Stefanie Powers was born Stefania Zofya Paul in Los Angeles on November 2, 1942. That makes her 83 today. Most of our readers know her best as Jennifer Hart, the glamorous amateur sleuth who solved crimes opposite Robert Wagner on ABC’s Hart to Hart from 1979 to 1984.
This October, though, Powers was on television in Kenya. According to Hello!, she appeared on the Kenyan station NTV to talk about protecting the country’s wildlife. That cause has shaped the last four decades of her life, and it grew out of a love story many fans only half remember.
How Did Stefanie Powers End Up In Kenya?
Before Jennifer Hart, there was April Dancer. Powers starred in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., a 1966 spin-off of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. that ran for 29 episodes. Her first marriage, to actor Gary Lockwood, lasted from 1966 to 1972.
Soon after that marriage ended, she began a relationship with William Holden, the Oscar-winning star of Stalag 17 and Sunset Boulevard. They were together from 1972 until his death, roughly nine years. They also shared the screen in the war adventure Escape to Athena.
Holden had fallen for Kenya long before he met her. He helped found the Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki in 1959. In the 1960s, he and partners including Don and Iris Hunt bought an 1,800-acre game ranch on the slopes of Mount Kenya. They stocked it with breeding herds of 37 species.
Powers threw herself into ranch life alongside him. “So we were constantly out, capturing zebra,” she told Pop Culture Classics in a 2010 interview. “I was already in love with Bill, so it was really easy to be in love with everything he did.”
Hello! reports that she still calls Holden “the love of my life” and the “most influential person in my history.” She told the magazine, “We were soulmates.” She also shared that he was sober for six of their nine years together, which made the way he died even harder to accept.
What Happened When She Lost William Holden?
Holden died in his Santa Monica apartment on November 12, 1981. He was 63. According to the Los Angeles County coroner’s findings, he slipped while intoxicated, cut his forehead on a bedside table and bled to death. His body was not found for four days.
Powers was in Hawaii filming Hart to Hart when it happened, Hello! reports. Holden had asked in his will for no funeral. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
Her TV husband was soon grieving too. Robert Wagner’s wife, Natalie Wood, drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981, just 17 days after Holden’s death. “We did, we leaned on each other for support,” Powers told Fox News in 2024. She added, “When certain things happen, I can sort of feel him winking.”
That bond with Wagner has lasted. She visited him this February for his 96th birthday, in a heartwarming ‘Hart to Hart’ reunion fans loved. Back in 1982, she also had to decide what to do with Holden’s unfinished plans for Kenya.
What Did Stefanie Powers Build In His Name?
Holden had imagined a place where young Kenyans could learn why their wildlife was worth saving. In 1982, Powers co-founded the William Holden Wildlife Foundation with Don and Iris Hunt to build it. Fifteen acres were set aside from the game ranch near Nanyuki, and ground was broken on the education center that year.
“Our mission statement… is wildlife conservation through education and alternatives to habitat destruction,” she told Fox News. Student groups usually stay three days. Powers told PaperCity magazine in 2017 that the center was “serving 11,000 students a year” through its outreach to rural schools. The foundation has also built libraries at four rural schools in the area.
Powers faced a serious health scare of her own along the way. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in late 2008, and surgeons removed part of her right lung in January 2009. In 2013, she told CBS Baltimore that she and Valerie Harper had “the same surgery for lung cancer, at the same time, with the same doctor, in the same hospital.” Powers later took over Harper’s role in the touring play Looped.
She kept working after her recovery, and her calendar at 83 is busier than many fans realize.
What Is Stefanie Powers Doing At 83?
In 2018, Powers toured the U.K. as author Helene Hanff in 84 Charing Cross Road. Two years later she played Ada Risi in the film The Artist’s Wife. Hello! notes she has collected two Emmy nominations, five Golden Globe nominations and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
This year she turned up on one of TV’s current hits. Powers guest-starred as Sabina Leonardi in an episode of season eight of ABC’s The Rookie, according to Hello! The London talent agency McLean-Williams, which lists her on its roster, also posted about the role in February.
Her October interview on NTV shows where her heart still is. Speaking about the threats facing wildlife, she said Kenya “has a great deal to lose.” If her work gives her a voice on those concerns, she said, “I’m grateful.”
The foundation she started in grief has now been running for more than 40 years. Powers told Hello! it has reached over a million Kenyans. “Our work in Kenya, it’s a lifetime commitment,” she said back in 2010. Holden never lived to see the education center he dreamed of. Forty-four years later, the woman he loved is still the one keeping its doors open.
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