954’s high-profile tuner “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” which was nominated for the best picture Oscar. In this spirited affair, Powell starred opposite Howard Keel (and the rest of a necessarily large cast) in a somewhat more mature role than she had previously played. The Times said, “Mr. Keel, whose baritone is as big and impressive as his frame; Miss Powell, who sings and acts to the pioneer manner born; as well as their sturdy and energetic kinfolk — and this must include the nubile, dancing damsels they abduct — are lovely to look at and hear.”

Also in 1954, in perhaps her kookiest (but nevertheless charming) role, Powell played a member of a family of weightlifting vegetarians who becomes involved in a somewhat star-crossed romance with a straitlaced politician (Edmund Purdom) in “Athena.”

Powell also had a small role in 1954 in Donen’s “Deep in My Heart,” starring Jose Ferrer and Merle Oberon.

In 1955 she starred with Debbie Reynolds and Ann Miller in “Hit the Deck,” a musical derivative of “Anchors Aweigh” and “On the Town.”

In 1956 Powell’s recording of “True Love” hit No. 15 on the Billboard charts, and the actress sang “I’ll Never Stop Loving You” at the Academy Awards that year.

Powell was aging out of the teen roles for which she had been charmingly well suited — the New York Observer said she “made enough soda-fountain musicals at MGM to give herself a lifelong milkshake hangover” — and mostly found frustration in her last few 1950s film roles.

The 1958 Hollywood-set melodrama “The Female Animal” saw Powell’s alcoholic daughter compete with her drunken has-been movie star mother, played by Hedy Lamarr (in a comeback role), for the affections of a young extra, but the film was not a success. She was miscast as a cannibal chief’s daughter in “Enchanted Island,” though “The Girl Most Likely,” a musicalized remake of the Ginger Rogers vehicle “Tom, Dick and Harry,” was relatively successful even if Powell’s character was a bit ditzy.

The actress had, however, already been transitioning to TV for a couple of years at this point, appearing on anthology shows such as “Producers’ Showcase,” “Goodyear Theatre” and “Alcoa Theatre,” and variety shows such as “The Red Skelton Hour.” She appeared in a 1959 small-screen version of “Meet Me in St. Louis” in the Garland role.

And she was spending her summers touring in musicals such as “Unsinkable Molly Brown,” “Most Happy Fella,” “The Boy Friend,” “Brigadoon,” “The Sound of Music,” “Oklahoma!,” “My Fair Lady,” “Carousel,” “Meet Me in St. Louis” and “Peter Pan.” In 1964 Powell toured in the musical revue “Just 20 Plus Me!,” featuring Powell and 20 handsome fellows.

In 1974 she made her sole Broadway appearance replacing Reynolds in the title role of “Irene.”