Stefanie Powers Bio
Stefanie Powers, born Stefania Zofya Paul on November 2, 1942, in Los Angeles, California, is an American actress whose career has spanned more than six decades across film, television, and stage. She is best known for her starring role as Jennifer Hart on the mystery television series Hart to Hart, which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations and five Golden Globe Award nominations. Powers first entered the entertainment industry under the stage name Taffy Paul before adopting the more familiar screen name Stefanie Powers. Beyond her acting work, she has built a public life devoted to wildlife conservation, animal welfare, and humanitarian advocacy.
Early Life and Background
Stefanie Powers was born Stefania Zofya Paul on November 2, 1942, in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Her father, Morrison Bloomfield Paul, was a cinematographer born in Montreal to a Jewish immigrant family from Eastern Europe, and her mother, Juliana Dimitria Golan, was born on a farm near Middletown, New York, to Catholic parents of Polish descent. Her parents divorced during her childhood, and Powers was raised largely in the orbit of her mother, with whom she remained close throughout her life. She has an older brother, Jeffrey Julian Paul, and a half-sister, Diane Pascoe Hanson Baillie.
Powers attended Hollywood High School, where she served as a pom-pom girl and swam on the school swim team. The Hollywood setting of her youth placed her near the heart of the American film industry from an early age, and she was drawn toward performing. At the age of 16, she was placed under contract with Columbia Pictures, and as was common in the era, the studio arranged for her to take the more Anglo-Saxon-sounding stage name Stefanie Powers.
Path to Acting
Powers began her professional life in 1958 while still a teenager, working under the stage name Taffy Paul. Her first notable film role came in 1961 with Tom Laughlin’s independent production The Young Sinner, eventually released in 1965. She soon accumulated a string of supporting parts in early 1960s Hollywood productions, including Experiment in Terror (1962), If a Man Answers (1962), Palm Springs Weekend (1963), and McLintock! (1963), as well as the schoolgirl role in Tammy Tell Me True (1961).
Her visibility rose quickly within the studio system, and in 1962 she appeared in the hospital melodrama The Interns, followed by its sequel The New Interns in 1964. In 1965, she played opposite the legendary Tallulah Bankhead in the thriller Die! Die! My Darling. The following year, 1966, brought her first true starring television role as the passive and demure April Dancer in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., a short-lived spin-off of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The series lasted only one season, but her performance led to a TV Guide cover appearance and positioned her as a recognizable leading lady.
Stefanie Powers Career
Early Career (1958–1965)
During her early years in Hollywood, Stefanie Powers moved between small film parts and guest spots on television, sharpening her craft on a wide range of studio productions. Films such as The Interns, Experiment in Terror, If a Man Answers, and Palm Springs Weekend gave her steady on-screen exposure and helped establish her as a dependable young leading lady. Her stage work, including the 1965 thriller Die! Die! My Darling opposite Tallulah Bankhead, also marked her as a serious dramatic talent.
Throughout the mid-1960s, Powers continued to build her television résumé, appearing in series and guest roles that brought her to wider audiences. These formative projects laid the groundwork for the bigger opportunities that would follow, including her breakout turn on The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and, eventually, the long-running success of Hart to Hart.
Breakthrough (1966–1984)
Powers’ career-defining moment arrived in 1979 when she was cast opposite Robert Wagner as Jennifer Hart in the American mystery series Hart to Hart. The show, in which a wealthy married couple solves crimes without the help of the police, aired for five seasons from 1979 to 1984 and turned both stars into household names. Powers and Wagner’s chemistry carried the program, and she earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations and five Golden Globe Award nominations for the role.
Long before Hart to Hart, Powers had already proven her range across a variety of genres. She signed a contract with Universal Studios in 1970 and went on to appear in films such as The Boatniks (1970), the comedy sequel Herbie Rides Again (1974), and The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972). She also headlined the short-lived crime series The Feather and Father Gang, in which she played a successful lawyer whose father was a smooth-talking ex-con man. Her many guest appearances in popular 1970s series, including McCloud, The Mod Squad, Kung Fu, The Rockford Files, and The Six Million Dollar Man, kept her in front of audiences throughout the decade.
In 1977, she took a dramatic turn in the six-part television miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors, followed by the acclaimed 1978 TV movie A Death in Canaan, directed by Tony Richardson, which earned an Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Special of the 1977–78 season. She also co-starred with Stacy Keach in a 1978 stage production of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, and in 1979 appeared in the World War II adventure film Escape to Athena alongside Roger Moore, David Niven, and Telly Savalas.
Notable Works and Milestones
Stefanie Powers is most closely associated with her five-season run as Jennifer Hart on Hart to Hart, a role that defined her television legacy and earned her two Emmy nominations and five Golden Globe nominations. She followed the original series by reuniting with Robert Wagner for eight Hart to Hart television movies throughout the 1990s. Her work in The Interns (1962), Herbie Rides Again (1974), and Escape to Athena (1979) further cemented her reputation as a versatile leading lady of Hollywood’s golden and modern eras.
Stefanie Powers Award Nominations
Stefanie Powers has earned a consistent slate of major television nominations across her career. For her role as Jennifer Hart on Hart to Hart, she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Best Television Actress and five Golden Globe Award nominations in the same category. She has also been honored by a range of industry and humanitarian organizations in recognition of her stage performances, screen work, and advocacy efforts.
Stefanie Powers Awards Won
Beyond her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, Stefanie Powers has been recognized with several prestigious awards for her work on stage, screen, and in advocacy. In 1992, she was honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6776 Hollywood Boulevard, in the category of Television, presented by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. In 1993, she received the Sarah Siddons Award for her stage performance in Love Letters. On March 12, 2011, she was presented with the Steiger Award in Germany for accomplishment in the arts. On November 6, 2017, the Palm Springs Women in Film and Television Organisation honored her with the 9th Annual Broken Glass Award for her work as an actress, author, and animal advocate.
Stefanie Powers Family
Stefanie Powers was born to Morrison Bloomfield Paul, a cinematographer, and Juliana Dimitria Golan, who was known later in life as Julie Powers. Her parents divorced during her childhood, and she remained especially close to her mother throughout her life. She has an older brother, Jeffrey Julian Paul, and a half-sister, Diane Pascoe Hanson Baillie. Her mother died in Los Angeles in January 2009 at the age of 96 from pneumonia.
Personal Life
Stefanie Powers was married to actor Gary Lockwood from 1966 to 1972. She subsequently had a long relationship with actor William Holden, whom she described as her soulmate, and the two shared a deep commitment to wildlife conservation before his death in 1981. In 1993, she married French aristocrat Patrick Houitte de La Chesnais; the couple divorced in 1999. She later had a long-term relationship with auditor Tom Carroll, which lasted from 2000 until his death in August 2014. Powers has also been an avid polo player and was among the first foreign members of the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club, competing in the Joules United Kingdom National Women’s Championships at Ascot in 2005.