Acting
116
Man
28 Jul 1892
5 Mar 1984 (91)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
William Powell
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.
Year | Movie / TV show / Other | Role |
---|---|---|
2017 | Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts | Self - Actor (archive footage) |
2005 | William Powell: A True Gentleman | |
1993 | Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell | Self (archive footage) |
1990 | Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To | (archive footage) |
1988 | James Stewart: A Wonderful Life | Self (archive footage) |
1986 | The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn | Self (archive footage) |
1984 | Going Hollywood: The '30s | (archive footage) |
1983 | Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) |
1976 | That's Entertainment, Part II | (archive footage) |
1976 | It's Showtime | Self (archive footage) |
1975 | Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? | Self (archive footage) |
1964 | The Big Parade of Comedy | Nick Charles (archive footage) |
1961 | Hollywood: The Selznick Years | Jim Wade (archive footage) (uncredited) |
1955 | Mister Roberts | Doc |
1953 | How to Marry a Millionaire | J.D. Hanley |
1953 | The Girl Who Had Everything | Steve Latimer |
1952 | The Treasure of Lost Canyon | Homer 'Doc' Brown |
1951 | It's a Big Country | Professor |
1949 | Take One False Step | Andrew Gentling |
1949 | Dancing in the Dark | Emery Slade |
1948 | Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid | Mr. Peabody |
1947 | Song of the Thin Man | Nick Charles |
1947 | Life with Father | Clarence Day Sr. |
1947 | The Senator Was Indiscreet | Senator Melvin G. Ashton |
1946 | The Hoodlum Saint | Terence Ellerton 'Terry' O'Neill |
1945 | Ziegfeld Follies | Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. |
1945 | The Great Morgan | William Powell (voice) (uncredited) |
1944 | The Thin Man Goes Home | Nick Charles |
1944 | The Heavenly Body | William S. Whitley |
1944 | Twenty Years After | (archive footage) |
1943 | The Youngest Profession | William Powell |
1942 | Crossroads | David Talbot aka Jean Pelletier |
1941 | Shadow of the Thin Man | Nick Charles |
1941 | Love Crazy | Steve Ireland |
1940 | I Love You Again | Larry Wilson aka George Carey |
1940 | A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound | Self |
1940 | Hollywood: Style Center of the World | Self |
1939 | Another Thin Man | Nick Charles |
1939 | From the Ends of the Earth | Self |
1938 | The Baroness and the Butler | Johann Porok |
1937 | Double Wedding | Charles Lodge |
1937 | The Last of Mrs. Cheyney | Charles |
1937 | The Emperor's Candlesticks | Baron Stephan Wolensky |
1937 | The Romance of Celluloid | Self (archive footage) |
1936 | My Man Godfrey | Godfrey |
1936 | After the Thin Man | Nick Charles |
1936 | The Great Ziegfeld | Florenz 'Flo' Ziegfeld Jr. |
1936 | Libeled Lady | William 'Bill' Stephens Chandler |
1936 | The Ex-Mrs. Bradford | Dr. Lawrence 'Brad' Bradford |
1935 | Star of Midnight | Clay Dalzell |
1935 | Reckless | Ned Riley |
1935 | La Fiesta de Santa Barbara | Self |
1935 | Rendezvous | Lt. William 'Bill' Gordon / Anson Meridan |
1935 | Escapade | Fritz |
1934 | The Thin Man | Nick Charles |
1934 | Manhattan Melodrama | Jim Wade |
1934 | Evelyn Prentice | John Prentice |
1934 | Fashions of 1934 | Sherwood Nash |
1934 | The Key | Capt. Bill Tennant |
1933 | The Kennel Murder Case | Philo Vance |
1933 | Private Detective 62 | Donald Free |
1933 | Double Harness | John Fletcher |
1932 | One Way Passage | Dan Hardesty |
1932 | Jewel Robbery | The Robber |
1932 | Lawyer Man | Anton Adam |
1932 | High Pressure | Gar Evans |
1931 | Man of the World | Michael Trevor |
1931 | Ladies' Man | Jamie Darricott |
1931 | The Road to Singapore | Hugh Dawltry |
1930 | The Benson Murder Case | Philo Vance |
1930 | For the Defense | William Foster |
1930 | Shadow of the Law | Jim Montgomery aka John Nelson |
1930 | Paramount on Parade | Philo Vance |
1930 | Street of Chance | John D. Marsden / 'Natural' Davis |
1930 | Behind the Make-Up | Gardoni |
1930 | The Voice of Hollywood | |
1929 | The Canary Murder Case | Philo Vance |
1929 | The Greene Murder Case | Philo Vance |
1929 | The Four Feathers | Capt. William Trench |
1929 | Pointed Heels | Robert Courtland |
1929 | Charming Sinners | Karl Kraley |
1928 | The Last Command | Lev Andreyev |
1928 | Feel My Pulse | Her Nemesis |
1928 | Interference | Philip Voaze |
1928 | Partners in Crime | Smith |
1928 | The Drag Net | Dapper Frank Trent |
1928 | Forgotten Faces | Froggy |
1928 | The Vanishing Pioneer | John Murdock |
1928 | Beau Sabreur | Becque |
1927 | Paid to Love | Prince Eric |
1927 | Special Delivery | Harold Jones |
1927 | Nevada | Clan Dillon |
1927 | New York | Trent Regan |
1927 | Time to Love | Prince Alado |
1927 | She's a Sheik | Kada |
1927 | Love's Greatest Mistake | Don Kendall |
1927 | Senorita | Manuel Oliveros |
1926 | Beau Geste | Boldini |
1926 | The Great Gatsby | George Wilson |
1926 | The Runaway | Jack Harrison |
1926 | Aloma of the South Seas | Van Templeton |
1926 | White Mice | Roddy Forrester |
1926 | Sea Horses | Lorenzo Salvia |
1926 | Desert Gold | Snake Landree |
1926 | Tin Gods | Tony Santelli |
1925 | Too Many Kisses | Don Julio |
1925 | Faint Perfume | Barnaby Powers |
1925 | My Lady's Lips | Scott Seldon |
1925 | The Beautiful City | Nick Di Silva |
1924 | Romola | Tito Melema |
1924 | Dangerous Money | Prince Arnoldo da Pescia |
1923 | Under the Red Robe | Duke of Orleans |
1923 | The Bright Shawl | Gaspar De Vaca |
1922 | Sherlock Holmes | Forman Wells |
1922 | When Knighthood Was in Flower | Francis I |
1922 | Outcast | DeValle |