Powers was born Stefanie Zofya Paul in Hollywood, California.

[1] Her parents divorced during her

childhood. Powers was estranged from her father, whom she barely references and whose name is
never mentioned in her memoir, One from the Hart, in which she refers to the "tension and unhappiness
created by my father's presence".[2] She remained extremely close throughout her life to her mother,
born Juliana Dimitria Golan (19122009) in New York of Polishdescent. Her mother, who at 96yrs old
passed away in Los Angeles from Pneumonia,[3]would be known late in life and in local obituaries as
Julie Powers. Stefanie Powers had an elder brother, Jeffrey Julian Paul [4][5] (19402013), as well as a
half-sister, Charlene Groman.[3][6] Powers was a cheerleader at Hollywood High School; one of her
schoolmates was Nancy Sinatra. In 1965, using the alias Taffy Paul, she made an obscure independent
film, The Young Sinner.