Biography for
Eleanor Powell (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

21 November 1912, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA

Date of Death

11 February 1982, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer)

Birth Name

Eleanor Torrey Powell

Nickname

The Queen of Tap Dancing

Height

5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Mini Biography

Eleanor Powell was born in 1912 in Springfield, Massachussetts, and got her professional start in Atlantic City clubs, from where she moved into in revue in New York at the Ritz Grill and Casino de Paris at the age of sixteen. She started her career on Broadway in 1929, where her machine-gun foot work gained her the title of world champion in tapping. In 1935 she came to Hollywood where she starred in the great MGM musicals in the late 1930s, establishing herself as a Queen of Ra-Ta-Taps. In spite of the fact that she was primarily a solo performer she also danced with Fred Astaire and George Murphy. After her marriage she wasn't seen on the screen, except for a short number in the Duchess of Idaho (1950). After her divorce she started a short but successful night-club career.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Stephan Eichenberg

Spouse

Glenn Ford

(24 October 1943 - 23 November 1959) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

Mother of the actor Peter Ford.

Measurements: 33-23-35 (in 1935), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

In 1954, following a period of retirement, she was asked to host "The Faith of Our Children" (1953), a non-denominational religious program which featured appearances from film and sports stars. The show lasted three seasons and Eleanor received a regional "Emmy" award for children's programming.

One of her first New York jobs was working with the legendary Bill Robinson in private shows (1927).

With a preference toward ballet and acrobatics (notably her splits), she did not initially tap in her early career. In fact, she disliked the style which she considered lacking in grace. It was when she lost a number of musical roles in New York that she realized the need to learn. Due to her aerial style, she learned to tap by wearing army surplus belts with sandbags attached to ground herself.

Her parents separated when she was 11 months and divorced when she was two. Her mother told Eleanor as a child that her father had died to protect them from outside scandal, but Eleanor's father reintroduced himself to Eleanor in 1935 during the Boston run of "At Home Abroad."

Took dancing classes as a child to overcome extreme shyness.

Was acclaimed "The World's Greatest Feminine Tap and Rhythm Dancer" by the Dance Masters of America in the mid-1930s.

Due to her becoming a minister in the Unity church, her ashes are placed in a bronze replica of the bible. She is interred at Hollywood Forever cemetery just a few steps down the hall from Rudolf Valentino, Peter Finch and several other great legends of film.

Shares a birthday with Björk, Goldie Hawn, Rachel Rogers, Nicollette Sheridan, & Juliet Mills

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 650-652. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2002 (inaugural class).

Personal Quotes

"A tap dancer is really a frustrated drummer."

"I'd rather dance than eat."

On her later years as an ordained minister: "I was married to Glenn Ford. But now I feel as though I'm married to God, and in the nicest, purest sense."

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