Matinee Classics - Mala Powers Biography & Filmography

Mala Powers ACTOR

PHOTOS

MALA POWERS BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Mala Powers was born on December 20th, 1931 in San Francisco, California with the middle name Ellen. At the age of nine her family relocated to Los Angeles, California and she first developed an interest in acting while attending a summer drama workshop. After only living in Los Angeles one year, Powers began auditioning and was cast in the film, "Tough as They Come" (1942).

Along with still getting her education, Powers continued to pursue working in the industry and began doing some radio work. Soon she was being cast in more film roles such as, "Outrage" (1950) "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1950), and "Edge of Doom" (1950).

After only having three film credits on her resume, Powers received her first Golden Globe nomination for her role as Roxanne on the film, "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1950). She was then forced to take almost a year break from her career when she discovered she had a rare blood disorder and it took her nine months to recover.

Upon returning to acting, Powers added to her credits roles in the films, "City Beneath the Sea" (1952), "City That Never Sleeps" (1952), "Tammy and the Bachelor" (1952),

"Rage at Dawn" (1955) starring Randolph Scott, "The Colossus of New York" (1958), "Flight of the Lost Balloon" (1961) and "Doomsday Machine" (1972).

In addition to her many film roles Powers also appeared on a variety of television shows such as, "The Restless Gun", "Maverick", "Bonanza", "Wild Wild West", "Perry Mason", "Studio 57", "Wagon Train", "Surfside 6", "Ironside", "77 Sunset Strip" and "Murder, She Wrote".

Not only was she a successful actress, Powers was also an author of children's book with three published, "Follow the Star", "Follow the Year" and "Dial a Story". Powers was also a master teacher at the university of Southern Maine every summer for fourteen years. She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She married twice throughout her lifetime, first to Montague Max Vanton in 1954 and they had one child, Toren, before this marriage ended in 1964. She then married M. Hughes Miller in 1970 and they remained happily married until he passed away on November 28th, 1989.

Mala Powers passed away at the age of seventy five from complications from leukemia on June 11, 2007 in Burbank, California. Her remains are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.