Mala Powers, the lovely actress who was cast as Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac and who would later find success on television, died on June 11 in Burbank of leukemia. She was 76.

She was born Mary Ellen Powers on December 20, 1931, in San Francisco. Her parents were journalists who relocated to Hollywood to find employment. Acting from a young age, Powers scored two key films when she was just eighteen: performing with Jose Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac and portraying a rape victim in Outrage (both 1950), an Ida Lupino film that, despite some dated and schematic elements, is still a compelling drama about a young girl suffering from cruel persecution and gossiping neighbors after her attack.

Powers would eventually get a contract with RKO studios, but the films she made weren't overwhelming: Rose of Cimarron (1952), City Beneath the Sea, City That Never Sleeps (both 1953), The Yellow Mountain (1954), Rage at Dawn (1955); and by the late fifties, she was doing some offbeat sci-fi material such as The Unknown Terror (1957) and The Colossus of New York (1958).

By the late '50s, she took the route most actors did at the time when the film roles became scare - she turned to television and guest starred in a majority of the popular westerns of the day: Rawhide, Maverick, Bonanza, Wanted: Dead or Alive, and Wagon Train. Her success on television continued well into the '60s and '70s as Powers evolved into a fine character actress: Dr Kildare, Perry Mason, Mission: Impossible, Ironside and Charlie's Angels were just some of the hit shows in which she appeared.

Toward the end of her career, Powers became an acting teacher and taught at several universities around the country. She made her final film appearance in the minor mob thriller Hitters (2002). She is survived by her son Toren.

by Michael T. Toole