# Jane Powell
**Jane Powell** (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929 – September 16, 2021) was an American actress, singer, and dancer who starred in [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/metro-goldwyn-mayer) musicals during the 1940s and 1950s and is best known as Milly Pontipee in *Seven Brides for Seven Brothers* (1954). She was a singing star at MGM during the heyday of the studio's musicals, from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, with a coloratura soprano voice and an enduring "girl-next-door" screen image.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/21/jane-powell-obituary)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | Suzanne Lorraine Burce, April 1, 1929, Portland, Oregon; September 16, 2021, her home in Wilton, Connecticut, aged 92[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) • [3](https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/jane-powell-obituary-hollywood-star-who-was-typecast-from-the-outset-1.4681881) |
| Stage name | Taken from the character she played in her debut film, United Artists' *Song of the Open Road* (1944), a loan-out from MGM[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) |
| Voice | Coloratura soprano with a range of two and a half octaves[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) |
| Signature film | *Seven Brides for Seven Brothers* (1954), directed by Stanley Donen, opposite Howard Keel; five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, winning Best Scoring of a Musical[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1491039/jane-powell-wednesdays-in-june) |
| Other notable films | *Holiday in Mexico* (1946), *A Date with Judy* (1948), *Royal Wedding* (1951) with Fred Astaire, *Hit the Deck* (1955)[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1491039/jane-powell-wednesdays-in-june) |
| Later career | Musical theater from the late 1950s, Broadway's *Irene* (1973), television work including a recurring role on *Growing Pains*[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021639/jane-powell) |
| Marriages | Five; first to ice skater Geary Steffen (1949), last to former child star Dickie Moore (1988, until his death in 2015)[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/21/jane-powell-obituary) |
## Early life in Portland
Powell was born to Paul Emerson Burce, who worked for [Wonder Bread](https://www.edgepedia.org/wonder-bread), and Eileen Baker Burce, a homemaker, who hoped their only child would become the next [Shirley Temple](https://www.edgepedia.org/shirley-temple).[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) She received dance lessons at age two and by five was a singing performer on *Stars of Tomorrow*, a Portland children's radio show.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) A family move to [Oakland, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/oakland-california), in pursuit of a studio career produced no success, and the Burces returned to Portland.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/)
**The Oregon Victory Girl.** In 1941, at age twelve, she was selected as the Oregon Victory Girl and toured the state singing at World War II bond rallies, military camps, veterans' homes, and hospitals.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) She also took a job at Portland's KOIN Radio, singing two shows a week for $8 per week, which she contributed to her family's income.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/)
## MGM and the movie musicals
Her break came in 1943, when the family vacationed in Los Angeles and she won a talent contest on the radio program *Hollywood Showcase: Stars over Hollywood*, singing "Il Baccio," an aria from *Carmen*.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) After auditioning with [Louis B. Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/louis-b-mayer) and [David O. Selznick](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-o-selznick), she signed a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) MGM loaned her to [United Artists](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-artists) for her first film, *Song of the Open Road* (1944), in which she played a character named Jane Powell; she took that name as her stage name.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) The film premiered at Portland's Orpheum Theater, where a parade featured signs proclaiming "Portland Is Proud of Oregon's Victory Girl Jane Powell."[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/)
Through the rest of the 1940s she played bright-eyed teenagers in a string of musicals: *Delightfully Dangerous* (1945), *Holiday in Mexico* (1946), her first [Technicolor](https://www.edgepedia.org/technicolor) film, *Three Daring Daughters* (1948), *A Date with Judy* (1948) with [Elizabeth Taylor](https://www.edgepedia.org/elizabeth-taylor), *Luxury Liner* (1948), *Nancy Goes to Rio* (1950), and *Two Weeks with Love* (1950) with [Ricardo Montalbán](https://www.edgepedia.org/ricardo-montalban).[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) Producer Joe Pasternak, who had made a star of the soprano Deanna Durbin at Universal, became her most frequent and influential producer at MGM.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1491039/jane-powell-wednesdays-in-june)
**Royal Wedding.** Her first adult role came in *Royal Wedding* (1951), opposite [Fred Astaire](https://www.edgepedia.org/fred-astaire); she took the part when [June Allyson](https://www.edgepedia.org/june-allyson) became pregnant and [Judy Garland](https://www.edgepedia.org/judy-garland) was ill.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021639/jane-powell) She played Astaire's sister in a brother-sister act performing in London around the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, and the film was a box-office success.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/21/jane-powell-obituary) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1491039/jane-powell-wednesdays-in-june)
## Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Her signature role came as Milly Pontipee in *Seven Brides for Seven Brothers* (1954), directed by [Stanley Donen](https://www.edgepedia.org/stanley-donen), in which she played an Oregonian who tamed the frontier and sang and danced with the baritone [Howard Keel](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-keel).[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) MGM expected the musical *Brigadoon*, in production at the same time, to be the hit of the year, but *Seven Brides* became the sleeper success.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021639/jane-powell) The film received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won for Best Scoring of a Musical.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1491039/jane-powell-wednesdays-in-june) Powell later wrote that she had no idea the "charmingly sensible pioneer girl, Milly, would be my last really wonderful film role."[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021639/jane-powell)
## The end of the film career
After *Athena* (1954), *Deep in My Heart* (1954), and *Hit the Deck* (1955), Powell left MGM, later saying she probably beat being fired by only six months, because studio head Dore Schary was no longer interested in making musicals.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021639/jane-powell) She made *The Girl Most Likely* (1957) and her last feature film, *Enchanted Island* (1958), a role she accepted because her character did not have to sing.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021639/jane-powell) "I didn't quit the movies, they quit me," she later said.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021639/jane-powell) By that point, the unpretentious small-town musicals suited to her talents were fading away, and she no longer fit the wholesome girl-next-door persona she had long been known for.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/21/jane-powell-obituary)
## Stage and television
Powell turned to musical theater in the late 1950s, beginning with a summer stock production of *Oklahoma* in Dallas in 1958.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) She played Eliza Doolittle in *My Fair Lady* in Los Angeles (1964), led *The Unsinkable Molly Brown* (1966), *Carousel* (1966), and *The Sound of Music* (1968), and sang with Howard Keel in *South Pacific* (1978).[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) She starred in a Broadway revival of *Irene* in 1973, replacing Debbie Reynolds.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) On television she made guest appearances on shows such as *The Love Boat* and *Murder, She Wrote*, and had a recurring role on *Growing Pains* as the mother of the character played by Alan Thicke.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021639/jane-powell) Her final credited TV role was as a nursing home resident in a 2002 episode of *Law & Order: SVU*.[6](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/jane-powell-death-hollywood-musicals-b1921863.html)
**Late appearances.** In 1988 she published her autobiography, *The Girl Next Door and How She Grew*, which she had also used as the title of a one-woman show.[7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0007225/) From the 1980s through the 2000s she took cameo roles on television, and in 1995 she played the Queen in the New York City Opera's production of *Cinderella*.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) She appeared with the band Pink Martini as the narrator of Prokofiev's *Peter and the Wolf* in Portland on New Year's Eve 2007, and with the band at Lincoln Center in 2008 and the Hollywood Bowl in 2010.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/)
## Personal life and recognition
Powell was married five times; the first four marriages ended in divorce.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/21/jane-powell-obituary) Her first husband was the ice skater Geary Steffen, married in 1949, with whom she had two children; she later married Patrick Nerney in 1954, James Fitzgerald in 1965, and David Parlour in 1978.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) Her last husband was the former child star Dickie Moore, whom she married in 1988; he died in 2015.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/21/jane-powell-obituary)
She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.[2](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/) In her later years she lived in Wilton, Connecticut, and died there of natural causes on September 16, 2021, at age 92.[3](https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/jane-powell-obituary-hollywood-star-who-was-typecast-from-the-outset-1.4681881) • [6](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/jane-powell-death-hollywood-musicals-b1921863.html)
## References
1. [Jane Powell obituary, The Guardian (Ronald Bergan, 21 September 2021)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/21/jane-powell-obituary)
2. [Jane Powell (1929–2021), The Oregon Encyclopedia (Barbara Bennett Peterson)](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/powell-jane/)
3. [Jane Powell obituary: Hollywood star who was typecast from the outset, The Irish Times (25 September 2021)](https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/jane-powell-obituary-hollywood-star-who-was-typecast-from-the-outset-1.4681881)
4. [Jane Powell – Wednesdays in June, Turner Classic Movies (Roger Fristoe, 21 May 2019)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1491039/jane-powell-wednesdays-in-june)
5. [Jane Powell, Turner Classic Movies (Jessica Pickens, 25 July 2022)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021639/jane-powell)
6. [Jane Powell death: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers star dies aged 92, The Independent (17 September 2021)](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/jane-powell-death-hollywood-musicals-b1921863.html)
7. [Jane Powell, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0007225/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Film people and crafts › Film actors and performers › Actors and actresses by country or nationality › American actors and actresses › Surnames P to Z*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license