Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility and successfully transformed into a hardboiled leading man, starring in projects of a more dramatic nature. He was the first actor to portray private detective Philip Marlowe on screen.
Early life
Powell was born the middle of three sons of Ewing Powell and mother Sally Rowena in Mountain View, Arkansas.
He married Mildred Maund, a model, but she found being married to an entertainer not to her liking. After a final trip to Cuba together, Mildred moved to Hemphill, Texas, and the couple divorced in 1932. He recorded a number of records with Davis and on his own for the Vocalion label in the late 1920s.
Stardom
left|thumb|Dick Powell in 1934
Powell moved to Pittsburgh, where he found great local success as the master of ceremonies at the Enright Theater and the Stanley Theater.
He was borrowed by Fox Film to support Will Rogers in Too Busy to Work (1932). He was a boyish crooner, the sort of role in which he specialized for the next few years. Back at Warner Bros., he supported George Arliss in The King's Vacation, then was in 42nd Street (both 1933), playing the love interest for Ruby Keeler. The film was a massive hit.
left|thumb|[[Ruby Keeler and Powell in Footlight Parade (1933)]]
Warner Bros. (WB) got him basically to repeat the role in Gold Diggers of 1933, another big success. So too was Footlight Parade (also 1933), with Keeler, James Cagney and Joan Blondell.
right|thumb|Dick Powell in a trailer for [[Dames (film)|Dames (1934)]]
Powell was upped to star for College Coach (1933), then went back to more ensemble pieces including 42nd Street, Convention City (both 1933), Wonder Bar, Twenty Million Sweethearts, and Dames (all 1934).
"Tough guy"
thumb|right|Dick Powell and [[Inez Asher]]
By 1944, Powell felt he was too old to play romantic leading men anymore, so he lobbied to play the lead in Double Indemnity. He lost out to Fred MacMurray, another Hollywood nice guy.
Powell's career changed dramatically when he was cast in the first of a series of films noir, as private detective Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet (1944), directed by Edward Dmytryk at RKO. The film was a big hit, and Powell had successfully reinvented himself as a dramatic actor. He was the first actor to play Marlowe – by name – in motion pictures.
He directed Allyson opposite Jack Lemmon in You Can't Run Away from It (1956). Powell then made two war films at Fox with Robert Mitchum, The Enemy Below (1957) and The Hunters (1958).
Television
thumb|right|Guest stars for the premiere episode of [[The Dick Powell Show, "Who Killed Julie Greer?" Standing, from left: Ronald Reagan, Nick Adams, Lloyd Bridges, Mickey Rooney, Edgar Bergen, Jack Carson, Ralph Bellamy, Kay Thompson, and Dean Jones, seated, from left, Carolyn Jones and Dick Powell.]]
In the 1950s, Powell was one of the founders of Four Star Television,
Powell enjoyed general aviation as a private pilot. He and Farouk of Egypt were the only two known buyers of the Gaylord Gladiator automobile.
Illness and death
On September 27, 1962, Powell acknowledged rumors that he was undergoing treatment for cancer. The disease was originally diagnosed as an allergy, with Powell first experiencing symptoms while traveling east to promote his program. Upon his return to California, Powell's personal physician conducted tests and found malignant tumors on his neck and chest.
The marker on Dick Powell's niche in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, incorrectly identifies his year of death as 1962. Powell died at the age of 58 on January 2, 1963.
It is speculated Powell developed cancer as a result of his participation in the film The Conqueror, which was filmed at St. George, Utah, near a site used by the U.S. military for nuclear testing. About a third of the actors who participated in the film developed cancer, including Powell, who directed the film, John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead and Pedro Armendáriz. However, in a 2001 interview with Larry King, Powell's widow June Allyson stated that the cause of death was lung cancer due to his chain smoking.
During the 15th Primetime Emmy Awards on May 26, 1963, the Television Academy presented a posthumous Television Academy Trustee Award to Dick Powell for his contributions to the industry. The award was accepted by two of his former partners in Four Star Television, Charles Boyer and David Niven.
Dick Powell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography
As actor
Features
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Role
! Director
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| rowspan="3"| 1932
| Blessed Event
| Bunny Harmon
| Roy Del Ruth
|
|-
| Big City Blues
| Radio Announcer
| Mervyn LeRoy
| Uncredited; voice only
|-
| Too Busy to Work
| Dan Hardy
| John G. Blystone
|
|-
| rowspan="6"| 1933
| The King's Vacation
| John Kent
| John G. Adolfi
|
|-
| 42nd Street
| Billy Lawler
| Lloyd Bacon
|
|-
| Gold Diggers of 1933
| Brad Roberts
| rowspan="2"| Busby Berkeley
|
|-
| Footlight Parade
| Scotty Blair
|
|-
| College Coach
| Phil Saegent
| William A. Wellman
|
|-
| Convention City
| Jerry Ford
| Archie Mayo
| Lost film
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1934
| Wonder Bar
| Tommy
| Busby Berkeley
|
|-
| Twenty Million Sweethearts
| Buddy Clayton
| Ray Enright
|
|-
| Dames
| Jimmy Higgens
| Busby Berkeley
|
|-
| Happiness Ahead
| Bob Lane
| Mervyn LeRoy
|
|-
| Flirtation Walk
| Dick "Canary" Dorcy
| Frank Borzage
|
|-
| rowspan="7"| 1935
| Gold Diggers of 1935
| Dick Curtis
| Busby Berkeley
|
|-
| Broadway Gondolier
| Richard "Dick" Purcell
| Lloyd Bacon
|
|-
| Broadway Hostess
| Quartet member
| Frank McDonald
| Uncredited
|-
| Page Miss Glory
| Bingo Nelson
| Mervyn LeRoy
|
|-
| A Midsummer Night's Dream
| Lysander
| Max Reinhardt & William Dieterle
|
|-
| Shipmates Forever
| Dick Melville III
| Frank Borzage
|
|-
| Thanks a Million
| Eric Land
| Roy Del Ruth
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1936
| Colleen
| Donald Ames
| Alfred E. Green
|
|-
| Hearts Divided
| Capt. Jerome Bonaparte
| Frank Borzage
|
|-
| Stage Struck
| George Randall
| Busby Berkeley
|
|-
| Gold Diggers of 1937
| Rosmer Peak
| Lloyd Bacon
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1937
| On the Avenue
| Gary Blake
| William Seiter
|
|-
| The Singing Marine
| Bob Brent
| Busby Berkeley
|
|-
| Varsity Show
| Charles "Chuck" daly
| William Keighley
|
|-
| Hollywood Hotel
| Ronnie Bowers
| Busby Berkeley
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 1938
| Cowboy from Brooklyn
| Ellyn Jordan / Wyoming Steve Gibson
| Lloyd Bacon
|
|-
| Hard to Get
| Bill Davis
| rowspan="3"| Ray Enright
|
|-
| Going Places
| Peter Mason
|
|-
| 1939
| Naughty but Nice
| Prof. Donald Hardwick
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1940
| I Want a Divorce
| Alan MacNally
| Ralph Murphy
|
|-
| Christmas in July
| Jimmy McDonald
| Preston Sturges
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1941
| Model Wife
| Fred Chambers
| Leigh Jason
|
|-
| In the Navy
| Thomas Halstead
| Arthur Lubin
|
|-
| 1942
| Star Spangled Rhythm
| Himself
| Paul Weatherwax
| Segment: "Hit the Road to Dreamland"
|-
| rowspan="3"| 1943
| Happy Go Lucky
| Pete Hamilton
| Curtis Bernhardt
|
|-
| Riding High
| Steve Baird
| rowspan="2"| George Marshall
|
|-
| True to Life
| Link Ferris
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 1944
| It Happened Tomorrow
| Larry Stevens
| René Clair
|
|-
| Meet the People
| William "Swanee" Swanson
| Charles Reisner
|
|-
| Murder, My Sweet
| Philip Marlowe
| rowspan="2"| Edward Dmytryk
| released in the UK as Farewell, My Lovely
|-
| 1945
| Cornered
| Laurence Gerard
|
|-
| 1947
| Johnny O'Clock
| Johnny O'Clock
| Robert Rossen
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1948
| To the Ends of the Earth
| Commissioner Michael Barrows
| Robert Stevenson
|
|-
| Pitfall
| John Forbes
| Andre de Toth
|
|-
| Station West
| Haven
| Sidney Lanfield
|
|-
| Rogues' Regiment
| Whit Corbett
| Robert Florey
|
|-
| 1949
| Mrs. Mike
| Sgt. Mike Flannigan
| Louis King
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1950
| The Reformer and the Redhead
| Andrew Rockton Hale
| Norman Panama & Melvin Frank
|
|-
| Right Cross
| Rick Garvey
| John Sturges
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 1951
| The Tall Target
| John Kennedy
| Anthony Mann
|
|-
| Cry Danger
| Rocky Mulloy
| Robert Parrish
|
|-
| You Never Can Tell
| Rex Shepard
| Lou Breslow
|
|-
| 1953
| The Bad and the Beautiful
| James Lee Bartlow
| Vincente Minnelli
|
|-
| 1954
| Susan Slept Here
| Mark Christopher
| Frank Tashlin
|
|-
|}
Short subjects
- The Road Is Open Again (1933)
- Just Around the Corner (1933)
- Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 (1933)
- And She Learned About Dames (1934)
- Hollywood Newsreel (1934)
- A Dream Comes True (1935)
- Hollywood Hobbies (1939)
As director
- Split Second (1953)
- The Conqueror (1956)
- You Can't Run Away from It (1956)
- The Enemy Below (1957)
- The Hunters (1958)
Radio appearances
Powell was the first actor to play private detective Philip Marlowe on radio, in 1945.
|}
Partial list of recordings
- "Is She My Girl Friend?" (1927-Vocalion 15647), the first commercially released record by Dick Powell. Although it was his first released record, it is not his first recording - "Time Will Tell" was his first recording, being for Gennett Records, however it was never pressed.
- "I Only Have Eyes for You" (1934) from the film Dames.
- "Roses in December" (1937) words and music by Herb Magidson, Ben Oakland and George Jessel. (The song first appeared in The Life of the Party.) ISWC: T-070127274-3
- "Over There"/"Captains of the Clouds" (1942–Decca 4174) Issued early in World War II, the A side brought back a patriotic song that had been popular in World War I. The B side came from a James Cagney film of the same name.
- "Susan Slept Here" (Jack Lawrence)/"Hold My Hand" (Richard Myers-Jack Lawrence), Bell Records 1048. Both songs were sung (not by Powell) in the film Susan Slept Here (1954).
References
External links
<!-- for current and future use if material is uploaded -->
- Dick Powell Photo Gallery
- Photographs and literature
- Cinderella's Boy Friend – 1934 article about Powell from Radio Mirror
- What's My Line? appearances: