AP1986

FILE - In this July 1986 record photo, Actress Jane Powell poses for a photograph successful New York. Jane Powell, the bright-eyed, operatic-voiced prima of Hollywood's aureate property musicals who sang with Howard Keel successful Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and danced with Fred Astaire successful Royal Wedding, has died. Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. She was 92. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

LOS ANGELES – Jane Powell, the bright-eyed, operatic-voiced prima of Hollywood's aureate property musicals who sang with Howard Keel successful “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and danced with Fred Astaire successful “Royal Wedding,” has died. She was 92.

Powell died Thursday astatine her Wilton, Connecticut, home, longtime person Susan Grander said. Granger said Powell died of earthy causes.

Powell performed virtually her full life, starting astir property 5 arsenic a singing prodigy connected vigor successful Portland, Oregon. She made her archetypal movie astatine 16 and graduated from teenage roles to costarring successful the lavish philharmonic productions determination were a 20th-century Hollywood staple.

Her 1950 casting successful “Royal Wedding” came by default. June Allyson was archetypal announced arsenic Astaire’s co-star but withdrew erstwhile she became pregnant. Judy Garland was cast, but was withdrawn due to the fact that of idiosyncratic problems. Jane Powell was adjacent successful line.

“They had to springiness it to me,” she quipped astatine the time. “Everybody other is pregnant.” Also among the expectant MGM stars: Lana Turner, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse and Jean Hagen.

Ad

Powell had conscionable turned 21 erstwhile she got the role; Astaire was 50. She was tense due to the fact that she lacked dancing experience, but she recovered him “very diligent and understanding. We got on good from the start.”

“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” proved to beryllium a 1954 “sleeper” hit.

“The workplace didn’t deliberation it was going to bash anything,” she recalled successful 2000. “MGM thought that `Brigadoon’ was going to beryllium the large moneymaker that year. It didn’t crook retired that way. We were the ones that went to the Radio City Music Hall, which was ever specified a coup.”

The famed New York venue was a movie theatre then.

Audiences were overwhelmed by the lusty singing of Keel and Powell and particularly by the gymnastic choreography of Michael Kidd. “Seven Brides” achieved classical presumption and resulted successful a TV bid and a Broadway musical.

“Blonde and tiny and pretty, Jane Powell had the required magnitude of grit and spunk that was needed to play the pistillate who could tame 7 backwoodsmen,” John Kobal wrote successful his publication “Gotta Sing Gotta Dance: A Pictorial History of Film Musicals.”

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.