William Powell
Actor
Born July 29, 1892 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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.
Filmography
The Love Story of Jean Harlow and William Powell
Self (archive footage)
Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts
Self - Actor (archive footage)
Discovering Jean Harlow
archive footage
William Powell: A True Gentleman
Jean Harlow: Platinum Bombshell
Self (archive footage)
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
Self (archive footage)
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
(archive footage)
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Self (archive footage)
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
Self (archive footage)
Going Hollywood: The '30s
(archive footage)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
It's Showtime
Self (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Self (archive footage)
The Big Parade of Comedy
Nick Charles (archive footage)
Mister Roberts
Doc
How to Marry a Millionaire
J.D. Hanley
The Girl Who Had Everything
Steve Latimer
The Treasure of Lost Canyon
Homer 'Doc' Brown
It's a Big Country
Professor
Dancing in the Dark
Emery Slade
Take One False Step
Andrew Gentling
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
Arthur Peabody
The Senator Was Indiscreet
Senator Melvin G. Ashton
Life with Father
Clarence Day Sr.
Song of the Thin Man
Nick Charles
The Hoodlum Saint
Terence Ellerton 'Terry' O'Neill
Ziegfeld Follies
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
The Great Morgan
William Powell (voice) (uncredited)
The Thin Man Goes Home
Nick Charles
The Heavenly Body
William S. Whitley
Twenty Years After
(archive footage)
The Youngest Profession
William Powell
Crossroads
David Talbot aka Jean Pelletier
Shadow of the Thin Man
Nick Charles
Love Crazy
Steve Ireland
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Self
I Love You Again
Larry Wilson aka George Carey
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
Self
Another Thin Man
Nick Charles
From the Ends of the Earth
Self
The Baroness and the Butler
Johann Porok
Double Wedding
Charles Lodge
The Romance of Celluloid
Self (archive footage)
The Emperor's Candlesticks
Baron Stephan Wolensky
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
Charles
After the Thin Man
Nick Charles
Libeled Lady
Bill Chandler
My Man Godfrey
Godfrey
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
Dr. Lawrence 'Brad' Bradford
The Great Ziegfeld
Florenz 'Flo' Ziegfeld Jr.
La Fiesta de Santa Barbara
Self
Rendezvous
Lt. William 'Bill' Gordon / Anson Meridan
Escapade
Fritz
Reckless
Ned Riley
Star of Midnight
Clay Dalzell
Evelyn Prentice
John Prentice
The Key
Capt. Bill Tennant
The Thin Man
Nick Charles
Manhattan Melodrama
Jim Wade
Fashions of 1934
Sherwood Nash
The Kennel Murder Case
Philo Vance
Double Harness
John Fletcher
Private Detective 62
Donald Free
Lawyer Man
Anton "Tony" Adam
One Way Passage
Dan Hardesty
Jewel Robbery
The Robber
High Pressure
Gar Evans
The Road to Singapore
Hugh Dawltry
Ladies' Man
Jamie Darricott
Man of the World
Michael Trevor
For the Defense
William Foster
Shadow of the Law
Jim Montgomery aka John Nelson
Paramount on Parade
Philo Vance
The Benson Murder Case
Philo Vance
Street of Chance
John D. Marsden / 'Natural' Davis
Behind the Make-Up
Gardoni
Pointed Heels
Robert Courtland
Charming Sinners
Karl Kraley
The Greene Murder Case
Philo Vance
The Four Feathers
Capt. William Trench
The Canary Murder Case
Philo Vance
Interference
Philip Voaze
Forgotten Faces
Froggy
The Vanishing Pioneer
John Murdock
The Drag Net
Dapper Frank Trent
Partners in Crime
Smith
Feel My Pulse
Her Nemesis
Beau Sabreur
Becque
The Last Command
Lev Andreyev
She's a Sheik
Kada
Nevada
Clan Dillon
Paid to Love
Prince Eric
Time to Love
Prince Alado
Special Delivery
Harold Jones
Senorita
Manuel Oliveros
Love's Greatest Mistake
Don Kendall
New York
Trent Regan
The Great Gatsby
George Wilson
Tin Gods
Tony Santelli
Beau Geste
Boldini
Aloma of the South Seas
Van Templeton
The Runaway
Jack Harrison
Desert Gold
Snake Landree
Sea Horses
Lorenzo Salvia
White Mice
Roddy Forrester
The Beautiful City
Nick Di Silva
My Lady's Lips
Scott Seldon
Faint Perfume
Barnaby Powers
Too Many Kisses
Don Julio
Romola
Tito Melema
Dangerous Money
Prince Arnoldo da Pescia
Under the Red Robe
Duke of Orleans
The Bright Shawl
Gaspar De Vaca
Outcast
DeValle
When Knighthood Was in Flower
Francis I
Sherlock Holmes
Forman Wells