Stefanie Powers became an overnight Cinderella story when she landed the role of Jennifer Hart in Hart to Hart, 1979–1984.
Now, at 80 years old, she looks just as stunning as ever.
Stefanie Powers, born Stefania Zofia Federkiewicz, was born Nov 2, 1942 in Los Angeles, California. She was the daughter of Polish parents who divorced when she was only seven years old.
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The ballet dancer
Powers remained close to her mother. Her soon-to-be stepfather, Jack Robinson, bred and raised racehorses, which would later have a huge impact on Stefanie’s life.
Her love for horses would eventually manifest itself in a great interest in polo … and also lead to a friendship with Prince Charles of Wales.
As a child, Powers got a firsthand view of exactly what the show business was all about.
“Everybody knew somebody in the movie business, whether a cameraman, an editor, or a writer. People’s paths were constantly crisscrossing, especially people who were in front of the camera,” she said.
At the time, Powers’s interest in music and dancing was growing at a steady pace. Her mother was in love with ballet and always had classical music on at home. Powers danced around the house, and, before long, her mother had taken her to ballet class.
She started dancing at the Michele Panieff Ballet Company. Famed Broadway director and dancer Jerome Robbins was the choreographer there, and in class, Powers danced alongside future Hollywood stars Natalie Wood and Jill St. John.
Stefanie Powers – career
At 15, Powers began to have a hard time with ballet. She was growing and “these things popped out of my chest,” as she recalled. Instead, her interest soon shifted from dancing to movies and acting.
Powers auditioned for the role of Velma in West Wide Story, but since she was only 15 years old, she couldn’t get the job. She was a minor, which meant that, according to law, she was only allowed to work a certain amount of hours each day.
So, she didn’t get the West Side Story gig, but big things were about to happen.
A director at the American School of Dance – where Stefanie did the auditions for West Side Story – had spoken to her mother, saying he was doing a movie. Powers got a script and went to the audition.
“I was so nervous, I didn’t know what to do and I walked into his office and burst into tears – ‘I’m a dancer, I’m not an actress, what do you want from me?’ And he said, ‘That’ll do,’” Powers recalls.
Soon, she was headed straight for the movie business. Powers attended several classes at 20th Century Fox, MGM Studios, and Columbia, and soon she landed a contract with Columbia Pictures.
She starred in a movie with Glenn Ford called Experiment in Terror (1962) and from there her career took off.
Movie appearances
“That was the beginning of my contract with Columbia Pictures. I was tied for seven years; in those days if you signed a motion picture contract you were not allowed to do television,” Powers says.
Still a teenager, Powers landed parts in several movies, including The Interns (1962), If a Man Answers (1962), Palm Spring Weekend (1963), and the John Wayne production McClintock (1963).
She continued: “So I did three pictures a year for five years and then they sold me to MGM to do a television series called The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”
MGM Television soon bought her contract from Columbia, which led to her big breakthrough. She starred in the TV series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E in 1966 – a short-lived 1966 spinoff of the popular The Man from U.N.C.L.E – as agent April Dancer of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.
As mentioned, it was short-lived, but it was extremely popular and paved the way for Powers to land a huge role years later.
Powers moved on to be a big TV star, credited with over 200 guest appearances, 18 mini-series, and 2 more weekly series, The Feather and Father Gang (1976), according to IMDB.
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Stefanie Powers – Hart to Hart
Playing freelance journalist Jennifer, Powers starred along with Robert Wagner’s Jonathan Hart, CEO of Hart Industries, in what would become a huge success.
The couple were amateur detectives in cases involving theft, espionage, and theft. Do you remember the dialogue for the opening of the first season?
“This is my boss – Jonathan Hart, a self-made millionaire. He’s quite a guy.
This is Mrs. H – she’s gorgeous. What a terrific lady. By the way, my name is Max. I take care of them – which ain’t easy; ’cause their hobby is – murder.”
Hart to Hart aired on ABC on August 25, 1979. In the beginning, like any other show, they didn’t know if it would be a success.
“You don’t want to hope too much for something to click,” Powers told TV Insider in 2019.
“Yes, we were picked up. But the feeling of how much do people love those characters? We didn’t feel that until we went out into the world.
“‘Do you remember, Stef? We did about six shows, and I walked into your dressing room and you had tears in your eyes and said, “Do you think it’s going to be good? What are we doing?” We loved doing it but were very anxious,” Robert Wagner added.