Biography
Friends and Family
Pamela Allyson Powell
[Mother]
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Richard Powell, Jr
[Mother]
Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 I couldn`t dance, and, Lord knows, I couldn`t sing, but I got by somehow. Richard Rodgers was always keeping them from firing me. If you see someone without a smile, give him yours.
The only parental authority I had was the studio. When I was a star, there was always somebody with me, to guard me. I was not allowed to be photographed with a cigarette, a drink, a cup of coffee or even a glass of water because someone might think it was liquor. When I left the studio I was already married and had two children, but I felt as sad as a child leaving home for the first time.
[assessing her appeal as a performer] I have big teeth. I lisp. My eyes disappear when I smile. My voice is funny. I don`t sing like Judy Garland. I don`t dance like Cyd Charisse. But women identify with me. And while men desire Cyd Charisse, they`d take me home to meet Mom.
[on Joan Crawford] I tried to be a good listener. I decided that was what she wanted all along - not so much a friend as an audience.
In real life I`m a poor dressmaker and a terrible cook - anything in fact but the perfect wife.
MGM was my mother and father, mentor and guide, my all-powerful and benevolent crutch. When I left them, it was like walking into space.
Trivia
Could cry on cue, a talent she shared with Margaret O`Brien. Allyson`s method for triggering tears was to "try very, very hard not to cry . . . So the more I thought about not crying the more I cried." According to Allyson, during O`Brien`s death scene in Little Women (1949), they "could not stop" crying.
June married Dr. David Ashrow, a retired dentist-turned actor in October of 1976. June and David toured the country together in the late seventies/early eighties in the stage play "My Daughter, Your Son" to fine reviews. A few years earlier, June starred in the same show with her son.
She was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party.
When she married Glenn Maxwell, her family allowance from the estate of Dick Powell was reduced from $5,000 per month to $2,500 per month.
Along with her husband Dick Powell, she persuaded future President of the United States Ronald Reagan to switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 1962.
Good friend of James Stewart and played his wife in three different films.
Her father, an alcoholic, abandoned the family when she was six months old.
Her second husband, Glenn Maxwell, was Dick Powell`s hairdresser. Her last husband, David Astrow, who survived her, was a dentist.
In 1945, Harvard Lampoon voted her worst actress of the year. That year`s worst actor was regular co-star Van Johnson.
In Italy, her films were dubbed mainly by Miranda Bonansea. As she matured, she was dubbed by Rosetta Calavetta and Rina Morelli. She was once dubbed by Andreina Pagnani in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), released in Italy after the war.
Longtime friend of Esther Williams.
Married to husband David Askrow at the Ingleside Inn in Palm Springs, California, in October, 1976. There is a photograph of the wedding party hanging at the historic hotel garden to this day.
Received a special tribute as part of the Annual Memorial tribute at The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) (TV). The film footage showed Miss Allyson on stage at the Academy Awards smiling and laughing.
When she was eight years old, she was crushed by a falling tree limb while riding a bicycle. She wore a back brace for four years and taught herself to dance by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. She was told that the accident would prevent her from having children. Her first child, Pamela Powell, was adopted in 1948. In 1950, however, she gave normal birth to her son, Dick Powell Jr..
After her film career was over, she continued to do occasional Broadway & off-Broadway plays, television appearances and commercials, including her famous Depends commercials, from the 1960s through the 1990s.
After the death of first husband Dick Powell, she went through a bitter court battle with her mother over custody of her son Dick Powell Jr., and adopted daughter Pamela Powell. Reports at the time revealed that Dirk Wayne Summers was named legal guardian for Dick and Pamela, as a result of a court petition.
Filed for divorce once during her marriage to Dick Powell, but the turbulent marriage lasted until his death from cancer in 1963. She struggled with alcoholism following his death which may have triggered a custody battle against her mother.
Separated from Powell once when she fell in love with actor Alan Ladd during filming of The McConnell Story (1955). Ladd was also married at the time.
She was a valued resource in preserving information about Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) and Hollywood`s golden years. She was a spokesperson on the issue of incontinence, and was instrumental in establishing the June Allyson Foundation for Public Awareness and Medical Research. She and husband, Dr. David Ashrow, actively supported fund-raising efforts for both the James Stewart and Judy Garland museums. Stewart and Garland were both close friends.
She was just 5` 1" and weighed 99 lbs. in 1945.
Very seldom was able to break out of her spry "goody two shoes" types. The couple of times she did, however, were extreme. She played a harsh, cold-hearted wife to José Ferrer in The Shrike (1955) who nags him to the point of a nervous breakdown. Audiences would not accept her in the role and the movie failed at the box office. Another time she played a lesbian murderess in They Only Kill Their Masters (1972), one of her final films.
Witnessed Joan Crawford`s cruel treatment of her daughter `Christina Crawford` and claims Mommie Dearest (1981) is an honest account of how Joan treated her children
On contract to MGM for 12 years.
Was a good friend of Judy Garland. They were both under contract at MGM in the 1940s, and Judy used to pick her up in her limousine every day and take her to the studio.
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