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William Powell
Acting
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 …
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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.
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BODY OF WORK
William Powell's Filmography
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The Love Story of Jean Harlow and William Powell
as Self (archive footage)
Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
Discovering Jean Harlow
as archive footage
William Powell: A True Gentleman
Alias Nick and Nora
Jean Harlow: Platinum Bombshell
as Self (archive footage)
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
as Self (archive footage)
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
as (archive footage)
No Poster
Two Tragic Blondes - Marilyn Monroe And Jean Harlow
as Self (archive footage)
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
as Self (archive footage)
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
as Self (archive footage)
Going Hollywood: The '30s
as (archive footage)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
It's Showtime
as Self (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
as Self (archive footage)
The Big Parade of Comedy
as Nick Charles (archive footage)
Mister Roberts
as Doc
How to Marry a Millionaire
as J.D. Hanley
The Girl Who Had Everything
as Steve Latimer
The Treasure of Lost Canyon
as Homer 'Doc' Brown
It's a Big Country
as Professor
Dancing in the Dark
as Emery Slade
Take One False Step
as Andrew Gentling
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
as Arthur Peabody
The Senator Was Indiscreet
as Senator Melvin G. Ashton
Life with Father
as Clarence Day Sr.
Song of the Thin Man
as Nick Charles
The Hoodlum Saint
as Terence Ellerton 'Terry' O'Neill
Ziegfeld Follies
as Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
The Great Morgan
as William Powell (voice) (uncredited)
The Thin Man Goes Home
as Nick Charles
The Heavenly Body
as William S. Whitley
Twenty Years After
as (archive footage)
The Youngest Profession
as William Powell
Crossroads
as David Talbot aka Jean Pelletier
Shadow of the Thin Man
as Nick Charles
Love Crazy
as Steve Ireland
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
as Self
I Love You Again
as Larry Wilson aka George Carey
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
as Self
Another Thin Man
as Nick Charles
From the Ends of the Earth
as Self
The Baroness and the Butler
as Johann Porok
Double Wedding
as Charles Lodge
The Romance of Celluloid
as Self (archive footage)
The Emperor's Candlesticks
as Baron Stephan Wolensky
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
as Charles
After the Thin Man
as Nick Charles
Libeled Lady
as Bill Chandler
My Man Godfrey
as Godfrey
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
as Dr. Lawrence 'Brad' Bradford
The Great Ziegfeld
as Florenz 'Flo' Ziegfeld Jr.
La Fiesta de Santa Barbara
as Self
Rendezvous
as Lt. William 'Bill' Gordon / Anson Meridan
Escapade
as Fritz
Reckless
as Ned Riley
Star of Midnight
as Clay Dalzell
Evelyn Prentice
as John Prentice
The Key
as Capt. Bill Tennant
The Thin Man
as Nick Charles
Manhattan Melodrama
as Jim Wade
Fashions of 1934
as Sherwood Nash
The Kennel Murder Case
as Philo Vance
Double Harness
as John Fletcher
Private Detective 62
as Donald Free
Lawyer Man
as Anton "Tony" Adam
One Way Passage
as Dan Hardesty
Jewel Robbery
as The Robber
High Pressure
as Gar Evans
The Road to Singapore
as Hugh Dawltry
Ladies' Man
as Jamie Darricott
Man of the World
as Michael Trevor
The Voice of Hollywood
For the Defense
as William Foster
Shadow of the Law
as Jim Montgomery aka John Nelson
Paramount on Parade
as Philo Vance
The Benson Murder Case
as Philo Vance
Street of Chance
as John D. Marsden / 'Natural' Davis
Behind the Make-Up
as Gardoni
Pointed Heels
as Robert Courtland
Charming Sinners
as Karl Kraley
The Greene Murder Case
as Philo Vance
The Four Feathers
as Capt. William Trench
The Canary Murder Case
as Philo Vance
Interference
as Philip Voaze
Forgotten Faces
as Froggy
The Vanishing Pioneer
as John Murdock
The Drag Net
as Dapper Frank Trent
Partners in Crime
as Smith
Feel My Pulse
as Her Nemesis
Beau Sabreur
as Becque
The Last Command
as Lev Andreyev
She's a Sheik
as Kada
Nevada
as Clan Dillon
Paid to Love
as Prince Eric
Time to Love
as Prince Alado
Special Delivery
as Harold Jones
Senorita
as Manuel Oliveros
Love's Greatest Mistake
as Don Kendall
New York
as Trent Regan
The Great Gatsby
as George Wilson
Tin Gods
as Tony Santelli
Beau Geste
as Boldini
Aloma of the South Seas
as Van Templeton
The Runaway
as Jack Harrison
Desert Gold
as Snake Landree
Sea Horses
as Lorenzo Salvia
White Mice
as Roddy Forrester
The Beautiful City
as Nick Di Silva
My Lady's Lips
as Scott Seddon
Faint Perfume
as Barnaby Powers
Too Many Kisses
as Don Julio
Romola
as Tito Melema
Dangerous Money
as Prince Arnoldo da Pescia
Under the Red Robe
as Duke of Orleans
The Bright Shawl
as Gaspar De Vaca
Outcast
as DeValle
When Knighthood Was in Flower
as Francis I
Sherlock Holmes
as Forman Wells