Search
Mala Powers Profile
|
|
Photo gallery |
| (Mary Ellen Powers) |
|
| 20 December 31 | is born in San Francisco, California. Her father is an executive with United Press International. Her mother's maiden name is Thelan. |
| Summer 40 | moves with her family to Los Angeles and attends the Max Reinhardt Junior Workshop. There the wife of Reinhardt, Helene Thimig, persuades her to wait instead of beginning as a child actress. |
| 47 | breaks into radio |
| c. 49 | on Screen Guild on the Air she meets actress Ida Lupino, who casts her for her upcoming Outrage |
| January 50 | has a meeting with RKO boss, billionaire Howard Hughes, at the outside court of the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Her mother and her agent are with her. The meeting lasts for about an hour and ten minutes. |
| 50 | does four movies for Hughes within a span of four months |
| June 50 | her mother, the Revered Dell Powers, runs a private school near the Roosevelt Hotel |
| 51 | along with Piper Laurie, Mona Freeman, Peggy Castle, Barbara Payton, and Barbara Bates, she is one of the Hollywood Press Association's "Baby Stars" |
| October 51 | dates Scott Douglas |
| December 51 | celebrates her 20th birthday en route to Korea |
| she and her former boyfriend, Nick Sevano, date again |
|
| 52 | is back from entertaining troops in Korea and comes down with a virus that destroys a great part of her bone marrow and makes her stop producing blood |
| January 52 | is in bed with the flu ever since her return from Korea |
| February 52 | 20th Century-Fox wants her to make a publicity tour for Rose of Cimarron and to show the audience that she really did the rope tricks in the film |
| April 52 | is in serious condition at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California |
| is romanced by George Brand |
|
| May 52 | specialists called in by Howard Hughes, especially Dr. Verne Mason, and experts from the Mayo Clinic state that she does not have infectious mononucleosis, but her red blood cells, damaged by antibiotics, must be built up again. |
| is visited in the hospital by director Budd Boettcher. There he is introduced to Mala's beautiful nurse, Bea Calominas, who is half Cuban, half Irish, and arranges a screen test for her at Universal-International. |
|
| Early June 52 | leaves the hospital. It will take 18 months to recover. |
| August 52 | shows an improvement from her serious illness, but her doctors still won't give her the green light to resume her movie career |
| November 52 | is seen at the Palladium with CBS executive Jack Meyers, who used to go with singer Barbara Whiting. At the next table is her former admirer, Nick Sevano. |
| February 53 | after three years under contract, she finally will make a picture for RKO this spring, Gambler's Moon |
| April 53 | she and actor Gig Young discover each other |
| is a twosome at the Lili premiere with Pat Nerney |
|
| May 53 | Howard Hughes has quietly continued to pay her doctor bills to cure her rare blood disease. She's happily being beaued about by producer Stanley Rubin. Rubin will later marry Kathleen Hughes. |
| is seen at the Beverly Gourmet with producer Stanley Rubin |
|
| July 53 | is a dinner twosome with Gig Young at the Fox and Hounds |
| 53 | while filming City Beneath the Sea, she starts to bleed under the skin and is taken off the picture. Her last scene is rewritten. |
| September 53 | has become deeply interested in religion during her recent illness and takes instruction in yogi |
| October 53 | attends the Yma Sumac opening at the Mocambo with attorney Ralph Fields |
| November 53 | is the escort of Gig Young at a party thrown by John Carroll and Lucille Ryman at their farm in Chatsworth |
| December 53 | sees singer Guy Mitchell seven nights a week. Mitchell is miserable over his wife's divorce suit. |
| 11 April 54 | attends the wedding of Suzan Ball and Dick Long in Santa Barbara |
| November 54 | attends the premiere of Sabrina a few days before getting married |
| 2 November 54 | marries Los Angeles real estate man Monte Vanton. She met him 18 months ago while house hunting. He's 36; she's 22. English-born Vanton was among the last 100 people to leave Singapore as the Japanese armies moved in in 1941. |
| November 54 | has to interrupt her Yosemite honeymoon for the filming of Rage at Dawn on location in Arizona |
| January 55 | attends Hughes' splash Underwater premiere in Silver Springs, Florida. Other celebrities at this publicity extravaganza are Debbie Reynolds, Mamie Van Doren, Lori Nelson, and Gordon Scott. |
| April 55 | enjoys serving as part-time secretary for her husband, Monte Vanton. She's an excellent typist. |
| July 56 | is off to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. She and Jeff Donnell, Chill Wills, Gary Crosby, and Roberta Linn raise $120,000 for the Air Force Aid Society |
| the story of her illness is featured on Ralph Edward's "This is Your Life" program |
|
| May 57 | she and her husband are ecstatic over their impending parenthood |
| 31 August 57 | her son, Toren Michael, is born in Los Angeles |
| 58 | dates Ross Martin, her co-star in Colossus of New York, for a long time |
| September 59 | attends Debbie Reynold's baby shower looking like a dream in pink |
| 61 | is off to Puerto Rico for the filming of Flight of the Lost Balloon |
| March 61 | seeks a divorce from her husband of six years, Monte Vanton, in Los Angeles. She charges Vanton with extreme cruelty. |
| September 62 | wins a divorce from Vanton in Los Angeles. She testified he was so touchy she had to meet her mother at a service station and that he "would come home with a chip on his shoulder" and run his finger over the furniture as if looking for dust. She is awarded the family home in Encino, $30,000 in other assets, and $1-a-month token alimony. Vanton agrees to pay $125 a month support for their 5-year-old son. Vanton is 44; she is 30. Vanton will die at age 86 in 2004. |
| July 63 | she and wealthy Robert Neal date again |
| July 64 | wins permission in a Los Angeles court to take her six-year-old son with her to New York after the boy has spent the summer with his father. A child custody order after her 1962 divorce prevented her from taking the child out of the state. |
| c. 67 | becomes a really good friend of co-star Ruta Lee while filming Doomsday Machine |
| c.69 | is just about to get married when producer Mark Robson casts her in his Daddy's Gone A-Hunting. Shortly before filming starts, she's off to London, England, for the very first time |
| 17 May 70 | marries millionaire New York publishing executive M. Hughes Miller at West Valley Unity Church in Reseda, California. Her mother has been its minister for the past six years. Miller is the former president of Bobbs-Merrill Publishing Co. A reception is held at the Beverly Hills home of Mrs. Joseph Schildkraut. He's 56; she's 38. |
| the Millers are off to Europe for their honeymoon. They spend a month in Florence, Italy, and two weeks cruising on the Adriatic aboard the yacht Our Idle Hours. |
|
| August 71 | is named chairman of Los Angeles' March of Dimes Mothers March, the health agency |
| 77 | resides on the two-acre Miller estate in Toluca Lake, California |
| October 77 | accompanies her husband to the Frankfurt, Germany, Book Fair |
| 28 November 89 | becomes the widow of Miller, who dies at age 76 at the St. Joseph Medical Center in Los Angeles of cancer |
| 90s | her address is 10543 Valley Spring Lane, North Hollywood, CA 91602 |
| 91 | teaches the Michael Chekhov acting technique and is busy writing a play |
| 24 September 00 | attends the Jivin' Jacks And Jills Universal Reunion party in Studio City, California, along with Kathleen Hughes, Susanna Foster, Peggy Moran, Mary Ellen Kay, Kristine Miller, Jane Adams, and Donna Martell, among others |
| 11 June 07 | dies at age 76 of complications from leukemia at a Burbank, California, hospital |
| Sources: Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes by Tom Weaver, Portland Press Herald, News Journal - Mansfield, The Monessen Daily Independent, Mansfield News-Journal, Sunday Times Signal, The Zanesville Signal, Dixon Evening Telegraph, The Coshocton Tribune, Pottstown Mercury, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Screen, The Portsmouth Herald, The Lethbridge Herald, Screenland, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Picture Show 1954, Movie News, The Bridgeport Post, Chronicle-Telegram, The Daily Independent, The Lima News, Nevada State Journal, Reno Evening Gazette, Tri-City Herald, The News, Valley News, Classic Images, www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography Mala Powers at Spooky's Nightmare Mansion | |