William Powell
Date of birth: 1892-07-29
Place of birth: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Known for: Acting
Also known as: William H. Powell, William Horatio Powell
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 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.
Movie Credits
How to Marry a Millionaire
1953-10-29
Three women set out to find eligible millionaires to marry, but find true love in the process.
The Thin Man
1934-05-25
A husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed f
Love Crazy
1941-05-23
Circumstance, an old flame and a mother-in-law drive a happily married couple to the verge of divorc
Double Wedding
1937-10-15
A bohemian free spirit helps meek Waldo win back his fiancée and falls in love with her over-control
I Love You Again
1940-08-09
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and love
Take One False Step
1949-08-14
Catherine Sykes disappears after a midnight drive with Professor Andrew Gentling . When she's presum
Libeled Lady
1936-10-09
When a major newspaper accuses wealthy socialite Connie Allenbury of being a home-wrecker, and she f
The Heavenly Body
1944-03-23
The beautiful wife of a tweedy astronomer becomes convinced that her astrologer's prediction of a ne
My Man Godfrey
1936-09-02
Fifth Avenue socialite Irene Bullock needs a "forgotten man" to win a scavenger hunt, and no one is
One Way Passage
1932-10-04
A terminally ill woman and a debonair murderer facing execution meet and fall in love on a trans-Pac
Manhattan Melodrama
1934-05-04
The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and
Life with Father
1947-09-13
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really ru
After the Thin Man
1936-12-25
Nick and Nora Charles investigate when Nora's cousin reports her disreputable husband is missing, an
Shadow of the Thin Man
1941-11-21
High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigatin
Another Thin Man
1939-11-17
Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a
The Thin Man Goes Home
1944-12-24
On a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.
Song of the Thin Man
1947-08-28
Society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder in a jazz club.
Crossroads
1942-07-23
A French diplomat who's recovered from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.
The Great Ziegfeld
1936-04-08
At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, sideshow barker Florenz Ziegfeld turns the tables on his more-succ
Ziegfeld Follies
1945-08-26
The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his gr
The Senator Was Indiscreet
1947-12-31
A bumbling, long-winded and crooked Southern senator, considered by some as a dark horse for the Pre
Mister Roberts
1955-07-10
Mr. Roberts is a Navy officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of World War
High Pressure
1932-01-10
Gar Evans is a con artist, who pretends to be the owner of a "Golden Gate Artificial Rubber Company"
Private Detective 62
1933-06-10
A former government agent in France, who has failed at an assignment and been disavowed, is deported
The Benson Murder Case
1930-04-13
A ruthless, crooked stockbroker is murdered at his luxurious country estate, and detective Philo Van
Jewel Robbery
1932-07-08
A gentleman thief charms a Viennese baron's wife and also conducts a daring daylight robbery of a je
Reckless
1935-04-19
A theatrical star, born on the wrong side of the tracks, marries a drunken blue-blood millionaire.
The Canary Murder Case
1929-02-16
A beautiful showgirl, name "the Canary" is a scheming nightclub singer. Blackmailing is her game and
The Last Command
1928-01-21
A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983-02-25
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, war
Feel My Pulse
1928-02-26
A rich but hypochondriac heiress inherits a sanitarium. What she doesn't know is that it is a front
Sherlock Holmes
1922-03-07
Sherlock Holmes is a master at solving the most impenetrable mysteries, but he has his work cut out
When Knighthood Was in Flower
1922-09-15
Mary Tudor falls in love with a new arrival to court, Charles Brandon. She convinces her brother Kin
Romola
1924-12-06
In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as
The Treasure of Lost Canyon
1952-03-01
Young David, orphaned en route to California, falls into the hands of medicine-show rascal Baltimore
The Girl Who Had Everything
1953-03-27
Attorney's daughter falls for one of his gangster clients.
Dancing in the Dark
1949-12-02
Emery Slade was one of the brightest stars in Hollywood in 1932, but by 1949 his career has hit the
The Hoodlum Saint
1946-04-04
A former reporter comes back home after serving in the army during World War I and finds that it's m
It's a Big Country
1951-11-20
Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American prop
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
1948-08-11
As told to a psychiatrist: Mr. Peabody, a middle-aged Bostonian on vacation with his wife in the Car
Rendezvous
1935-10-25
A decoding expert tangles with enemy spies.
Star of Midnight
1935-04-19
When a dancer disappears from a theater, Clay Dalzell is asked to investigate, leading him on a tra
The Baroness and the Butler
1938-02-18
A Butler gets elected to the Hungarian parliament where he opposes his master's government.
The Emperor's Candlesticks
1937-07-02
Spies on opposite sides fall in love in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Evelyn Prentice
1934-11-09
A criminal lawyer's wife is blackmailed when she is falsely accused of infidelity.
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
1936-04-24
A doctor is driven into an investigation of sinister goings-on at a horse race track by his mystery
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
1937-02-19
A chic American jewel thief falls in love with one of her marks, an English lord.
The Key
1934-06-09
A British officer stationed in Ireland falls for the wife of an intelligence man.
Fashions of 1934
1934-02-14
When the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Sna
The Kennel Murder Case
1933-10-28
Philo Vance, accompanied by his prize-losing Scottish terrier, investigates the locked-room murder o
The Greene Murder Case
1929-08-11
Philo Vance investigates when a murderer preys upon members of a wealthy family on New York's Upper
Man of the World
1931-03-24
A young American girl visits Paris accompanied by her fiancee and her wealthy uncle. There she meets
The Four Feathers
1929-06-01
An Englishman (Richard Arlen) fights in the Sudan after receiving white feathers of cowardice from h
Paid to Love
1927-07-23
An American banker goes to a small Balkan country looking to invest his bank's money and shore up th
The Youngest Profession
1943-02-26
Best friends Joan and Patricia are teenage autograph seekers who spend most of their day bumping int
Nevada
1927-08-01
A once notorious gunfighter takes a respectable job on a ranch. "Nevada" is charged with protecting
Lawyer Man
1932-12-24
Idealistic attorney Anton Adam makes headlines when he successfully prosecutes a prominent New York
Interference
1928-11-04
Paramount's first all-talking picture, Interference was dismally directed by Roy Pomeroy, whose loft
Street of Chance
1930-02-08
'Natural' Davis (William Powell) is a respected gambler who follows a ruthless code of honor with th
Escapade
1935-07-05
A romantic comedy-drama-musical of mistaken identity, infidelity and farce, set in Vienna at the tur
Double Harness
1933-07-21
After tricking him into marriage, a woman tries to win the love of her philandering husband.
Beau Geste
1926-08-24
Michael "Beau" Geste leaves England in disgrace and joins the infamous French Foreign Legion. He is
Charming Sinners
1929-08-17
Charming Sinners was a stilted adaptation of Somerset Maugham's play The Constant Wife. Robert Miles
The Road to Singapore
1931-09-02
A woman's life falls to pieces when she's caught cheating on her husband.
Pointed Heels
1929-12-20
Fay Wray plays a beautiful showgirl who falls for a rich Park Avenue guy played by Phillips Holmes.
Behind the Make-Up
1930-01-18
Gardoni, a down-on-his-luck vaudeville performer, is taken in by a fellow performer, a clown who has
For the Defense
1930-07-19
William Foster is a slick attorney who stays within the law, but specializes in representing crooks
The Bright Shawl
1923-04-22
Charles Abbott is implicated in the death of his friend Escobar, brother to the woman he loves.
The Great Gatsby
1926-11-21
Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the myste
Ladies' Man
1931-04-16
A society gigolo goes after a rich mother and her daughter, but tries to find true happiness with hi
Going Hollywood: The '30s
1984-01-01
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were
Forgotten Faces
1928-08-05
A petty thief who robs the very rich at speakeasies, and gets away with it because the rich don't wa
The Runaway
1926-04-04
A movie actress, mistakenly thinking she has killed a fellow actor, goes on the run and finds hersel
Partners in Crime
1928-03-01
After being dismissed for imitating his boss's voice on radio, former Assistant District Attorney Ri
Shadow of the Law
1930-06-06
John Nelson, a well-to-do businessman, is escorting a woman he knows as Ethel Barry to the door of h
Special Delivery
1927-05-06
The second and last of Eddie Cantor's silent vehicles, Special Delivery casts the wide-eyed comedian
Paramount on Parade
1930-04-22
This 1930 film, a collection of songs and sketches showcasing Paramount Studios' contract stars, cre
Aloma of the South Seas
1926-05-15
A young South Seas native boy is sent to the U.S. for his education. He returns to his island after
The Big Parade of Comedy
1964-09-02
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
La Fiesta de Santa Barbara
1935-12-07
La Fiesta de Santa Barbara is a 1935 American comedy short film directed by Louis Lewyn. It was nomi
The Voice of Hollywood
1930-08-30
The Voice of Hollywood hosted by Pat O'Brien. Features Joan Blondell, Robert Montgomery, Elissa Land
Too Many Kisses
1925-01-11
Wanting his son to get away from his many girlfriends and buckle down to work, the New York industri
Dangerous Money
1924-10-13
Boardinghouse servant Adele Clark is unexpectedly awarded the ownership of a certain piece of New Yo
Under the Red Robe
1923-11-12
A young man is tasked by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu to capture one of the cardinal's enemies bu
Outcast
1922-12-07
A down-on-her luck streetwalker is ultimately redeemed by the love of a decent man.
Sea Horses
1926-02-22
Helen Salvia sets sail with her 4-year-old daughter for Panda, an isolated East African port, where
The Beautiful City
1925-10-25
For their mother's sake, a man takes the blame for a robbery committed by his brother and his brothe
Desert Gold
1926-03-22
George Thorne is a young army lieutenant at a border post. He is in love with Mercedes Castanada who
My Lady's Lips
1925-07-01
A newspaper publisher finds out that his wild daughter has fallen in with a ring of gamblers. A repo
White Mice
1926-01-31
Roddy Forrester has formed the White Mice club with a pal. The purpose of the club is to help those
Faint Perfume
1925-06-08
After a stormy six year marriage, Barnaby Powers divorces his wife Richmiel. She returns home, takin
Tin Gods
1926-09-19
In a mountain village in South America, Dr. McCoy and the padre watch Roger Drake enter a small chap
Love's Greatest Mistake
1927-02-20
On a train bound for New York, where she hopes to find work, Honey McNeil captures the appreciative
New York
1927-01-30
A product of the Bowery, Trent Regan grows up to become a powerful gangster. Regan's girlfriend Angi
She's a Sheik
1927-11-12
The daughter of a desert chief kidnaps a member of the French Foreign Legion in the hopes of wooing
Time to Love
1927-06-18
Alfred Sava-Goiu, who, after being dumped by his sweetheart, philosophically decides to end it all b
The Drag Net
1928-05-01
Captain Timothy 'Two Gun' Nolan is appointed head of the New York detective force, and as his first
The Vanishing Pioneer
1928-06-23
A western settlement of pioneer descendants is threatened with the loss of its water supply through
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975-08-06
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American ent
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
1940-05-29
This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976-05-16
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time includi
The Romance of Celluloid
1937-08-27
Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the m
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
1940-10-24
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind th
The Great Morgan
1945-01-01
Frank Morgan is hired to put together a movie using odds and ends from the MGM vaults. He does so by
From the Ends of the Earth
1939-05-28
An MGM short showing how materials are shipped by boat 'From the Ends of the Earth' to Hollywood. Fe
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
1986-03-09
In this tribute to her frequent co-star and longtime love, Katharine Hepburn hosts a behind-the-scen
Beau Sabreur
1928-01-22
The film is about a desert-bound member of the French Foreign Legion who exposes a betrayer to the L
William Powell: A True Gentleman
2005-08-02
A biography on the life of William Powell narrated by Michael York.
Twenty Years After
1944-01-01
This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
1990-06-04
This tribute to Myrna Loy is organized chronologically with a few photographs, many film clips, a ha
Senorita
1927-04-01
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
1987-03-13
Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
It's Showtime
1976-03-31
A collection of film clips profiling animal actors.
Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts
2017-06-14
The story of Italian cinema under Fascism, a sophisticated film industry built around the founding o
Jean Harlow: Platinum Bombshell
1996-05-20
Short documentary about Jean Harlow's life and career. Episode of A&E's Biography series.
The Love Story of Jean Harlow and William Powell
2023-02-20
The intertwined lives of Jean Harlow and William Powell, from childhood struggles to Hollywood stard