Mary Ellen "Mala" Powers (December 20, 1931 – June 11, 2007) was an American film actress.She was born in San Francisco, California. In 1940, her family moved to Los Angeles. Her father was an executive with United Press. In the summer of her relocation, Powers attended the Max Reinhardt Junior Workshop where she enjoyed her first role in a play before a live audience. She continued with her drama lessons, and a year later she auditioned and won a part in the 1942 Little Tough Guys film Tough as They Come.
[from a 1990 interview] No, I'm not pleased with my career; yes, I am pleased with my life. I just loved good roles: I would love to have done great big roles in great big "A" pictures, roles that had meat in them. Would any actress not like to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939)? From a career standpoint, of course that's what I would like to have done. It never quite happened for me that way, but I had some wonderfully satisfying experiences, I learned a tremendous lot, I had a marvelous teacher, and who knows what'll happen at this point? I don't necessarily know that I've finished with acting.
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Fact
1
Special guest at 2004 Palm Springs Film Noir ceremony.
2
Is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
3
Became very close friends with Ida Lupino, who directed Mala in her first big film, Outrage (1950). When Lupino died in 1995, Mala was the executrix of her estate.
4
Howard Hughes took a strong interest in Powers and put her under contract at RKO in the early 1950s. When her film career declined, she continued on radio, stage and TV.
5
Best remembered film role was playing the lovely Roxanne opposite Oscar winner José Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). Also known for playing a rape victim in the landmark Ida Lupino film Outrage (1950). A sensitive subject, rape had not yet been given such a frank treatment in films, due to censorship.
6
Attending UCLA to study acting, she later taught acting using the Michael Chekhov method. Her last performance on stage occurred in 2003 at the Laguna Playhouse in a production of "Mr. Shaw Goes to Hollywood".
7
She was born Mary Ellen Powers on December 20, 1931, in San Francisco to journalist parents who moved to Hollywood after losing their jobs. She began training as an actress early on and at age 11 played in "Tough as They Come.".
8
She has one child, Toren
9
While on a Christmas entertainment tour in Korea in 1951 she became ill and subsequently developed an allergy to the medication prescribed, which caused a blood disorder.
10
Studying with Michael Chekhov in her early years, she later was one of the founders of the National Michael Chekhov Association and is considered a leading authority on his acting techniques. She is the author of the book "Michael Chekhov on Theatre and the Art of Acting: The Five-Hour Master Class". In addition, she is the executrix of his estate.
11
She was a visiting professor at a number of universities.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Perry Mason
1959-1966
TV Series
Elaine Bayler / Helen Bradshaw / Janet Brent / ...
$11 Million
