Dick Powell

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Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell (born November 14, 1904 in Mountain View , Arkansas , † January 2, 1963 in West Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor , singer , director and film producer . Powell made his breakthrough with leading roles in the cheerful musical films by Busby Berkeley . He later underwent an image change and became a major actor in film noir . From the 1950s he also worked as a director.

Life

In 1914 the family moved to Little Rock , where Powell grew up with two brothers. He began his career as a singer and musician in various bands, where he was discovered by agents of the Warner Brothers film studio and signed a contract there in 1932. In 1933 he became known alongside Ruby Keeler in musicals such as 42nd Street , Parade in the Spotlight and 1933 Gold Digger . In 1935 he took on the role of Lysander in Max Reinhardt 's Shakespeare film A Midsummer Night's Dream . In later films like Stage Struck or Gold Diggers of 1937 was Joan Blondell his partner, whom he married 1936th To his chagrin, Powell was committed to the easy role at an early age and primarily embodied youthful and cheerful lovers. Often his film appearances also included vocal parts. In 1940 he switched to Paramount Pictures , initially without being able to shed his image. So he applied in vain for the male lead in the film noir woman without a conscience .

In 1944 Powell finally managed the successful image change as die-hard private detective Philip Marlowe in the RKO production Murder, My Sweet . Raymond Chandler , the author of the novel, described Powell's harsh and vulnerable portrayal as the closest to his intentions. In the same year Powell and Joan Blondell divorced, in 1945 he married June Allyson . In the following years Powell established himself as a performer of dramatic roles in film noirs such as Cornered , Johnny O'Clock and Cry Danger .

In 1952 he founded the television production company "Four Star Productions" with Charles Boyer and David Niven, which Ida Lupino joined in 1956 . Four Star Productions gave newbies like Sam Peckinpah , Aaron Spelling and Frank Baur the opportunity to direct or produce. Powell directed several films himself, the best known of which is the war film Duel in the Atlantic . From 1961 until his death, he starred in his own television series The Dick Powell Show , which ran with great success on NBC .

Personal life and honors

On September 27, 1962, Powell invited journalists to a press conference at his home in Beverly Hills and announced that he was undergoing cancer treatment and confident that he would be beating cancer. Just a little over three months later, Powell died at the age of 58 of the disease, which was probably the sequel to radioactive contamination that he contracted while filming his film The Conqueror . The shooting took place near a nuclear weapons test site in the Nevada desert . Of the 220-strong crew and cast, 91 died of various forms of cancer.

Although Dick Powell repeatedly shot with left-wing filmmakers such as Edward Dmytryk and Robert Rossen , he himself belonged to the conservative camp. He was with Ronald Reagan friends and supported the 1960 presidential campaign of Richard Nixon .

Powell was honored with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in the film, television and radio categories . The addresses are 6915 Hollywood Boulevard, 6745 Hollywood Boulevard and 1560 Vine Street. In the film The Day of the Locust by John Schlesinger , he was played in 1975 by his son Dick Powell junior. The actor was married three times, to Mildred Maund from 1925 to 1927, then to actress Joan Blondell . This marriage lasted from 1936 to 1944 and was then divorced. The last marriage to June Allyson lasted from 1945 until Powell's death.

Filmography (selection)

actor

Director

Web links

Commons : Dick Powell  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Film World Mourns Dick Powell; Jack Carson , St. Petersburg Times. January 4, 1963. Retrieved February 8, 2013. 
  2. ↑ Matthew Kennedy: Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes. University Press of Mississippi, 2007, pp. 74-79, p. 96.
  3. ^ A b Gene D. Phillips: Out of the Shadows: Expanding the Canon of Classic Film Noir. Scarecrow Press / Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-8189-1 , pages 32-41.
  4. ↑ David Weddle: "If They Move… Kill 'Em!" The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah. Grove Press, New York 1994, p. 170.
  5. ↑ Michele Hilmes: Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States. Wadsworth, Boston 2011, p. 192.
  6. ^ A Profile of Dick Powell , The San Francisco Examiner , October 2, 1962, p. 29, accessed January 23, 2020
  7. ^ Richard Lee Miller, Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing. Two Sixty Press, The Woodlands (Texas) 1991, p. 187.
  8. ↑ William E. Pembeton: Exit With Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk (NY) 1998, p. 30.
  9. ↑ Scott Harrison: Get your Nixon bumper stickers! Article on the Los Angeles Times website on May 15, 2012, accessed February 27, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Powell, Dick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Powell, Richard Ewing (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Mountain View , Arkansas, United States
DATE OF DEATH 2nd January 1963
Place of death West Los Angeles , California, United States