Jane Powell

Actress, singer and star of over 20 MGM musicals. Advocate for healthy lifestyles for women and seniors.

Travels From:  New York

SPEECH TOPICS

Fight Back With Fitness

The Girl Next Door and How She Grew

ABOUT Jane Powell

Jane Powell has done it all: films, television, theatre, radio, the concert stage, sound recordings, nightclubs, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, the lecture circuit. Although instantly remembered as the star of 20 major MGM musicals, including the classics "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "Royal Wedding," she has appeared in every entertainment medium and has also won acclaim as a dramatic actress and comedienne. She has performed for five U.S. Presidents and the Queen of England. Most recently she starred off-Broadway in "Avow," for which she won unanimous rave reviews for her performance as an enthusiastically religious grandmother-to-be. She received the Drama-Logue Award for "Same Time, Next Year."

In the era of television specials, she guest starred on virtually every one. More recently, she has appeared in sitcoms and daytime dramas. She hosted the PBS series, "The Musicals," for five years, and was the young grandmother in the television series, "Growing Pains." Daytime drama credits include "Loving," "As the World Turns," and "One Life to Live." This season she was featured as a charitable matriarch in Showtime's "Sandy Bottom Orchestra."

Powell's autobiography, The Girl Next Door and How She Grew, offers a vivid and compelling account of her life, including how she became a movie star at age 14 without ever having been given a screen test. An advocate of good health and fitness, her exercise video, "Fight Back with Fitness," was designed to help people with arthritis, and was produced in conjunction with The Arthritis Foundation. On the lecture circuit, Powell speaks on fitness, renewal and growth in the "golden years," as well as her life in Hollywood. She is a gourmet cook, and enjoys gardening, reading and entertaining friends. She exercises daily -- and hates it -- but still weighs the same 100 pounds that she did in her MGM days.