The Golden Globe nominee Mala Powers took part in the filming of over a hundred television series, including appearing in episodes of such popular serial projects as Maverick, The Restless Gun, Bonanza, Wild Wild West, Perry Mason "," Cheyenne ", and also became one of the stars of the television movie" Man in the City "with Anthony Quinn. Mala is considered one of the most prominent actresses of her generation and the face of American cinema in the 20th century.
Biography
Mary Ellen 'Mala' Powers was born on December 20, 1931 in San Francisco, California, USA. In the 1940s, she and her family moved to Los Angeles. Her father worked for the United Press International news agency. One summer, at her new place of residence, Powers attended the Junior Acting Masterclass of theater and film director Max Reinhardt, where she played her first role in front of the audience and enjoyed it. She decided to continue taking drama lessons and a year later came in and won an audition for the role of Esther Clark in William Nye's 1942 crime drama Tough As They Come.
Career
At the age of sixteen, Mala began her work in radio dramas, which at that time was a fairly popular genre of art. However, soon such work bored the young beauty and she began to think about her old dream - the profession of an actress. In 1950 she started professionally as a film actress. She got her first roles early in her career in Mark Robson's film noir "Edge of Doom" and Ida Lupino's crime film "Outrage". Powers then signed with producer Stanley Kramer, co-starring with José Ferrer as the star of Michael Gordon's Oscar-winning melodrama Cyrano de Bergerac. In this film about the famous poet and guard officer Cyrano de Bergerac with a long and ridiculous nose, the actress played one of her most unforgettable roles - his cousin Roxanne, whose love this consummate master of words with a conspicuous lack of appearance tried to win in a very unusual way. For her participation in the film Cyrano de Bergerac, the actress was nominated for a Golden Globe. The film itself became iconic and became one of the best films in American cinema. After the release of this film, the career of the young actress took off.
During her military entertainment tour with the private nonprofit organization USO to Korea in 1951, Mala developed a serious blood condition and nearly died. Due to treatment with the antibiotic chloromycetin, Powers faced a severe allergic reaction in her body, which subsequently led to the loss of a significant part of her bone marrow. For a long time, the actress was on the border between life and death, spending nine months to restore her health.
Continuing her medication, she resumed her career in 1952-1953, playing Terry McBride in Budd Botticer's action adventure City Beneath the Sea and Sally Connors in John H. Auer's noir film City That Never Sleeps, starring Giga Young. After a full recovery, Powers appeared in low-budget westerns, almost second-rate, among which was Tim Whelan's 1955 "Rage at Dawn".
She has starred in sci-fi movies including Anna Spenser in Eugene Lurie's 1958 Colossus of New York, Ellen Burton in Nathan Juran's 1961 adventure, Flight of the Lost Balloon, and Major Georgiana Vronskaya in the directorial idea of Harry Hope's 1972 Doomsday Machine. The actress also earned a major role, Barbara Bizzle, in Joseph Piveney's 1957 musical Tammy and the Bachelor opposite Leslie Nielsen and Debbie Reynolds.
The Golden Globe nominee took part in the filming of over a hundred television series, including appearing in episodes of such popular serial projects as Maverick, The Restless Gun, Bonanza, Wild Wild West, Perry Mason "," Cheyenne ", and also became one of the stars of the television movie" Man in the City "along with Anthony Quinn.
Personal life
Mala Powers married Monte Vantona in 1954, at the age of 23, which is considered pretty early for Hollywood actresses. Unfortunately, the marriage ended in divorce. From her first marriage, Mala had a son - Toren Vanton. The actress got married for the second time in 1970, becoming the legal wife of the book publisher M. Hughes Miller. The marriage became not only a successful union of two hearts, but also quite positively influenced the work of Powers herself. Living with Miller, the actress established herself as a successful author for children, writing books such as Follow the Star, Follow the Year and Dial a Story.
Shortly before her death from complications of leukemia on June 11, 2007 in the city of Burbank, Powers participated in a lecture tour of universities. For 14 years she was a master at the Theater Institute of Mikhail Chekhov, nephew of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, in charge of teaching acting skills to her students. Mala released Mikhail's audio series On Theater and the Art of Acting, to which she added 60 pages of a tutorial.
Mala Powers is the owner of a personalized star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
