Jane Powell, star of Hollywood’s musical age, dies at age 92

Jane Powell, the actress who charmed audiences in Hollywood’s Golden Age of Musicals, died Thursday. She was 92.

Powell died of natural causes at her home in Wilton, Conn., according to Entertainment Weekly.

She was best known for her roles in “Royal Wedding” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” which was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Powell brought her “girl next door” charisma to several musicals throughout the 1940s and 50s, first signing a contract with MGM in 1943. She later admitted that she felt pigeon-holed by the similar roles, saying in 2017: “I thought a real girl-next-door had a better time than I did.”

Though Powell said “the movies quit me” in the 50s, she continued her career on stage, making her Broadway debut in 1974 in “Irene.” Her final credit came in 2002 on an episode of “Law & Order: SVU.”

Powell was born Suzanne Bruce on April 1, 1929, in Portland, Ore. Her acting career was really her parents’ dream, as they hoped to make her the next Shirley Temple. With her golden voice and irresistible charm, she proved them right, even if she would’ve rather been a normal kid.

“They had given up so much for me that I had to do this for them,” she said in 2017. “It’s something they really wanted. I had wanted to go to a high school. That was my utopia. My mother said, ‘Well, you can always quit.’ But once you get into the system, you just don’t quit. It was finances for the family.”

Her stage name was copied from the character she played in her first film, 1943′s “Song of the Open Road.” The studio chose Powell’s name for her. She would’ve preferred Cheryl.

After a series of MGM projects — and a singing appearance at Harry Truman’s Inauguration Ball in 1949 — Powell’s star turn came in 1951′s “Royal Wedding,” in which she danced and sang alongside Fred Astaire.

“I was terrified dancing with him, but I was terrified all the time anyway, so it didn’t make any difference,” she said, adding that Astaire made for a wonderful on-screen partner.

Three years later, her performance in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” brought further acclaim. The film itself, with its ensemble cast, got a Best Picture nomination but lost to “On the Waterfront.”

Powell was also close friends with Elizabeth Taylor, and the two were bridesmaids at each other’s first weddings. She’d later joke that she was glad they didn’t continue that tradition, as it would’ve been a “full-time career.” Taylor married eight times, Powell five.

Her fifth husband, Dickie Moore, died in 2015, but Powell made the most of her solo life in Wilton.

“I’m not very sentimental when it comes to the past,” she said four years ago. “I don’t live there and I feel for people who do because it’s never going to be the same as you remember it.”