William Powell
Acting
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.
The Love Story of Jean Harlow and William Powell
as Self (archive footage)
Age 130 (now 91)
Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
Age 124 (now 91)
Jean Harlow: Platinum Bombshell
as Self (archive footage)
Age 103 (now 91)
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
as (archive footage)
Age 97 (now 91)
Two Tragic Blondes - Marilyn Monroe And Jean Harlow
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
as Self (archive footage)
Age 94 (now 91)
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
as Self (archive footage)
Age 93 (now 91)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Age 90 (now 91)
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
Age 83 (now 91)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
as Self (archive footage)
Age 83 (now 91)
The Big Parade of Comedy
as Nick Charles (archive footage)
Age 72 (now 91)
The Treasure of Lost Canyon
as Homer 'Doc' Brown
Age 59 (now 91)
The Senator Was Indiscreet
as Senator Melvin G. Ashton
Age 55 (now 91)
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
as Self
Age 48 (now 91)
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
as Self
Age 47 (now 91)
The Romance of Celluloid
as Self (archive footage)
Age 45 (now 91)
The Emperor's Candlesticks
as Baron Stephan Wolensky
Age 44 (now 91)
Gathering insights...
Also Known As
William H. Powell, William Horatio Powell
IMDB
nm0001635