William Powell

Acting · 1.0 popularity

Age

134

Movies

119

Born: July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984
From: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Biography

William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at 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). After high school, he left home for New York and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of 18. In 1912, Powell graduated from the AADA, and worked in some vaudeville and stock companies. After several successful experiences on the Broadway stage, he began his Hollywood career in 1922, playing a small role as an evil henchman of Professor Moriarty in a production of Sherlock Holmes with John Barrymore. His most memorable role in silent movies was as a bitter film director opposite Emil Jannings' Academy Award-winning performance as a fallen general in The Last Command (1928). This success, along with Powell's pleasant speaking voice, led to his first starring role as amateur detective Philo Vance in the "talkie" The Canary Murder Case (1929). Powell's most famous role was that of Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, beginning with The Thin Man in 1934, based upon Dashiell Hammett's novel. The role provided a perfect opportunity for Powell, with his resonant speaking voice, to showcase his sophisticated charm and witty sense of humor, and he received his first Academy Award nomination for The Thin Man. Myrna Loy played his wife, Nora, in each of the Thin Man films. Their on-screen partnership, beginning alongside Clark Gable in 1934 with Manhattan Melodrama, was one of Hollywood's most prolific, and they appeared in 14 films together. Loy and Powell starred in the Best Picture of 1936, The Great Ziegfeld, with Powell in the title role and Loy as Ziegfeld's wife Billie Burke. That same year, he also received his second Academy Award nomination, for the comedy My Man Godfrey. In 1935, he starred with Jean Harlow in Reckless. A serious romance developed between them, and in 1936, they were reunited on screen and with Loy and Spencer Tracy in the screwball comedy Libeled Lady. However, Harlow surprisingly and quickly became ill, and died from uremia at the age of 26 in June 1937 before they could marry. His distress over her death, as well as a cancer diagnosis of his own, caused him to accept fewer acting roles. Powell's career slowed considerably in the 1940s, although he received his third Academy Award nomination in 1947 for his role as the cantankerous Clarence Day, Sr., in Life with Father. His last film was 1955's Mister Roberts. Powell died in Palm Springs, California, on March 5, 1984, at the age of 91 from heart failure, nearly 30 years after his retirement. He is buried at the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California, near his third wife Diana Lewis, and his only child, his son William David Powell.

Works

119 films

How to Marry a Millionaire

19536.8

The Thin Man

19347.5

Libeled Lady

19367.3

Mister Roberts

19557.0

My Man Godfrey

19367.6

The Youngest Profession

19435.3

After the Thin Man

19367.3

The Great Ziegfeld

19366.3

The Baroness and the Butler

19385.3

Evelyn Prentice

19346.5

Life with Father

19476.7

That's Entertainment, Part II

19767.0

Another Thin Man

19397.1

Manhattan Melodrama

19347.0

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

19756.3

Shadow of the Thin Man

19417.0

James Stewart: A Wonderful Life

19876.5

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage

19837.0

Ziegfeld Follies

19456.0

Romola

19246.7

The Big Parade of Comedy

19647.2

The Emperor's Candlesticks

19374.9

I Love You Again

19407.2

It's Showtime

19767.5

Song of the Thin Man

19476.7

Senorita

19278.0

Twenty Years After

19448.0

New York

19279.0

The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies

19958.0

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid

19486.6

Crossroads

19425.9

Desert Gold

19268.0

Take One False Step

19495.4

Love Crazy

19416.8

Charming Sinners

19297.5

The Last Command

19287.4

Rendezvous

19354.9

White Mice

19267.0

The Thin Man Goes Home

19447.1

La Fiesta de Santa Barbara

19356.1

Hollywood: Style Center of the World

19405.8

It's a Big Country

19515.9

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

19375.9

Special Delivery

19276.0

The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn

19868.3

The Romance of Celluloid

19377.0

The Treasure of Lost Canyon

19526.0

The Hoodlum Saint

19465.5

Double Wedding

19376.4

The Heavenly Body

19445.6

Forgotten Faces

19287.0

From the Ends of the Earth

19395.0

Time to Love

192710.0

Jewel Robbery

19326.5

Private Detective 62

19336.2

Going Hollywood: The '30s

19849.0

The Girl Who Had Everything

19536.2

Reckless

19355.1

When Knighthood Was in Flower

19225.8

The Kennel Murder Case

19336.1

Paramount on Parade

19306.1

Dancing in the Dark

19496.0

Jean Harlow: Platinum Bombshell

1996

Pointed Heels

19296.4

Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To

19908.5

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford

19366.2

Beau Geste

19266.4

Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts

20176.5

Outcast

19223.0

A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound

19406.8

Sherlock Holmes

19226.1

Shadow of the Law

19306.7

The Bright Shawl

19237.0

High Pressure

19325.8

Partners in Crime

19286.0

The Road to Singapore

19315.6

For the Defense

19305.3

Two Tragic Blondes - Marilyn Monroe And Jean Harlow

19899.0

Fashions of 1934

19346.6

Discovering Jean Harlow

201510.0

The Key

19344.9

Double Harness

19336.5

One Way Passage

19327.3

Star of Midnight

19355.9

Tin Gods

19269.0

William Powell: A True Gentleman

20057.5

Man of the World

19316.2

Lawyer Man

19326.1

The Senator Was Indiscreet

19476.2

The Great Gatsby

19269.0

The Canary Murder Case

19295.7

The Great Morgan

19456.0

Beau Sabreur

19289.0

Feel My Pulse

19286.6

Behind the Make-Up

19306.8

The Vanishing Pioneer

19289.0

Too Many Kisses

19255.9

The Beautiful City

19259.0

The Love Story of Jean Harlow and William Powell

2023

Sea Horses

19269.0

Interference

19297.6

Street of Chance

19306.8

The Greene Murder Case

19296.0

Love's Greatest Mistake

19279.0

Paid to Love

19276.5

The Benson Murder Case

19305.9

The Four Feathers

19295.0

Ladies' Man

19314.6

She's a Sheik

19278.0

The Voice of Hollywood

1930

My Lady's Lips

192510.0

The Runaway

192610.0

Nevada

19277.0

Escapade

19358.0

Aloma of the South Seas

19268.0

The Drag Net

19286.5

Under the Red Robe

19236.0

Dangerous Money

19249.0

Faint Perfume

19257.0