Eleanor Powell

Resources: Official Eleanor Powell Tribute Site (http://www.lynnpdesign.com/classicmovies/tapdancing/bio.html), IMDB.com (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0007224/bio). James Church, Gerrards Cross. Eleanor Powell died of cancer on 11 February 1982 and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood. She is buried along with her husband in the graveyard of St. Powell was reintroduced to audiences in the popular That's Entertainment! documentary in 1974, and its sequels That's Entertainment Part II and That's Entertainment III which spotlighted her dancing from films such as Broadway Melody of 1940 and Born to Dance. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease at the end of her life, and died 11 days after her 80th birthday, of complications from a hip injury. Her son, Peter Ford, was a regular on this show. She was a cousin of the politician, Tony Benn.

She also hosted an Emmy Award-winning Sunday morning TV program for children entitled The Faith of Our Children (1953 - 1955). Rutherford was awarded an OBE in 1961 and in 1967 she was created a Dame of the British Empire (DBE). In her later years, she became interested in religion, and was actually ordained a minister of the Unity Church. Her husband was the actor Stringer Davis, whom she married in 1945 and with whom she often appeared. She divorced Ford in 1959, and that year started a highly-publicized nightclub career, maintaining her good figure and looks well into middle age. Rutherford won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for The VIPs (1963), as the absent-minded Duchess of Brighton, opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. In 1950, Powell returned to MGM just once, to guest star in The Duchess of Idaho, starring Esther Williams. In 1961, she first played the film role with which she was most often associated in later life, that of Miss Marple in a series of films based on the novels of Agatha Christie.

She danced in a giant pinball machine in Sensations of 1945 (1944), but this picture was a large disappointment, and Powell retired from the cinema to concentrate on raising her son, actor Peter Ford, who was born that year. In most of these films, she had originally played the role on stage. She parted ways with MGM in 1943 after Thousands Cheer, in which she did a specialty number, and the same year married Canadian lead actor Glenn Ford. However, her appearance was such that romantic heroines were almost out of the question, and she soon established her name in comedy, appearing in many of the most successful British films of the mid-20th century. She was signed to play opposite Dan Dailey in For Me and My Gal in 1942, but the two actors were removed from the picture during rehearsals and replaced by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. Born in London, she made her stage debut in 1925 at the Old Vic. The same happened with Red Skelton in Ship Ahoy (1942) and I Dood It (1943). Dame Margaret Rutherford (May 11, 1892 - May 22, 1972) was a British character actress who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

1941's Lady Be Good gave Powell top billing, but Robert Young and Ann Sothern carried the movie. The VIPs (1963) (Best Supporting Actress Oscar). In the 1940s, after being sidelined for many months following a gall stone operation, things changed somewhat for the worse, at least as far as Powell's movie career was concerned. Murder Most Foul (1964). Together, Astaire and Powell danced to Porter's "Begin The Beguine", which is considered by many to have been the greatest tap sequence in film history. Murder Ahoy (1964). Most of these movies featured her amazing solo tapping, although her increasingly huge production numbers began to attract criticism. Broadway Melody of 1940, in which Powell starred opposite Fred Astaire, featured a brilliant musical score by Cole Porter. Murder at the Gallop (1963).

Films she made during the height of her career in the mid-to-late 1930s co-starred these men and others and included Born to Dance (1936), Rosalie (1937), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), Honolulu (1939), and Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). Murder She Said (1961). Powell would go on to star opposite many of the decade's top leading men such as Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, Fred Astaire, George Murphy, Nelson Eddy, and Robert Young. The Mouse that Roared (1959). She was well-received in Broadway Melody of 1936 (in which she was supported by Jack Benny and Frances Langford), and delighted 1930s audiences with her endless energy and enthusiasm, not to mention her stunning dancing. The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950). Nonetheless, she was signed by MGM soon after, which groomed her for her future stardom making minimal changes in her (non-Egyptian) makeup and conduct. The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) (in which she played Miss Prism).

The experience left her unimpressed with Hollywood. Blithe Spirit (1945) (in which she played Madame Arcati). In 1935, the leggy, fresh-faced Powell made the move to Hollywood and did a specialty number in George White's 1935 Scandals which she later described as a disaster due in part to her accidentally being made up to look like an Egyptian due to a mix-up prior to filming her scene. During this time, she was dubbed "the world's greatest tap dancer" due to her machine-gun footwork. When she was 17, she brought her graceful, athletic style to Broadway, where she starred in various revues and musicals.

A dancer since childhood, she was discovered at the age of 11 by the head of the Vaudeville Kiddie revue, Gus Edwards. Eleanor Torrey Powell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Eleanor Powell (21 November 1912 - 11 February 1982) was an American actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known for her exuberant solo tap dancing.