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William Powell

William Powell

Birthday: 1892-07-28 | Place of Birth: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

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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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2005
Alias Nick and Nora

as    Nick

1993
Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell

as    Himself (archive footage)

1964
The Big Parade of Comedy

as    Nick Charles (archive footage)

1955
Mister Roberts

as    Doc

1953
How to Marry a Millionaire

as    J.D. Hanley

1953
The Girl Who Had Everything

as    Steve Latimer

1952
The Treasure of Lost Canyon

as    Homer 'Doc' Brown

1949
Take One False Step

as    Andrew Gentling

1949
Dancing in the Dark

as    Emery Slade

1948
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid

as    Mr. Peabody

1947
Life with Father

as    Clarence Day Sr.

1947
Song of the Thin Man

as    Nick Charles

1946
The Hoodlum Saint

as    Terence Ellerton 'Terry' O'Neill

1944
The Thin Man Goes Home

as    Nick Charles

1944
The Heavenly Body

as    William S. Whitley

1942
Crossroads

as    David Talbot aka Jean Pelletier

1941
Shadow of the Thin Man

as    Nick Charles

1941
Love Crazy

as    Steve Ireland

1940
I Love You Again

as    Larry Wilson aka George Carey

1938
The Baroness and the Butler

as    Johann Porok

1937
The Emperor's Candlesticks

as    Baron Stephan Wolensky

1937
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

as    Charles

1937
Double Wedding

as    Charles Lodge

1936
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford

as    Dr. Lawrence 'Brad' Bradford

1936
The Great Ziegfeld

as    Florenz 'Flo' Ziegfeld Jr.

1936
My Man Godfrey

as    Godfrey

1936
After the Thin Man

as    Nick Charles

1936
Libeled Lady

as    William 'Bill' Stephens Chandler

1935
Reckless

as    Ned Riley