Jane Powell

Overview

Jane Powell was singing and dancing at an early age. She sang on the radio and performed in theaters before her screen debut in 1944. Through the 1940s and 1950s, she had a successful career in movie musicals. However, in 1957, Jane's career in films ended, as she had outgrown her innocent girl-next-door image. She made brief returns to acting in front of the camera -- on television, in commercials, and in a workout video. She also had a variety of roles on stage after the end of her movie career, including the musicals "South Pacific," "The Sound of Music," "Oklahoma!," "My Fair Lady," "Carousel," and a one-woman show "The Girl Next Door and How She Grew," from which she took the title of her 1988 autobiography.
- IMDb mini biography by: Melissa Portell <mportell@s-cwis.unomaha.edu>

Was bridesmaid for Elizabeth Taylor at her first marriage. Taylor was bridesmaid at Powell's first marriage.
Her husband Patrick Nerney bought her a pair of diamond earrings and due to her fear of needles, she figured the only way she would have of wearing them was to have her ears pierced under anaesthetic. Upon discovering she was pregnant with her last daughter Lindsay, she explained to the doctor that he could only handle her case if he would pierce her ears while she was on the delivery table. He agreed, and she left the delivery room with a baby daughter and two pierced ears.
Best known for her role as Milly in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954).
Roddy McDowall, a friend from the beginning of Jane's Hollywood career and the remainder of his life, was an usher at her first wedding.
Sang at the Inaugural Ball for President Harry S. Truman on January 20, 1949.

I didn't quit movies. They quit me.
The only thing I knew was MGM, where I had worked since I was 14. Unions were not even a part of my vocabulary. SAG meant a gravity problem. EQUITY meant owning a house.
[2017] I don't think about the past except now, when we're talking about it. I never felt I was really there anyway. I always pictured myself as a fly who was up in the corner looking down at myself. I never feel I was there. I'm not very sentimental when it comes to the past. I don't live there and I feel for people who do because it's never going to be the same as you remember it.
[on Fred Astaire, her co-star in Royal Wedding (1951)] He was wonderful to me. I rehearsed with a stand-in and didn't do anything with him until everything was fine. But he was a very private man. I was terrified dancing with him, but I was terrified all the time anyway, so it didn't make any difference.
[on Royal Wedding (1951)] It was June Allyson, then it was going to be Judy Garland. The choreography was in place so I had to learn all the dances in three weeks. I didn't meet Fred Astaire until I went to the set. I asked him, "When did you and your sister stop dancing together?" He said, "1929" and I answered, "Oh, the year I was born!" He thought that was funny.