William Powell

Also Known As: William H. Powell, Уильям Пауэлл, ویلیام پاول

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.

Department: Acting

Place of Birth: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Birthday: July 28, 1892

Deathday: March 05, 1984

Adult: No

Gender: Male

Popularity:

1.98%

Known For:

How to Marry a Millionaire
The Thin Man
Double Wedding
I Love You Again
Love Crazy
Take One False Step
Libeled Lady
The Heavenly Body
My Man Godfrey
One Way Passage
Manhattan Melodrama
Life with Father
After the Thin Man
Another Thin Man
Shadow of the Thin Man
The Thin Man Goes Home
Song of the Thin Man
Crossroads
The Great Ziegfeld
Ziegfeld Follies
The Senator Was Indiscreet
Mister Roberts
High Pressure
Private Detective 62
The Benson Murder Case
Jewel Robbery
Reckless
The Last Command
The Canary Murder Case
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Feel My Pulse
Sherlock Holmes
When Knighthood Was in Flower
Romola
The Girl Who Had Everything
The Treasure of Lost Canyon
It's a Big Country
Dancing in the Dark
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
The Hoodlum Saint
The Baroness and the Butler
The Emperor's Candlesticks
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
Rendezvous
Star of Midnight
Evelyn Prentice
The Key
Fashions of 1934
The Kennel Murder Case
The Greene Murder Case
Man of the World
The Four Feathers
Paid to Love
The Youngest Profession
Nevada
Lawyer Man
Interference
Street of Chance
Escapade
Double Harness
Beau Geste
Charming Sinners
The Road to Singapore
Pointed Heels
Behind the Make-Up
For the Defense
The Bright Shawl
The Great Gatsby
Ladies' Man
Going Hollywood: The '30s
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
Forgotten Faces
The Runaway
Partners in Crime
Shadow of the Law
Special Delivery
Paramount on Parade
Aloma of the South Seas
The Big Parade of Comedy
La Fiesta de Santa Barbara
The Voice of Hollywood
Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell
Outcast
Under the Red Robe
Dangerous Money
Too Many Kisses
Faint Perfume
My Lady's Lips
The Beautiful City
White Mice
Sea Horses
Desert Gold
Tin Gods
New York
Love's Greatest Mistake
Time to Love
She's a Sheik
The Drag Net
The Vanishing Pioneer
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
That's Entertainment, Part II
Beau Sabreur
The Great Morgan
The Romance of Celluloid
From the Ends of the Earth
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Twenty Years After
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
William Powell: A True Gentleman
Senorita
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
It's Showtime
Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts