Jane Powell, MGM's musical girl-next-door, was born Suzanne Burce on April 1, 1929 in Portland, Oregon. From an early age, Powell's parents had hopes their daughter would "be the next Shirley Temple" and sent her to dance and singing lessons. By age five, she was appearing on a local radio show called Stars of Tomorrow. When Powell was six, a talent scout spotted her in a dance recital and whisked the family off to Oakland, California. The plan was to train Powell for a movie role and move on to Hollywood. But the family's money ran out, the agent disappeared and the family went back to Portland.

Despite the setback, Powell's parents still hoped to make her a success. She returned to local radio where she eventually hosted two weekly radio shows of her own. At twelve, she was named Oregon Victory Girl, a job that required her to travel the state singing and selling victory bonds. Powell's big break came in 1943, when the family vacationed in Hollywood. It wasn't purely a pleasure trip -- one of Powell's radio producers had secured a spot for her on the radio talent show Stars Over Hollywood which featured Janet Gaynor. Powell's performance on the show was so impressive that within days she had auditions for both David O. Selznick and Louis B. Mayer, two of Hollywood's biggest moguls. She was quickly signed to a contract at MGM (that allowed Selznick one picture a year) without so much as a screen test or an acting lesson. Powell was only fourteen!

MGM loaned her out to United Artists for her first picture -- Song of the Open Road (1944). The movie featured W.C. Fields, Edgar Bergen and Bonita Granville. It also inspired a name change for the young starlet, who was still known as Suzanne Burce. As the story goes, she received a call one day asking to speak to Jane Powell. She told the caller they had the wrong number. No, they insisted...that's your new name. As it turns out, Jane Powell was the character's name in Song of the Open Road. Years later in her autobiography The Girl Next Door...And How She Grew Powell would joke about her screen name. "To this day," she wrote, "people still think I'm Dick Powell's wife, William Powell's daughter, Eleanor Powell's sister. I always wanted to be named Cheryl."

Powell's second film would also be a loan out. The movie was Delightfully Dangerous (1945) with Ralph Bellamy. After two films, MGM finally found a vehicle of its own for Powell. She made both her MGM and Technicolor debut in Holiday in Mexico (1946); her first two pictures had been black and white. The film introduced Powell to two important figures in her life. Her love interest in the film was Roddy McDowall – the two would become longtime friends. And, it was produced by Joe Pasternak, who would produce the majority of her MGM films.

1948 found Powell in three MGM productions: Three Daring Daughters as the daughter of fellow soprano Jeanette MacDonald; Luxury Liner with George Brent, who years later would propose to her; and A Date with Judy starring Wallace Beery, Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Stack, who would give Powell her first screen kiss in the film. Two years later Powell appeared in Nancy Goes to Rio (1950) as well as her personal favorite, Two Weeks with Love. Powell liked the latter film because it was her first period picture and because of the dream sequence where she got to play a femme fatale and sing "My Hero" to Ricardo Montalban.

Powell's next film was a high profile affair. It was Royal Wedding (1951) and she would star and dance opposite the great Fred Astaire. Powell was a replacement for June Allyson, who was first given the role but left when she got pregnant, and Judy Garland, who became too ill to appear in it. Since Astaire had already rehearsed with Garland and Allyson, he didn't practice with Powell. But she quickly learned all the dances in three weeks. Astaire was reportedly a pleasant, though distant co-star but Peter Lawford was "too cool" for Powell's tastes, with what she called a "sappy kind of arrogance."

Next up was Rich, Young and Pretty (1951) with frequent co-star Vic Damone; Small Town Girl (1953) where Powell befriended Ann Miller; and Three Sailors and a Girl (1953) starring Gordon MacRae and Gene Nelson, with whom Powell would begin a romance. 1954 would bring another hit with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The musical, which received five Oscar® nominations including Best Picture, and a win for Best Score, was a surprise success for MGM. The studio had focused its attention on Brigadoon (1954), expecting it to be the bigger musical hit. Powell appeared in two more pictures that year -- Athena with Debbie Reynolds, as well as a guest role in Deep in My Heart.

Her last film at MGM would be Hit the Deck (1955), again with Debbie Reynolds and Vic Damone and co-stars Ann Miller, Walter Pidgeon and Russ Tamblyn. Powell then packed up and left MGM; she later learned the studio was planning to fire her anyway. Change was in the air at her home studio. Louis B. Mayer had been ousted, the studio was now under the rule of Dore Schary and the era of the MGM musical had come to an end.

Powell made three more films after leaving MGM: The Girl Most Likely (1957), a remake of the 1941 Ginger Rogers movie Tom, Dick and Harry, was one of the last films produced by RKO; The Female Animal (1958) co-starring Hedy Lamarr was released by Universal-international; and Warner Bros.'s Enchanted Island (1958), where she played a blue-eyed island native opposite Dana Andrews, would be her final feature.

After her film career ended, Powell continued to keep busy, acting on television, in the theater and in Broadway touring companies. She replaced Debbie Reynolds in the Broadway revival of Irene in the 1970s. She also spent time with her family -- Powell has three children and has been married five times. Her current husband is former child star Dickie Moore. The couple met when Moore interviewed Powell for his book on child stars - Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: And Don't Have Sex, Or Take the Car. They married in 1988.

by Stephanie Thames