- Born
- Died
- Birth nameTyrone Edmund Power Jr.
- Nickname
- Ty
- Height5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
- Tyrone Power was one of the great romantic swashbuckling stars of the
mid-twentieth century, and the third Tyrone Power of four in a famed
acting dynasty reaching back to the eighteenth century. His
great-grandfather was the first Tyrone Power (1795-1841), a famed Irish
comedian. His father, known to historians as
Tyrone Power Sr., but to his
contemporaries as either Tyrone Power or Tyrone Power the Younger, was
a huge star in the theater (and later in films) in both classical and
modern roles. His mother, Helen Emma "Patia" (née Reaume),
(Mrs. Tyrone Power), was also a
Shakespearean actress as well as a respected dramatic coach.
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr., (also called Tyrone Power III) was born at
his mother's home of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1914. His ancestry included
English, Irish, German, French Huguenot, and French-Canadian. A frail,
sickly child, he was taken by his parents to the warmer climate of
southern California. After his parents' divorce, he and his sister
Anne Power returned to Cincinnati
with their mother. There he attended school while developing an
obsession with acting. Although raised by his mother, he corresponded
with his father, who encouraged his acting dreams. He was a
supernumerary in his father's stage production of 'The Merchant of
Venice' in Chicago and held him as he died suddenly of a heart attack
later that year.
Startlingly handsome, young Tyrone nevertheless struggled to find work
in Hollywood. He appeared in a few small roles, then went east to do
stage work. A screen test led to a contract at 20th Century Fox in
1936, and he quickly progressed to leading roles. Within a year or so,
he was one of Fox's leading stars, playing in contemporary and period
pieces with ease. Most of his roles were colorful without being deep,
and his swordplay was more praised than his wordplay. He served in the
Marine Corps in World War II as a transport pilot, and he saw action in
the Pacific Theater of operations.
After the war, he got his best reviews for an atypical part as a
downward-spiraling con-man in
Nightmare Alley (1947). Although
he remained a huge star, much of his postwar work was unremarkable. He
continued to do notable stage work and also began producing films.
Following a fine performance in
Billy Wilder's
Witness for the Prosecution (1957),
Power began production on
Solomon and Sheba (1959).
Halfway through shooting, he suffered a heart attack during a dueling scene with
George Sanders and died before reaching a hospital.
His three children, including his namesake, Tyrone William Power IV
(known professionally as
Tyrone Power Jr.), have all followed
him in the family acting tradition.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
- SpousesDeborah Jean Smith Minardos(May 7, 1958 - November 15, 1958) (his death, 1 child)Linda Christian(January 27, 1949 - August 7, 1956) (divorced, 2 children)Annabella(April 23, 1939 - January 26, 1948) (divorced)
- Children
- ParentsHelen Reaume
- RelativesRomina Carrisi Power(Grandchild)
- Licensing: Movie Memories
- Kept a copy of all the scripts from his movies and had them bound.
- During the filming of Jesse James (1939) he had a fling with a
local girl who got pregnant and put the child, a boy, up for adoption.
Power spent a small fortune in the 1940s searching for the child, without
success. - His heart attack was due to hereditary heart disease and heavy smoking.
- As a US Marine Corps pilot in World War II, he flew supplies into and
wounded troops out of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. - When romance novelist Barbara Cartland was asked how she could write such steamy
books while still a virgin, she answered, "We didn't need sex. We had
Tyrone Power".
- Fox did a lot for me, and I like to think the feeling is mutual. Let's face it, though. I've done an awful lot of stuff that's a monument to public patience.
- [to Mai Zetterling:] I'm sick of all these knights in shining armor parts, I want to do something worthwhile like plays and films that have something to say.
- [to Mai Zetterling:] Some day I will show all the motherfuckers who say I was a success just because of my pretty face. Sometimes I wish I had a really bad car accident so my face would get smashed up and I'd look like Eddie Constantine. It's so tiring being everybody's darling boy at my age ... I know I've been lucky, that things have gone almost too smoothly career-wise. What I resent about it is that it is all built on a pretty face. Hollywood was such a crazy place, made you feel terrific at times. You felt you could achieve anything because you were treated like a god. But it sure was a bum place too. When you saw the new faces queuing up, like bloody comets, who would strike the screen and leave an old worshiped star obsolete in no time. Nobody will ever understand what this did to people, how it destroyed them, made them hollow ... Jesus Christ, I don't want to become an ageless matinée idol, having to keep up my looks, lift my chin like Marlene and never dare smile in case my face cracks.
- I have been asked whether I believe that World War II is the last war. Let me answer by a question: Do you think human beings are any better today than they have been?
- I'm not sure what faith is. If by it is meant a blind acceptance of "things not seen," then I think that perhaps I am a man without faith. On the other hand, there was a poet who said: "There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds." By that definition I am a man of great faith, for I have many honest doubts.
- Witness for the Prosecution (1958) - $300,000 + % of gross
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