Beverly Powers

From Las Vegas Stages to the Movie Set

Blake Edwards put her at the center of a party in 1961. She wore a tight dress and moved with a rhythm that distracted anyone watching Audrey Hepburn. Beverly Powers didn't need long dialogue for the camera to stay on her. In Breakfast at Tiffany's she played a stripper, and that label stuck with her for nearly her entire stint at the major studios.

Before getting into film she was already a star in the world of burlesque under the name Beverly Hills. She performed in clubs in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, where she learned to master the timing of physical comedy. That early experience let her work with legends such as Vincent Price and Peter Lorre in The Comedy of Terrors in 1963.

And that was only the beginning.

In 1964 she shared the bill with Elvis Presley in Cousin Bobby. The shoot lasted only a few weeks, but the chemistry between them was obvious to the crew at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She played Bunny. It wasn't the role of her life, but it helped her break into the circuit of light comedies that Hollywood churned out on an assembly line.

The industry quickly typecast her in roles that exploited her looks. In the sixties, commercial films were looking for very specific types to fill supporting roles. So Powers agreed to appear in productions such as Beach Blanket Bingo in 1964, where the script was the least of anyone's concerns.

Surviving Life Out of the Spotlight

By the late sixties, the studio system had begun to fall apart. Powers decided she no longer wanted to be the eye candy in low-budget productions. She appeared in TV series like Bonanza and Superagente 86, but her interest in acting gradually faded.

Fame has an expiration date, and she chose to move it up.

In the eighties she moved away from the California spotlight for good. She focused on animal rights activism and on writing her memoir. She published her autobiography, The Showgirl and the Serial Killer, in which she recounts a terrifying personal experience from her youth. Her account avoids the usual embellishments found in Hollywood biographies.

Many critics overlook how her on-screen presence defined the look of a very specific era. But she preferred the calm of a private life far from the red carpets. As of 2024, she still lives in a rural area, far from the noise of the industry.

Her last credited appearance in a commercial production came decades ago. Her total screen credits don't exceed forty titles across film and television. Her contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ended without further renewals after the release of her last studio films.