William Powell

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.

Known For	Acting
Most Rating	6.072
Birthday	1892-07-28
Place of Birth	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Also Known As	William H. Powell, Уильям Пауэлл,

How to Marry a Millionaire

The Thin Man

Love Crazy

Double Wedding

I Love You Again

Take One False Step

Libeled Lady

The Heavenly Body

My Man Godfrey

One Way Passage

Manhattan Melodrama

Life with Father

After the Thin Man

Shadow of the Thin Man

Another Thin Man

The Thin Man Goes Home

Song of the Thin Man

Crossroads

The Great Ziegfeld

Ziegfeld Follies

The Senator Was Indiscreet

Mister Roberts

High Pressure

Private Detective 62

The Benson Murder Case

Jewel Robbery

Reckless

The Canary Murder Case

The Last Command

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage

Feel My Pulse

Sherlock Holmes

When Knighthood Was in Flower

Romola

The Treasure of Lost Canyon

The Girl Who Had Everything

Dancing in the Dark

The Hoodlum Saint

It's a Big Country

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid

Rendezvous

Star of Midnight

The Baroness and the Butler

The Emperor's Candlesticks

Evelyn Prentice

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

The Key

Fashions of 1934

The Kennel Murder Case

The Greene Murder Case

Man of the World

The Four Feathers

Paid to Love

The Youngest Profession

Nevada

Lawyer Man

Interference

Street of Chance

Escapade

Double Harness

Beau Geste

Charming Sinners

The Road to Singapore

Pointed Heels

Behind the Make-Up

For the Defense

The Bright Shawl

The Great Gatsby

Ladies' Man

Going Hollywood: The '30s

Hollywood: The Selznick Years

Forgotten Faces

The Runaway

Partners in Crime

Shadow of the Law

Special Delivery

Paramount on Parade

Aloma of the South Seas

The Big Parade of Comedy