William Powell

PartnerJean Harlow (1934–1937)ChildrenWilliam David Powell

William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor, known primarily for his film career. Under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times: for The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and Life with Father (1947).

Early life

Powell was born in Pittsburgh in 1892,^[1] the only child of Nettie Manila (née Brady) and Horatio Warren Powell, an accountant.^[2][3] In 1907, young William moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated from Central High School four years later.^{[citation needed]}

Career

After high school, Powell enrolled at the University of Kansas to study law, but after a week he relocated to New York City, where he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.^[3][4] In 1912, Powell left the AADA, and began working in vaudeville and stock companies.^[5] He also appeared on Broadway.^[6][7] Powell began his Hollywood career in 1922, in a production of Sherlock Holmes with John Barrymore. He performed as Francis I in When Knighthood Was in Flower with Marion Davies.^[8]

Powell remained under contract to Paramount throughout the 1920s, before signing with Warner Bros.

Powell portrayed a vengeful film director in the silent movie The Last Command (1928). His first starring role was Philo Vance in The Canary Murder Case (1929). He played Vance at Paramount Pictures four times. His strong stage-developed voice became a powerful asset when talking pictures were introduced.

Powell appeared as Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, beginning with The Thin Man in 1934, based upon Dashiell Hammett's novel. This movie provided Powell with his first Academy Award nomination, in 1935^[9]

Powell starred in The Great Ziegfeld, (1936), opposite his The Thin Man co-star, Myrna Loy, who played Ziegfeld's wife, Billie Burke. In 1937, Powell received his second Academy Award nomination for the comedy My Man Godfrey.^[10]

In 1935, he starred with Jean Harlow in Reckless. In 1936, Harlow and Powell appeared in Libeled Lady, and they became romantically involved off-set. He gave her a handsome ring, but did not ask her to marry him, so she referred to it as her "unengagement ring". Powell had been unhappy with his previous marriage to popular actor Carole Lombard, and this apparently kept him from entering a similar arrangement with Harlow, who was a sex symbol to the film-going public during that time. They kept company but did not live together. Harlow fell ill from undiagnosed kidney failure while working on a film with Clark Gable, and died before the film was completed, from uremia, at age 26 in June 1937.^[11]

Powell received his third Academy Award nomination in 1947 for his role as Clarence Day Sr. in Life with Father.^[12] His last film was playing the character Doc in 1955's Mister Roberts.

Personal life

On April 15, 1915, Powell married Eileen Wilson, who was born Julia Mary Tierney. The couple had a son, William David Powell. They divorced in 1930. Powell's son became a television writer and producer before a period of ill health and depression led to his suicide in 1968.^[13]

On June 26, 1931, Powell married actress Carole Lombard. They divorced in 1933, but starred in My Man Godfrey three years later. Powell was devastated by her death in an airplane crash in 1942.^[14] He was romantically involved with Jean Harlow, his co-star in Reckless (1935), until her unexpected death from illness in 1937.^[15][16] On January 6, 1940, three weeks after they met, Powell married his third wife, actress Diana Lewis, who cancelled her film career to be his full-time wife. They remained married until his death in 1984.^[17]

A Republican, Powell supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election^[18] and the 1948 United States presidential election.^[19]

Cancer

In March 1938, Powell was diagnosed with rectal cancer.^[4][20] He underwent surgery and experimental radium treatment, which put the disease in full remission within two years. Given his own health and sorrow over Jean Harlow's death, Powell did not undertake any film roles for more than a year during this period.^[21]

Death

Powell died in Palm Springs, California, on March 5, 1984, at the age of 91 from pneumonia. He is buried at the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California, near his third wife, Diana Lewis, and his only child, William David Powell.^[1][22]

Honors

Academy Awards nominations

• 1934 Best Actor – The Thin Man
• 1936 Best Actor – My Man Godfrey
• 1947 Best Actor – Life with Father

Other awards

New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor in 1947 for Life with Father and The Senator Was Indiscreet.^[23]

William Powell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1636 Vine Street.

In 1992, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.^[24]

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1936	Lux Radio Theatre	The Thin Man
1938	Lux Radio Theatre	My Man Godfrey
1939	Lux Radio Theatre	One Way Passage
1939	Lux Radio Theatre	The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
1940	The Campbell Playhouse	It Happened One Night
1940	Lux Radio Theatre	Love Affair
1940	Lux Radio Theatre	After the Thin Man
1940	Lux Radio Theatre	Manhattan Melodrama[25]
1941	Lux Radio Theatre	Hired Wife
1942	Lux Radio Theatre	Love Crazy
1943	Lux Radio Theatre	The Lady Has Plans
1944	Lux Radio Theatre	Shadow of a Doubt
1944	Lux Radio Theatre	Suspicion
1946	Reader's Digest Radio Edition	He Fell in Love with a Picture[25]: 33
1948	Lux Radio Theatre	I Love You Again
1948	Lux Radio Theatre	Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
1949	Screen Directors Playhouse	Love Crazy[26]
1953	Suspense	"The Man Who Cried Wolf"[27]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1922	Sherlock Holmes	Foreman Wells
	When Knighthood Was in Flower	Francis I
	Outcast	DeValle	Lost film
1923	The Bright Shawl	Gaspar De Vaca
	Under the Red Robe	Duke of Orleans
1924	Dangerous Money	Prince Arnolfo da Pescia	Lost film
	Romola	Tito Melema
1925	Too Many Kisses	Julio
	Faint Perfume	Barnaby Powers	Lost film
	My Lady's Lips	Scott Seddon[28]
	The Beautiful City	Nick Di Silva	Lost film
	The New Commandment[29]		Lost film Uncredited
1926	White Mice	Roddy Forrester	Incomplete film
	Sea Horses	Lorenzo Salvia	Lost film
	Desert Gold	Snake Landree	Lost film
	The Runaway	Jack Harrison	Lost film
	Aloma of the South Seas	Van Templeton	Lost film
	Beau Geste	Boldini
	The Great Gatsby	George Wilson	Lost film Trailer extant
	Tin Gods	Tony Santelli	Lost film
1927	New York	Trent Regan	Lost film
	Love's Greatest Mistake	Don Kendall	Lost film
	Special Delivery	Harold Jones
	Senorita	Manuel Oliveros
	Time to Love	Prince Alado	Lost film
	Paid to Love	Prince Eric
	Nevada	Clan Dillon
	She's a Sheik	Kada
1928	The Last Command	Lev Andreyev
	Beau Sabreur	Becque	Lost film Trailer extant
	Feel My Pulse	Her Nemesis
	Partners in Crime	Smith
	The Drag Net	Dapper Frank Trent	Lost film
	The Vanishing Pioneer	John Murdock	Lost film
	Forgotten Faces	Froggy
	Interference	Philip Voaze	Powell's sound debut
1929	The Canary Murder Case	Philo Vance
	The Four Feathers	Capt. William Trench
	The Greene Murder Case	Philo Vance
	Charming Sinners	Karl Kraley
	Pointed Heels	Robert Courtland
1930	Behind the Make-Up	Gardoni
	Street of Chance	John D. Marsden / 'Natural' Davis
	The Benson Murder Case	Philo Vance
	Paramount on Parade	Philo Vance
	Shadow of the Law	John Nelson
	For the Defense	William Foster
1931	Man of the World	Michael Trevor
	Ladies' Man	Jamie Darricott
	The Road to Singapore	Hugh Dawltry
1932	High Pressure	Gar Evans
	Jewel Robbery	The Robber
	One Way Passage	Dan Hardesty
	Lawyer Man	Anton Adam
1933	Private Detective 62	Free
	Double Harness	John Fletcher
	The Kennel Murder Case	Philo Vance
1934	Fashions of 1934	Sherwood Nash
	Manhattan Melodrama	Jim Wade
	The Thin Man	Nick Charles
	The Key	Capt. Bill Tennant
	Evelyn Prentice	John Prentice
1935	Star of Midnight	Clay 'Dal' Dalzell
	Reckless	Ned Riley
	Escapade	Fritz
	Rendezvous	Lieutenant Bill Gordon
	The Casino Murder Case	"A new man"	uncredited cameo
1936	The Great Ziegfeld	Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
	The Ex-Mrs. Bradford	Dr. Lawrence Bradford
	My Man Godfrey	Godfrey
	Libeled Lady	Bill Chandler
	After the Thin Man	Nick Charles
1937	The Last of Mrs. Cheney	Charles
	The Emperor's Candlesticks	Baron Stephan Wolensky
	Double Wedding	Charles Lodge
1938	The Baroness and the Butler	Johann Porok
1939	Another Thin Man	Nick Charles
1940	I Love You Again	Larry Wilson a.k.a. George Carey
1941	Love Crazy	Steve Ireland
	Shadow of the Thin Man	Nick Charles
1942	Crossroads	David Talbot, a.k.a. Jean Pelletier
1943	The Youngest Profession	Himself
1944	The Heavenly Body	William S. Whitley
1945	The Thin Man Goes Home	Nick Charles
	Ziegfeld Follies	Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
1946	The Hoodlum Saint	Terence Ellerton 'Terry' O'Neill
	The Great Morgan	Himself	Voice, Uncredited
1947	Life with Father	Clarence Day
	Song of the Thin Man	Nick Charles
	The Senator Was Indiscreet	Senator Melvin G. Ashton
1948	Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid	Mr. Arthur Peabody
1949	Take One False Step	Professor Andrew Gentling
	Dancing in the Dark	Emery Slade
1951	It's a Big Country	Professor
1952	The Treasure of Lost Canyon	Homer 'Doc' Brown
1953	The Girl Who Had Everything	Steve Latimer
	How to Marry a Millionaire	J.D. Hanley
1955	Mister Roberts	Doc	(final film)

Short subjects

• Screen Snapshots (1932)
• Hollywood on Parade No. A-12 (1933)
• Screen Snapshots: The Skolsky Party (1946)

Box office rankings

• 1935 - 15th
• 1936 - 13th
• 1937 - 5th, 6th (UK)
• 1938 - 25th, 10th (UK)
• 1940 - 25th
• 1941 - 25th

See also

• List of actors with Academy Award nominations

References

Bibliography

• Bryant, Roger. William Powell: The Life and Films. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2006. ISBN 0-7864-2602-0.
• Christensen, Lawrence O., et al. Dictionary of Missouri Biography. Columbia, Maryland: University of Missouri Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8262-1222-0.
• Francisco, Charles. Gentleman: The William Powell Story . New York: St Martins Press, 1985. ISBN 0-312-32103-1.

External links

• William Powell
• William Powell at IMDb
• Photographs of William Powell
• FBI file on William Powell
• William Powell at Find a Grave
• Paramount Personality poster (1930s)