JANE POWELL BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Jane Powell was born April 1st, 1929 in Portland, Oregon with the birth name, Suzanne Lorraine Burce. She was an only child to father, Paul Burce, a Wonder Bread employee and Eileen Baker. At the age of two, Powell enrolled in dance lessons and by age five she was already making her first appearance on the children's radio show, "Stars of Tomorrow".
Scotty Weston, a talent scout and dance instructor, met Powell at a dance studio and convinced her family to relocate to Oakland in hopes of Powell being discovered there. The family left Portland and took this risk, however, after three months they were unsuccessful in getting Powell seen by anyone important in the entertainment industry and moved back home to Portland.
After settling back in Portland and Powell's father finding a job as an apartment manager, neighbors who heard Powell singing convinced her parents to enroll her in singing lessons.
A local promoter, Carl Werner, helped Powell get selected as the Oregon Victory Girl at twelve years of age. For two years she traveled around the state and sold victory bonds and also had two weekly radio shows.
In the summer of 1943, Powell's parents took her on a vacation to Hollywood where she had the opportunity to appear on Janet Gaynor's radio show, "Stars over Hollywood". This was a talent competition and Powell won the competition and soon had the chance to audition with Louis B. Mayer at MGM's and was signed to a seven year contract. After only two months she was loaned out to United Artists to star in her first film, "Song of the Open Road" (1944). The character she played was, Jane Powell, and since then she changed her stage name to that of her character.
Her second film, "Delightfully Dangerous" (1945) followed by, "Holiday in Mexico" (1946). She also worked with MGM on such musicals as, "Royal Wedding" (1951), "A Date With Judy" (1948) and "Nancy Goes to Rio" (1950).
Within her first few years at MGM, Powell made six films, appeared on radio programs, performed in theatre productions, including, "The Student Prince" and even sang at the inauguration ball for President Harry S. Truman on January 20, 1949. Her best known film was, "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" (1954).
Other films she starred in 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).
Throughout the 1950's and 1960's Powell appeared regularly on television as well. These credits included guest spots on nearly all the major variety shows of the period such as "Perry Como Show", "The Andy Williams Show", "The Kraft Music Hall", "The Frank Sinatra Show", "The Ed Sullivan Show", "The Hollywood Palace", "The Red Skelton Show", "Eddie Fisher", "The Dinah Shore Show", "The Dean Martin Show", "The Smothers Brothers", "Jonathan Winters", "This is Tom Jones", "The Garry Moore Show", "The Jerry Lewis Show" and "The Judy Garland Show".
Powell's television specials included "Meet Me in St. Louis", "Young at Heart", "Feathertop", "The Danny Thomas Show" (1967), "Victor Borge Show", "Ruggles of Red Gap" on Producers' Showcase and "Hooray for Love".
In the 1970's she appeared in 3 TV movies, "Wheeler and Murdoch", "The Letters" and "Mayday at 40,000 Feet!".
In the early 80's she continued her performing career with appearances in, "Same Time Next Year", " Marriage Go Round" and "Chapter Two" along with guest performances on, "The Love Boat", "Fantasy Island" and " Murder She Wrote". Powell also worked for nine months straight on the daytime soap, "loving".
Moving in to the 90's, Powell had a regular spot on "Growing pains" as well. She also had a temporary spot on the soap opera, "As the World Turns" during 1991, 1993 and 1994.
Powell's last major television appearance was a guest spot on, "Law and Order" ( 2002).
As of the year 2010, Powell is still alive and living in New York City with her fifth husband, Dickie Moore, who was also a childhood actor and whom she has remained married to the longest of her five total marriages. She has three children total and in 1988, Jane Powell published her autobiography. So far she has performed in front of five Us Presidents and the Queen of England. She resides in Manhattan and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Actors' Fund of America.
Filmography
2000 The Sandy Bottom Orchestra
2000 Perfect Murder, Perfect Town
1999 Picture This
1990 Growing Pains: Weekend at Mike's
1990 Growing Pains: Divorce Story
1989 Growing Pains: The Looooove Boat, Part 2
1989 Growing Pains: The Looooove Boat, Part 1
1989 Growing Pains: Teach Me
1989 Growing Pains: Mike and Julie's Wedding
1989 Growing Pains: Anniversary from Hell
1988 Growing Pains: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
1987 Murder, She Wrote: Old Habits Die Hard
1986 Jane Powell's Fight Back with Fitness
1985 Marie
1976 Mayday at 40,000 Feet
1975 Tubby the Tuba
1973 The Letters
1972 Wheeler and Murdoch
1958 The Female Animal
1958 The All-Star Christmas Show
1958 Enchanted Island
1957 The Girl Most Likely Dodie
1957 Ruggles of Red Gap
1955 Hit the Deck
1954 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
1954 Deep in My Heart
1954 Athena
1953 Three Sailors and a Girl
1953 Small Town Girl
1951 Royal Wedding
1951 Rich, Young and Pretty
1950 Two Weeks With Love
1950 Nancy Goes to Rio
1948 Three Daring Daughters
1948 Luxury Liner
1948 A Date with Judy
1946 Holiday in Mexico
1945 Delightfully Dangerous
1944 Song of the Open Road
