William Powell

Powell was born in Pittsburgh in 1892,{{Citation|url=http://www.pscemetery.com/pdfs/interments.pdf|publisher=Palm Springs Cemetery District|title=Interments of Interest|access-date=March 20, 2017}} the only child of Nettie Manila (née Brady) and Horatio Warren Powell, an accountant."Pennsylvania Births and Christenings, 1709–1950", Horatio Powell, July 29, 1892, son of H. W. Powell and Nettie B. Powell; Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Record accessed via FamilySearch archives, Salt Lake City, Utah, January 31, 2022."Obituaries: William Powell, star of 'Thin Man' films", Chicago Tribune, March 6, 1984, p. N6. Retrieved via ProQuest Historical Newspapers through subscription access at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, January 31, 2022. In 1907, young William moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated from Central High School four years later.{{Cite web |date=1911 |title=Central High School Yearbook - The Centralian |url=https://kchistory.org/document/central-high-school-yearbook-centralian-10?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=c57ef26f16c63caec03e&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0&search=%2522powell%2522 |website=KCHistory.org}}

File:William Powell - When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922).jpg, 1922]]

File:Phillips Holmes, William Powell, and Fay Wray in 'Pointed Heels', 1929.jpg, Powell and Fay Wray in Pointed Heels, 1929]]

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.{{Cite news|last=Flint|first=Peter B.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/06/obituaries/william-powell-film-star-dies-at-91.html|title=William Powell, Film Star, Dies at 91|date=6 March 1984| work=The New York Times|access-date=23 April 2020|issn=0362-4331|url-access=registration}} In 1912, Powell left the AADA, and began working in vaudeville and stock companies.{{cite web|url=http://www.williampowell.org/bio.html|title=William Powell Biography|access-date=1 August 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724212710/http://www.williampowell.org/bio.html|archive-date=24 July 2008|url-status=usurped}} He also appeared on Broadway.{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_smart-set_the-smart-set_1922-10_69_2/page/137/mode/1up?view=theater |title=A Ballet of Opinion |last=Nathan |first=George Jean |publisher=The Smart Set |date=October 1922 |access-date=16 April 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/08/17/issue.html |title=The Play |last=Woollcott |first=Alexander |work=The New York Times |date=17 August 1922 |access-date=16 April 2024}} 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.Life, Volume 80, p. 208

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.

File:Thin-Man-Loy-Powell-Skippy.jpg (1934) with Powell, co-star Myrna Loy, and Skippy as Asta]]

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{{Cite web|title=1935 {{!}} Oscars.org {{!}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1935|access-date=1 June 2023|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 8, 2014 }}

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.{{Cite web|title=1937 {{!}} Oscars.org {{!}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1937|access-date=1 June 2023|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 8, 2014 }}

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.Christensen et al., p. 375.

Powell received his third Academy Award nomination in 1947 for his role as Clarence Day Sr. in Life with Father.{{Cite web|title=1948 {{!}} Oscars.org {{!}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1948|access-date=1 June 2023|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 5, 2014 }} His last film was playing the character Doc in 1955's Mister Roberts.

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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.{{cite book|first1=James Robert|last1=Parish|first2=Don E.|last2=Stanke|title=The Debonairs|date=1975|publisher=Arlington House| location=New Rochelle, NY| isbn=978-0870002939| page=[https://archive.org/details/debonairs00pari/page/459 459]|url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/debonairs00pari/page/459}}

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.Bryant, p. 142. He was romantically involved with Jean Harlow, his co-star in Reckless (1935), until her unexpected death from illness in 1937.{{cite web|url=http://www.classichollywoodbios.com/jeanharlow.htm|title=Portrait of Harlow: The Original Blonde Bombshell|first=Dina|last=Di Mambro|website=ClassicHollywoodBios.com|access-date=May 27, 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://dearmrgable.com/?p=4868|title=75 Years Ago, Saying Good-bye to Jean Harlow|date=June 9, 2012|website=DearMrGable.com|access-date=May 27, 2018}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-diana-lewis-1286049.html|title=Obituary: Diana Lewis|date=31 January 1997|work=The Independent}}

A Republican, Powell supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QfHXAAAAQBAJ&q=william%20powell|title=When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics|isbn=9781107650282|last=Critchlow|first=Donald T.|date=21 October 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press }} and the 1948 United States presidential election.{{cite web | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19481024&id=hyIhAAAAIBAJ&pg=3687,1753456 | title=Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Google News Archive Search }}

In March 1938, Powell was diagnosed with rectal cancer.{{Cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,830289,00.html|title=Surgery: How Not to Die Of Cancer|date=10 May 1963|magazine=Time|access-date=23 April 2020|issn=0040-781X}} 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.Bryant, pp. 127–36.

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.{{cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Patricia|last2=Brooks|first2=Jonathan|title=Laid to Rest in California: A guide to the cemeteries and grave sites of the rich and famous|chapter=Chapter 8: East L.A. and the Desert|pages=240–42|year=2006|publisher=Globe Pequot Press|location=Guilford, CT|isbn=978-0762741014|oclc=70284362}}

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

New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor in 1947 for Life with Father and The Senator Was Indiscreet.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nyfcc.com/awards/?awardyear=1947|title=Awards – New York Film Critics Circle – NYFCC|website=www.nyfcc.com|access-date=10 October 2017}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.palmspringswalkofstars.com/web-storage/Stars/Stars%20dedicated%20by%20date.pdf|title=Palm Springs Walk of Stars by date dedicated|access-date=7 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013165655/http://www.palmspringswalkofstars.com/web-storage/Stars/Stars%20dedicated%20by%20date.pdf|archive-date=13 October 2012|url-status=dead}}

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File:William Powell-John Barrymore in Sherlock Holmes.jpg in Sherlock Holmes (1922)]]

File:William Powell, silent film actor (SAYRE 8851).jpg (1926)]]

File:William Powell Marion Shilling Regis Toomey Natalie Moorhead Shadow of the Law 1930.jpg, Regis Toomey, Natalie Moorhead in Shadow of the Law (1930)]]

File:Man of the World lobby card 2.jpg with Carole Lombard in Man of the World (1931)]]

File:Star of Midnight lobby card.jpg in Star of Midnight (1935)]]

File:Poster - Libeled Lady 03.jpg and Spencer Tracy in Libeled Lady (1936)]]

File:After-the-Thin-Man-LC-title.jpg (1936)]]

File:My Man Godfrey promo still 2.jpg (1936)]]

File:Life with Father (1947).jpg and Powell in Life with Father (1947)]]

File:William Powell, Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire trailer.jpg, Betty Grable, and Marilyn Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)]]

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

{{See also|Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll}}

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

{{Portal|Biography|Film}}

• List of actors with Academy Award nominations

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{{reflist}}

• Bryant, Roger. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RHn-VBnYaTgC William Powell: The Life and Films]. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2006. {{ISBN|0-7864-2602-0}}.
• Christensen, Lawrence O., et al. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6gyxWHRLAWgC 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}}.

{{commons category}}

• {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20121210105044/http://themave.com/Powell/ William Powell]}}
• {{IMDb name|1635}}
• {{Tcmdb name}}
• [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=577 Photographs of William Powell]
• [http://vault.fbi.gov/William%20Powell FBI file on William Powell]
• {{Find a Grave|1416}}
• [https://movieposters.ha.com/itm/movie-posters/miscellaneous/william-powell-personality-poster-paramount-early-1930s-poster-27-x-41-/a/7019-85593.s?ic4=ListView-thumbnail-071515 Paramount Personality] poster (1930s)

{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, William}}

Category:1892 births

Category:1984 deaths

Category:Burials at Desert Memorial Park

Category:Male actors from Pittsburgh

Category:American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni

Category:American male silent film actors

Category:Male actors from Kansas City, Missouri

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players

Category:Paramount Pictures contract players

Category:California Republicans