30 Years of Brilliance: 1930-1959
William Powell
William Powell, following drama school and a stint in vaudeville and on Broadway, made his screen debut in 'Sherlock Holmes' in 1922. Employed by Paramount Pictures in 1924, he was kept busy throughout the 1920's, often in period pictures as nobles, rogues, and supporting rotters. Given his later suave image, it is a surprise that in 'The Great Gatsby' in 1926, he played the gas station owner rather than one of the upper class leads.
With clipped moustache, smooth manner, fine voice, and cynical eye-wink, he was well suited to drawing rooms and cocktail cabinets in the talkies. In 'The Canary Murder Case' in 1929, he was Philo Vance, annoying know-it-all society sleuth - a role he reprised several times.
Powell soon grew tired of his Paramount roles, so in 1931 he defected to Warner Brothers. In 'The Thin Man' in 1934, he played another detective, Nick Charles, who works his cases while in a perpetual alcoholic stupor and has a cute relationship with witty wife Nora, played by Myrna Loy. It won him the first of three Oscar nominations for Best Actor. Powell and Loy teamed up again in a series that stretched to 'Song of the Thin Man' in 1947, and Nick slowly matured from drunken sot to fatherly buffoon.
Powell had two other Academy Award-nominated roles as the butler in 'My Man Godfrey' in 1936 and the father in 'Life with Father' in 1947. But he is perhaps at his best in still-underrated quick-fire comedies such as 'Libeled Lady' in 1936 and 'I Love You Again' in 1940. In his personal life, he was famed for his penchant for romancing his co-stars: Eileen Wilson (his first wife), Carole Lombard (his second wife), Jean Harlow, and Diana Lewis. Powell quit acting at age sixty-three and refused many comeback role offers, spending the rest of his life in retirement with his third wife, Lewis.
