‘Hart to Hart’ Star Stefanie Powers, 81, Looks Radically Different Decades After TV Fame & Hollywood Romance
Los Angeles, CA – Stefanie Powers, the actress best known for her role as Jennifer Hart in the 1980s television series Hart to Hart, appears dramatically different today, decades after achieving television stardom and a high-profile romance with actor William Holden.Recent photos show the 81-year-old Powers bearing little resemblance to the glamorous image she cultivated during her years as a leading lady.
Powers rose to prominence in the 1960s, appearing in series like The Donna Reed Show and The Love Boat. However, it was her starring role alongside Robert Wagner in Hart to Hart – a mystery series following a wealthy couple who solved crimes – that cemented her place in television history. The show ran for five seasons, from 1979 to 1984, and spawned eight subsequent television movies throughout the 1990s.
Concurrent with her television success, Powers was involved in a long-term relationship with Oscar-winning actor William Holden, 25 years her senior. Their romance began in 1972 and lasted until Holden’s death in 1981. “We were soulmates,” Powers recalled. ”In six of the nine years that we were together, he was sober. It was a very meaningful time for both of us.”
Holden’s struggles with alcohol ultimately led to his tragic death.Powers recounted a time when she was filming Hart to Hart in Hawaii and Holden was unreachable. “He had an apartment where he would go and drink…We had come back from location that Friday and he wasn’t returning my phone calls.” On November 12, 1981, holden fell while drinking and died from a head injury caused by bleeding.
Following Holden’s death, Powers established the William Holden Wildlife Foundation in 1982, affectionately known as “The William Holden.” “That makes me laugh, and it certainly would have made him laugh, too, as he had a great sense of humor,” she said.
Prior to her relationship with Holden, Powers was married to actor Gary Lockwood from 1966 to 1972. She later married French aristocrat Patrick Houitte de La Chesnais in 1993, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1999.
