Stefanie Powers

Stefanie Powers

Powers on March 7, 2010
Born Stefanie Zofya Paul[1]
(1942-11-02) November 2, 1942
Hollywood, California, U.S.
Other names Taffy Paul
Occupation Actress
Years active 1958–present
Spouse(s) Gary Lockwood (1966–1972)
Patrick De La Chenais (1993–1999)

Stefanie Powers (born November 2, 1942) is an American actress best known for her role as Jennifer Hart in the 1980s television series Hart to Hart.

Early life

Powers was possibly born Stefanie Zofya Paul in Hollywood, California,[1] though her name is often given as Stefania Zsofia (or Zofia) Federkiewicz.[2][3] In her autobiography she says "Moje prawdzie nazwisko to Federkiewicz" ("My real (Polish) name is Federkiewicz").[4]

Her parents divorced during her childhood. Powers was estranged from her father, whom she barely references and whose name is never mentioned in her memoir, One from the Hart, in which she refers to the "tension and unhappiness created by my father's presence".[5] She remained extremely close throughout her life to her mother, born Juliana Dimitria Golan (1912–2009) in New York of Polish descent. Her mother, who died in Los Angeles from pneumonia at 96 years old,[6] would be known late in life and in local obituaries as Julie Powers. Stefanie Powers had an elder brother, Jeffrey Julian Paul[7][8] (1940–2013), as well as a half-sister, Charlene Groman.[6][9] Powers was a cheerleader at Hollywood High School; one of her schoolmates was Nancy Sinatra. In 1965, using the alias Taffy Paul, she made an obscure independent film, The Young Sinner.

Career

Powers (left) with Maureen O'Hara in McLintock!, 1963

Powers appeared in several motion pictures in the early 1960s in secondary roles such as the thriller Experiment in Terror, If a Man Answers, and McLintock! (1963). She played a schoolgirl in Tammy Tell Me True (1961), and Bunny, the police chief's daughter, in Palm Springs Weekend (1963). She appeared in the 1962 hospital melodrama The Interns, and its sequel, The New Interns in 1964. In 1965, she played opposite Tallulah Bankhead in Die! Die! My Darling (originally released in England as Fanatic).

Powers with Noel Harrison in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.

In 1966, her "tempestuous" good looks led to being cast in the starring role as the passive and demure April Dancer, in the short-lived NBC television series spy thriller The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., a spin-off of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Shortly after the series' debut, she was featured on the cover of TV Guide (December 31, 1966 – January 6, 1967). The article mentions her "117-pound frame is kept supple with 11 minutes of Royal Canadian Air Force exercises every morning... Unlike her fellow U.N.C.L.E. agents, the ladylike April is not required to kill the bad guys. Her feminine charms serve as the bait, while her partner Noel Harrison provides the fireworks." The series lasted for only one season (29 one-hour episodes), airing from September 16, 1966 to April 11, 1967.

In 1967, she appeared in Warning Shot with David Janssen. Her 1970s films include The Boatniks (1970) and Herbie Rides Again (sequel to The Love Bug). She was a guest star on the Robert Wagner series It Takes a Thief in 1970. The two went on to co-star in the popular Hart to Hart series nine years later. Before the Hart to Hart success, she starred in The Feather and Father Gang as Toni "Feather" Danton, a successful lawyer, whose father, Harry Danton, was a smooth-talking ex-con man (played by Harold Gould). It ran for a half-season (13 episodes).

Guest roles on other popular TV shows include: McCloud (1971), The Mod Squad (1972), Kung Fu (1974), The Rockford Files (1975), Three for the Road (1975), The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman (1976), and McMillan & Wife (1977). Powers appeared in these shows long after she signed a contract with Universal Studios in 1970. Coincidentally, her longtime friend and Hart to Hart series' star, Wagner, signed a contract with Universal, but did not guest-star on more shows than Powers did. Her role as stripper Dottie Del Mar in 1979's Escape to Athena with Roger Moore turned out to be Powers' last theatrical film to date.

Powers became widely known as a television star for her role opposite Robert Wagner as a married pair of amateur sleuths in the 1979–84 series Hart to Hart, for which she received two Emmy and five Golden Globe Award Best Television Actress nominations. In 1984, she starred in the miniseries Mistral's Daughter, based on Judith Krantz's novel.[10] In the 1990s, Powers and Wagner reunited to make eight Hart to Hart made-for-TV two-hour movies.

In 1985, Powers starred as twins who swap places leading to dire consequences in the two-part made-for-TV movie Deceptions.[11]

In 1987, she starred in the real-life TV drama, At Mother's Request, as the frightening Frances Schreuder, who goaded her 17-year-old-son into killing her father.

She starred briefly in a 1991 London musical, Matador, which closed prematurely due to the sharp drop in tourism during the Persian Gulf War.

She was awarded the Sarah Siddons Award in 1993 for her stage performance in Love Letters.[12]

In 1996, she toured as Margo Channing in a production of Applause, with hopes of a Broadway revival, which did not materialize.[13] She toured the UK in 2002 playing Anna Leonowens in a revival of The King and I,[14] and toured the U.S. in 2004 and 2005 in the same role.[15]

Powers released her debut CD in 2003, titled, On The Same Page. The album features selections from the classic Great American Songbook era. Since 2006, she has been the U.S. location presenter on the long-running Through the Keyhole panel show. On April 30, 2008, she was reunited with Wagner for the filming of a special Hart to Hart edition of the BBC's The Graham Norton Show. On March 12, 2011, she received the Steiger Award (Germany) for accomplishment in the arts.[16]

In 2000–01, she starred in the BBC's popular long-running British soap opera Doctors as Jane Powers,[17] a wealthy businesswoman, and the mother of Dr. Caroline Powers. Jane Powers, after being widowed, was due to marry her much younger fiancé David Wilde, but in the lead-up to the wedding, her daughter (Caroline) and fiancé David fell in love and ran off together. Powers took part in the 11th series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, but was the first celebrity to be eliminated on November 25, 2011.

Powers started a tour of Looped, a play about her old co-star Tallulah Bankhead, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on February 26, 2013, after Valerie Harper withdrew due to health problems.[18]

She starred in the musical Gotta Dance, which premiered in Chicago in December 2015 through January 2016. The cast also stars Georgia Engel, Lillias White, and Andre DeShields. The musical is directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, with a book by Chad Beguelin and Bob Martin, and the score by Matthew Sklar and Nell Benjamin.[19]

Stefanie Powers has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6776 Hollywood Boulevard, presented in 1992.[20]

Personal life

Powers was married to actor Gary Lockwood from 1966–72. Her relationship with actor William Holden led to their joint involvement with wildlife conservation. He died in 1981; by the following year, Powers was the founder and president of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation and a director of the Mount Kenya Game Ranch and Wildlife Conservancy in Nanyuki, Kenya. In the United States, she works with both the Cincinnati and Atlanta zoos. She devotes a great deal of time to the cause and is an international guest speaker on wildlife preservation.[21]

Powers told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme that she campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy during his 1968 presidential campaign.[22]

On April 1, 1993, she married Patrick Houitte de la Chesnais (born May 7, 1951, Versailles, France); the couple divorced in 1999.

Powers has no children.[23]

A polo player, she was among the first foreign members of the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club in the United Kingdom, whose membership includes HRH The Prince of Wales. In 2005, she competed in the Joules United Kingdom National Women's Championships at Ascot.

Cancer

In November 2008, Powers, who was a smoker for 20 years, was diagnosed with alveolar carcinoma, a form of lung cancer.[24] She had surgery to remove part of her right lung on January 29, 2009, the same month her mother died of pneumonia, aged 96, in Los Angeles.[6]

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
2014 Mr. Fiction Marilyn TV movie
2014 Ring by Spring Madam Rue TV movie
2013 Reading, Writing and Romance Brenda TV movie
2010 Soldier Love Story Louise Metcalf TV movie
2008 Jump! Katherine Wilkins
1998 Someone Is Watching Michelle Dupre TV movie
1996 Till Death Do Us Hart Jennifer Hart TV movie
1996 Harts in High Season TV movie
1995 Two Harts in 3/4 Time TV movie
1995 Secrets of the Hart TV movie
1994 Old Friends Never Die TV movie
1994 Crimes of the Hart TV movie
1994 Home is Where the Hart Is TV movie
1993 Hart to Hart Returns TV movie
1988 Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun Beryl Markham TV movie
1984 Family Secrets Jessie Calloway TV movie
1984 Mistral's Daughter Maggie Lunel TV miniseries
1985 Deceptions Sabrina/Stephanie TV miniseries
1979–84 Hart to Hart Jennifer Hart 110 episodes
1979 Escape to Athena Dottie Del Mar
1978 A Death in Canaan Joan Barthel TV movie
1978 The Astral Factor Candy Barrett
1975 It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time Georgia Price
1975 The Streets of San Francisco Rita King Episode: "No Place to Hide"
1975 Gone with the West Little Moon
1975 The Rockford Files Christine Dusseau Episode: "The Real Easy Red Dog"
1974 Herbie Rides Again Nicole Harris
1972 The Magnificent Seven RideMs. Laurie Gunn
1972 Hardcase Rozaline
1971 Sweet, Sweet Rachel Rachel Stanton TV movie
1971 Five Desperate Women Gloria TV movie
1971 Paper Man Karen McMillan TV movie
1970 The Boatniks Kate
1969 Crescendo Susan Roberts
1967 Warning Shot Liz Thayer
1966–67 The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. April Dancer 29 episodes
1966 Stagecoach Mrs. Mallory
1965 Die! Die! My Darling! Pat Carroll a.k.a. Fanatic
1965 Love Has Many Faces Carol Lambert
1964 The New Interns Gloria Worship
1963 Route 66 Julie Severn Episode: "A Cage in Search of a Bird"
1963 McLintock! Becky McLintock
1963 Palm Springs Weekend Bunny Dixon
1962 The Interns Nurse Gloria Mead
1962 Experiment in Terror Toby Sherwood a.k.a The Grip of Fear
1963 Bonanza Calamity Jane Episode: "Calamity Over the Comstock"
1962 If a Man Answers Tina
1961 Like Father, Like Son Ginny Miller a.k.a. The Young Sinner
1961 Tammy Tell Me True Kay
1961 Bat Masterson Ann Elkins Episode: "Dead Man's Claim"

References

  1. 1 2 Stefanie Zofya Paul birth registration, californiabirthindex.org; accessed April 3, 2014.
  2. ↑ Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 134.
  3. ↑ Fred Landesman (7 May 2004). The John Wayne Filmography. McFarland. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-7864-3252-3.
  4. ↑ Stefanie Powers (25 October 2011). One from the Hart. Simon and Schuster. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-4391-7211-7.
  5. ↑ Her father's name is reportedly Morrison Bloomfield Paul, who claimed to be a cinematographer (see Spokane Chronicle, December 7, 1983, pg. 12)
    An IMDb posting states that Powers' "... father, Morrison Bloomfield Paul, was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a Jewish immigrant family from Eastern Europe. Her mother ... was born in New York, to Polish Catholic immigrants", One from the Hart, Gallery Books (reprint edition, October 25, 2011), ISBN 1439172110/ISBN 978-1439172117.
  6. 1 2 3 One from the Heart: a memoir. Gallery Books, Simon and Schuster, Inc. pp. 9, 256. ISBN 978-1-4391-7210-0.
  7. ↑ Jeffrey Paul birth registration, familytreelegends.com; accessed April 3, 2014.
  8. ↑ Jeffrey Paul profile, californiabirthindex.org; accessed April 3, 2014.
  9. ↑ "50 Plus Senior News". Powers Surge. Retrieved June 13, 2006.
  10. ↑ John J. O'Connor (September 24, 1984). "TV Review; 'Mistral's Daughter' Starts Tonight". The New York Times. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  11. ↑ " 'Deceptions' Details" The New York Times, accessed August 3, 2015
  12. ↑ "About Us (see Awardees)", sarahsiddonssociety.org, accessed August 3, 2015.
  13. ↑ Lefkowitz, David. " 'Applause' Tour Closes for Retooling" playbill.com, November 25, 1996.
  14. ↑ "Powers & Webb Share Lead in King & I Tour", Theatre News, April 1, 2002
  15. ↑ Gans, Andrew. "Diva Talk: A Chat with The King & I's Powers Plus News of Salonga and Benanti" playbill.com, January 21, 2005
  16. ↑ Medien, Hellen. "Projekte GmbH". Der Steiger Award. Büro Der Steiger Award. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  17. ↑ " 'Doctors" Cast" tv.com, accessed August 3, 2015
  18. ↑ Fullerton, Krissie. "Photo Call: Stefanie Powers Is Tallulah Bankhead in 'Looped' Tour" playbill.com, March 5, 2013
  19. ↑ Cox, Gordon. "Stefanie Powers, Georgia Engel Join Cast of Broadway-Bound 'Gotta Dance'", Variety.com, June 29, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Stafanie Powers Listing" walkof fame.com, accessed August 4, 2015
  21. ↑ The William Holden Wildlife Foundation website; accessed June 16, 2014.
  22. ↑ "Broadcasting House". January 22, 2012.
  23. ↑ Marriage to Patrick Houitte de la Chesnais, dailymail.co.uk; accessed March 14, 2015.
  24. ↑ Powers discusses cancer battle, lifescript.com; accessed April 3, 2014.
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