Mala Powers

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Mary Ellen Mala Powers December 20 1931 June 11 2007 was an American film actress She was born in San Francisco California In 1940 her family moved to Los Angeles Her father was an executive with United Press In the summer of her relocation Powers attended the Max Reinhardt Junior Workshop where she enjoyed her first role in a play before a live audience She continued with her drama lessons and a year later she auditioned and won a part in the 1942 Dead End Kids film Tough as They Come At the age of 16 she began working in radio drama before becoming a film actress in 1950 Her first roles were in Outrage and Edge of Doom in 1950 That same year Stanley Kramer signed Powers to star opposite Jose Ferrer in what may be her most remembered role as Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her part in this movie While on a USO entertainment tour in Korea in 1951 she acquired a blood disease and almost died She was treated with chloromycetin but a severe allergic reaction resulted in the loss of much of her bone marrow Powers barely survived and her recovery took nearly nine months She began working again in 1952 and 1953 including a part in City Beneath the Sea and City That Never Sleeps although she was still taking medication Following her recovery she appeared in Bmovie westerns such as Rage at Dawn 1955 and science fiction films among them The Colossus of New York 1958 Flight of the Lost Balloon 1961 and Doomsday Machine 1972 She also had a large role in Tammy and the Bachelor 1957 She appeared on more than one hundred television programs including episodes of Appointment with Adventure John Paynes The Restless Gun Maverick Bonanza Wild Wild West and Perry Mason She costarred opposite Anthony Quinn in the television movie The Man and the City later a television series She was married to Monte Vanton in 1954 but they divorced in 1962 they had a son Toren Vanton who survived his mother Powers remarried in 1970 to M Hughes Miller a book publisher Powers was a successful childrens author of Follow the Star and Follow the Year and of Dial a Story Shortly before her death from complications of leukemia June 11 2007 aged 75 she had been on a lecture tour at universities She was a master teacher for the past 14 years in the summer program at the University of Southern Maine for the Michael Chekhov Theatre Institute training actors and teachers of acting Mala Powers cofounded the National Michael Chekhov Association with teaching colleagues Wil Kilroy and Lisa Dalton who continue to teach the curriculum developed by the trio in Maine Powers was the executrix of the Michael Chekhov estate and instrumental in publishing Chekhovs books On the Technique of Acting To the Actor and The Path of the Actor She also published Chekhovs audio series On Theatre and the Art of Acting to which she added a 60 page study guide She conarrates with Gregory Peck a documentary on Chekhov entitled From Russia To Hollywood She was patron of the Michael Chekhov Studio London and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Powers also had a small but recurring role on Shirley Booths Hazel series In that capacity she became a close friend of Lynn Borden who played Barbara Baxter in the 19651966 season Later she gave Borden several elephant figurines one a jade piece an another purchased on a trip to India Borden became a collector of both frog and elephant figures Description above from the Wikipedia article Mala Powers licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia