Jane Powell born 1 April 1929

Jane Powell (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929) is an American singer, dancer and actress who rose to fame in the mid-1940s with roles in various Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals.

Jane Powell enjoyed a successful career in movie musicals primarily throughout the '40s and '50s -- usually typecast as an innocent, "girl next door" teenager. Born Suzanne Bruce in Portland, Oregon, the youngster began going by the name of Jane Powell at an early age as her parents signed her up for singing and dance lessons in hopes of her becoming another Shirley Temple. Powell eventually landed jobs performing at nightclubs during World War II, which led to her own local radio show.

After her family relocated to Los Angeles during the '40s, Powell's career truly took off, as she appeared on further radio programs, eventually leading to a contract with MGM. Powell's movie career began in 1944, as she appeared for the next ten years or so mostly in musicals and comedies. In the late '40s, Powell launched a recording career, issuing several albums on both the Columbia and MGM labels (including such titles as A Date with Jane Powell, Alice in Wonderland, Two Weeks with Love, and Can't We Be Friends?, among others).

Powell's movie career didn't truly take off until 1951, when she appeared in Royal Wedding with dance legend Fred Astaire. But Powell continued to be typecast as the innocent teenager, until she landed a more mature role in what is probably her best-known movie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, in which she starred alongside Howard Keel. By the late '50s, however, it appeared as though Powell's movie career had come to a halt, which led to appearances on television, stage work, and a nightclub act choreographed by Gower Champion.

                              

Powell starred in a Broadway revival of Irene in 1973 (replacing Debbie Reynolds), which led to more work in summer stock and road shows, including The Jane Powell Show, My Fair Lady, Peter Pan, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Carousel, The Boy Friend, 

Brigadoon, and The Sound of Music, in addition to South Pacific and I Do! I Do! -- both of which featured her previous Seven Brides co-star, Howard Keel.

During the '80s, Powell landed regular work on TV shows, including Murder She Wrote, Growing Pains (playing Alan Thicke's mother), Marie, and a long running part on the daytime soap opera, Loving. Additionally, Powell also appeared in the musical documentary That's Dancing!, made a fitness video for arthritis sufferers, and was one of many '50s musical stars to appear in a special performance at the 1986 Academy Awards show.

 In 1988, Powell penned a revealing autobiography, The Girl Next Door and How She Grew, and during the '90s, appeared in a few documentaries -- including 1992's Nelson and Jeanette and The Making of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and in 1999, appeared in the movie Picture This.

In 2000, she appeared in two television movies in supporting roles in The Sandy Bottom Orchestra and Perfect Murder, Perfect Town. Her last major television appearance was a guest star in "Vulnerable" on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2002. 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 and retired from acting. She then started singing on NCL cruise ships.

For one evening, she returned to Portland, her hometown, narrating Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with Pink Martini on December 31, 2007. She also appeared on March 9, 2008, with Martini at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City; she sang 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.

Jane was married five times married Geary Anthony Steffen, Jr., November 5, 1949 (divorced August 6, 1953); married Patrick Nerney, November 8, 1954 (divorced, 1963); married JamesFitzgerald, June 27, 1965 (marriage ended); married David Parlour, October 21, 1978 (divorced, 1981); married Dick Moore (a public relations executive and former child actor), May 21, 1988 (died 2915).

Powell told The Connecticut Post in 2017 that she was learning to live alone and was enjoying her life, gardening and finding companionship with her pets (a toy poodle and cat). In June 2019 she was honoured as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.

(Edited from Greg Prato @ AllMusic, Wikipedia, 50plusworld & IMDb)