Eleanor Powell

Eleanor Torrey Powell was an American dancer and actress. Best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s, she was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top dancing stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Powell appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and most prominently, in a series of movie musical vehicles tailored especially to showcase her dance talents, including Born to Dance (1936), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), Rosalie (1937), and Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). She retired from films in the mid-1940s but resurfaced for the occasional specialty dance scene in films such as Thousands Cheer. In the 1950s she hosted a Christian children's TV show and eventually headlined a successful nightclub act in Las Vegas. She died from cancer at 69. Powell is known as one of the most versatile and powerful female dancers of the Hollywood studio era.

21 November 1912

Born on the same birth day (21 November): Alex James (musician) • Anne de Xainctonge • Christopher Tolkien • Earl Monroe • Fiona Pitt-Kethley • Georgia Frontiere • Goldie Hawn • Gunnar Kangro • Isabel May • Joseph Campanella • Josiah Bartlett • Laurier LaPierre • Lewis Binford • Ludwik Gorzkowski • Nikki Bella • Peni Terepo • Peter Koppes • Pope Benedict XV • Stanley Jackson (cricketer) • Troy Aikman • Victoria, Princess Royal • Will Buckley (footballer)

Born in the same month (November 1912): Bernard Joseph McLaughlin • Birdie Tebbetts • Doris Duke • Enrique García (Argentine footballer) • Garson Kanin • George O'Hanlon • Gunther Plaut • Harald Keres • Hilda Nickson • Jaan Hargel • Joan Sanderson • Morris Louis • Teddy Wilson • Thomas C. Mann • Tung-Yen Lin • Vic Hey • W. Allen Wallis • W. E. D. Ross • Yi U