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Eleanor Powell (21 November, 1912 – 11
February, 1982) was an United States|American
actress and dancer of the 1930s and 1940s, known
for her exuberant solo tap dancing.

Eleanor Torrey Powell was born in Springfield,
Massachusetts. A dancer since childhood, she was
discovered at the age of 11 by the head of the
Vaudeville Kiddie revue, Gus Edwards. When she was
17, she brought her graceful, athletic style to
Broadway, where she starred in various revues and
musicals. During this time, she was dubbed "the
world's greatest tap dancer" due to her
machine-gun footwork.

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. The experience left her unimpressed with
Hollywood. 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. 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. 

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 (actor)|Robert Young. 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
(movie)|Honolulu (1939), and Broadway Melody of
1940 (1940). 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. 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.

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. 1941's Lady
Be Good gave Powell top billing and a classic
dance routine to "Fascinatin' Rhythm", but Robert
Young and Ann Sothern carried the movie. The same
happened with Red Skelton in Ship Ahoy (1942) and
I Dood It (1943). 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. Later, production of a new Broadway
Melody film that would have paired Powell with
Kelly was also cancelled.

She parted ways with MGM in 1943 after Thousands
Cheer, in which she did a specialty number, and
the same year married Canada|Canadian lead actor
Glenn Ford. 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 1950, Powell returned to MGM just once, to
guest star in The Duchess of Idaho, starring
Esther Williams. She divorced Ford in 1959, and
that year started a highly-publicized nightclub
career, maintaining her good figure and looks well
into middle age. In her later years, she became
interested in religion, and was actually ordained
a minister of the Unity Church. She also hosted an
Emmy Award-winning Sunday morning TV program for
children entitled The Faith of Our Children (1953
- 1955). Her son, Peter Ford, was a regular on
this show.

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. In more recent years, however,
most of Powell's films have lapsed into obscurity,
with only Broadway Melody of 1940 currently
available on DVD in North America as of 2005,
although two of her production numbers from
Broadway Melody of 1936 were also included as
bonus features on the 2002 special edition DVD
release of Singin' in the Rain (movie)|Singin' in
the Rain.

Eleanor Powell died of cancer on 11 February, 1982
and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
in Hollywood.

==Filmography==

*Queen High (1930)
*No Contest! (1934) (short subject)
*George White's 1935 Scandals (1935)
*Broadway Melody of 1936 (1936)
*Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 12 (1936) (short
subject)
*Born to Dance (1936)
*Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)
*Rosalie (1937)
*Honolulu (1939)
*Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
*Lady Be Good (1941)
*Ship Ahoy (1942)
*Thousands Cheer (1943)
*I Dood It (1943)
*Sensations of 1945 (1944)
*The Great Morgan (1946)
*Screen Snapshots: Famous Hollywood Mothers (1947)
(short subject)
*Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Holiday (1948) (short
subject)
*Duchess of Idaho (1950)
*Have Faith In Our Children (1955) (short subject)

Resources:
http://www.lynnpdesign.com/classicmovies/tapdancin
g/bio.html Official Eleanor Powell Tribute Site,
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0007224/bio IMDB.com