Jane Powell, who danced, sang and acted in films such as \u00ab\u00a0Seven Brides for Seven Brothers\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0Royal Wedding,\u00a0\u00bb has died at 92.<\/b>
\nLOS ANGELES — Jane Powell, the bright-eyed, operatic-voiced star of Hollywood’s golden age musicals who sang with Howard Keel in \u00ab\u00a0Seven Brides for Seven Brothers\u00a0\u00bb and danced with Fred Astaire in \u00ab\u00a0Royal Wedding,\u00a0\u00bb has died. She was 92. Powell died Thursday at her Wilton, Connecticut, home, longtime friend Susan Granger said. Granger said Powell died of natural causes.\u00a0\u00bbJane was the most wonderful friend,\u00a0\u00bb Granger said. \u00ab\u00a0She was candid, she was honest. You never asked Jane a question you didn’t want an absolutely honest answer to.\u00a0\u00bbGranger was a youngster when she met the then-teenaged Powell, who was making her film debut in 1944’s \u00ab\u00a0Song of the Open Road,\u00a0\u00bb directed by Granger’s father, S. Sylvan Simon. She performed virtually her whole life, starting about age 5 as a singing prodigy on radio in Portland, Oregon. On screen, she quickly graduated from teen roles to the lavish musical productions that were a 20th-century Hollywood staple. Her 1950 casting in \u00ab\u00a0Royal Wedding\u00a0\u00bb came by default. June Allyson was first announced as Astaire’s co-star but withdrew when she became pregnant. Judy Garland was cast, but was withdrawn because of personal problems. Jane Powell was next in line.\u00a0\u00bbThey had to give it to me,\u00a0\u00bb she quipped at the time. \u00ab\u00a0Everybody else is pregnant.\u00a0\u00bb Also among the expectant MGM stars: Lana Turner, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse and Jean Hagen. Powell had just turned 21 when she got the role; Astaire was 50. She was nervous because she lacked dancing experience, but she found him \u00ab\u00a0very patient and understanding. We got along fine from the start.\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0\u00bbSeven Brides for Seven Brothers\u00a0\u00bb proved to be a 1954 \u00ab\u00a0sleeper\u00a0\u00bb hit.\u00a0\u00bbThe studio didn’t think it was going to do anything,\u00a0\u00bb she recalled in 2000. \u00ab\u00a0MGM thought that Brigadoon’ was going to be the big moneymaker that year. It didn’t turn out that way. We were the ones that went to the Radio City Music Hall, which was always such a coup.\u00a0\u00bbThe famed New York venue was a movie theater then. Audiences were overwhelmed by the lusty singing of Keel and Powell and especially by the gymnastic choreography of Michael Kidd. \u00ab\u00a0Seven Brides\u00a0\u00bb achieved classic status and resulted in a TV series and a Broadway musical.\u00a0\u00bbBlonde and small and pretty, Jane Powell had the required amount of grit and spunk that was needed to play the woman who could tame seven backwoodsmen,\u00a0\u00bb John Kobal wrote in his book \u00ab\u00a0Gotta Sing Gotta Dance: A Pictorial History of Film Musicals.\u00a0\u00bbAfter 13 years at MGM, though, Powell quit the studio, reasoning that she was going to be fired \u00ab\u00a0because they weren’t going to be doing musicals anymore.\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0\u00bbI thought I’d have a lot of studios to go to,\u00a0\u00bb she said in 2000, \u00ab\u00a0but I didn’t have any, because no one wanted to make musicals. It was very difficult, and quite a shock to me. There’s nothing worse than not being wanted.\u00a0\u00bbShe found one musical at RKO, \u00ab\u00a0The Girl Most Likely,\u00a0\u00bb a 1958 remake of \u00ab\u00a0Tom, Dick and Harry.\u00a0\u00bb Aside from a couple of minor films, her movie career was over. She was born Suzanne Lorraine Burce in Portland, Oregon, in 1928. She began singing on local radio as a small child, and as she grew, her voice developed into a clear, high-pitched soprano. When the Burce family planned a trip to Los Angeles, the radio station asked if Suzanne would appear on a network talent show there. The tiny girl with a 2-octave voice drew thunderous applause with an aria from \u00ab\u00a0Carmen\u00a0\u00bb and was quickly put under contract to MGM. Her first movie was a loanout to an independent producer for \u00ab\u00a0Song of the Open Road,\u00a0\u00bb a 1944 mishmash with W.C. Fields (at the end of his career) and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. The character’s name in \u00ab\u00a0Song of the Open Road\u00a0\u00bb was Jane Powell, and MGM decided that would be her movie name. She played teens in such films as \u00ab\u00a0Holiday in Mexico,\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0Three Daring Daughters\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0A Date With Judy.\u00a0\u00bb But she pleaded with the studio bosses to be given grown-up roles and finally succeeded in \u00ab\u00a0Royal Wedding.\u00a0\u00bbFrothy romances and musicals continued to dominate her career, including \u00ab\u00a0Young, Rich and Pretty,\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0Small Town Girl\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0Three Sailors and a Girl.\u00a0\u00bbAfter her movie career ended, musical theater offered plenty of work for a star of her prominence and talent. She sang in supper clubs, toured in such shows as \u00ab\u00a0The Unsinkable Molly Brown\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0I Do! I Do!\u00a0\u00bb and replaced Debbie Reynolds in the Broadway run of \u00ab\u00a0Irene.\u00a0\u00bbShe frequently appeared on television, notably in the Judy Garland role in a new version of \u00ab\u00a0Meet Me in St. Louis.\u00a0\u00bbAs she approached her 70s, Powell abandoned her singing career. \u00ab\u00a0I can’t hit the high notes, and I won’t be second-rate,\u00a0\u00bb she explained in 2000. She switched to drama, appearing in New York theater in such plays as \u00ab\u00a0Avow,\u00a0\u00bb portraying mother of an unmarried, pregnant daughter and a son who wanted to marry his male partner. Powell’s first four marriages ended in divorce: to Geary Steffen (son Geary, daughter Suzanne), Patrick Nerney (daughter Lindsay), James Fitzgerald and David Parlour. Powell met fifth husband Dick Moore when he interviewed her for his book about child actors. As Dickie Moore, he had been a well-known child actor in the 1930s and ’40s and gave Shirley Temple her first screen kiss in \u00ab\u00a0Miss Annie Rooney\u00a0\u00bb (1942). Moore, head of a New York public relations office, and Powell married in 1988. He died in 2015. Jane Powell’s survivors include her daughter, Lindsey Nerney, Granger said.<\/p>\n