1. Mary Ellen "Mala" Powers was an American actress.
31 Facts About Mala Powers
1. 2.
Mala Powers's father was a United Press executive, while her mother was a minister.
3.
That summer, Powers attended the Max Reinhardt Junior Workshop, where she played her first role in a play before a live audience.
4.
Mala Powers continued with her drama lessons, and a year later, aged 10, she auditioned and won a part in the 1942 Little Tough Guys film Tough as They Come.
5.
At the age of 16, Mala Powers began working in radio drama, before becoming a film actress in 1950.
6.
Mala Powers was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her part in this movie.
7.
Mala Powers was treated with chloromycetin, but a severe allergic reaction resulted in the loss of much of her bone marrow.
8.
Mala Powers barely survived, and her recovery took nearly nine months.
9.
Mala Powers began working again in 1952, including the lead in Rose of Cimarron and co-starring roles in City Beneath the Sea and City That Never Sleeps, but she still was taking medication.
10.
Mala Powers had larger roles in Tammy and the Bachelor and Daddy's Gone A-Hunting.
11.
On Perry Mason, Mala Powers made five appearances in the 1950s and 1960s.
12.
Mala Powers was cast as defendant Clair Allison in the 1959 episode "The Case of the Deadly Toy".
13.
Mala Powers played defendant June Sinclair in the 1960 episode "The Case of the Crying Cherub".
14.
Mala Powers played the recurring character Mona during the final season of Hazel.
15.
In 1971, Mala Powers was cast in 15 episodes of the television series The Man and the City.
16.
Mala Powers narrated Follow the Star, a Christmas album from RCA Victor.
17.
Mala Powers was a successful children's author of Follow the Star, Follow the Year, and Dial a Story.
18.
Mala Powers revised and edited two books by Enid Blyton after the author's death.
19.
Mala Powers trained directly under Michael Chekhov for many years during her time in Hollywood in both group and private sessions.
20.
Mala Powers continued the development and proliferation of the Chekhov technique throughout the United States and the world.
21.
Mala Powers was instrumental in publishing Chekhov's books On the Technique of Acting, To the Actor, and The Path of the Actor.
22.
Mala Powers published Chekhov's audio series "On Theatre and the Art of Acting", to which she added a 60-page study guide.
23.
Mala Powers co-narrated with Gregory Peck a documentary on Chekhov titled From Russia to Hollywood, which was co-produced by her colleague Lisa Loving.
24.
From 1993 to 2006, Mala Powers taught the Chekhov technique during the summer acting program at the University of Southern Maine for the Michael Chekhov Theatre Institute, training actors and teachers of acting.
25.
Mala Powers was patron of the Michael Chekhov Studio in London.
26.
Mala Powers married Monte Vanton in 1954, and they had a son, Toren Vanton.
27.
The couple divorced in 1962, and in 1970, Powers married M Hughes Miller, a book publisher who died in 1989.
28.
Mala Powers was a Democrat who supported Adlai Stevenson's campaign during the 1952 presidential election.
29.
Mala Powers died from complications of leukemia on June 11,2007, at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California.
30.
Mala Powers has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6360 Hollywood Boulevard.
31.
Mala Powers was cremated at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn Memorial Park and her ashes returned to family.