Dick Powell

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Dick Powell

from the trailer for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Birth name Richard Ewing Powell
Born November 14, 1904
Mountain View, Arkansas, USA
Died January 2, 1963 aged 58
West Los Angeles, California, USA

Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American singer, actor, producer, and director.

Born in Mountain View, Arkansas, Powell attended Little Rock College in Arkansas, before starting his entertainment career as a singer in his own band. He recorded a number of records for the Vocalion label in the late 1920's. In April 1930, Warner Bros. bought up Brunswick Records which at that time owned the Vocalion label. Warner Bros. was sufficiently impressed by Powell's singing to offer him a film contract in 1932. He made his film debut as a singing bandleader in Blessed Event. He went on to star as a boyish crooner in movie musicals such as 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames, Flirtation Walk, and On the Avenue, often appearing opposite Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell.

Powell desperately wanted to expand his range but Warner Bros. wouldn’t let him. Finally, reaching his forties and knowing that his young romantic leading man days were behind him, he lobbied to play the lead in Double Indemnity. He lost out to Fred MacMurray, another Hollywood nice guy. MacMurray’s success, however, fueled Powell’s resolve to pursue projects with greater range and in 1944 he found himself cast in the first of a series of films noir, this time as Private Detective Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, directed by Edward Dmytryk. The film was a big hit and Dick Powell had successfully reinvented himself as a dramatic actor.

The following year, Dmytryk and Powell re-teamed to make Cornered, a gripping, post-WWII thriller that helped define the film noir style.

He became a popular "tough guy" lead, appearing in movies such as Johnny O'Clock and Cry Danger. Even when he appeared in lighter fare such as The Reformer and the Redhead and Susan Slept Here, he never sang in his later roles.

From 1949 until 1953, Powell played the lead role in the NBC radio theater production Richard Diamond, Private Detective. His character in the 30 minute weekly was a likeable private detective with a quick wit.

In the 1950s Powell produced and directed several B-movies and was one of the founders of Four Star Television, appearing in and supervising several shows for that company. His film The Enemy Below (1957) based on the novel by Denys Rayner won an Academy Award for special effects.

Powell died on January 2, 1963 from lymphoma at the age of 58. He was one of many cast and crew members of The Conqueror (1956) who died from the same disease. The Conqueror was filmed in Utah near an atomic test site. It has long been rumored, but never proven, that the film's shooting location may have been the cause of the cancers that afflicted the crew.

Dick Powell was cremated and his remains were interred in the Columbarium of Honor at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Contents

[edit] Personal life

Dick Powell was married three times:

  1. Mildred Maund (1925-1927)
  2. Actress Joan Blondell (married September 19, 1936, divorced 1944), with whom he had two children, Ellen and Norman
  3. Actress/singer June Allyson (August 19, 1945 until his death), with whom he had two children, Pamela (adopted) and Richard Powell, Jr.

[edit] Filmography

Dick Powell and Claire Trevor in Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Dick Powell and Claire Trevor in Murder, My Sweet (1944)

[edit] As actor

[edit] Features

[edit] 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)

[edit] As director

[edit] External links

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