Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 3, 1913, Tyrone Edmond Power Jr. came from a long line of actors. This very handsome man was the third Tyrone Power of four in an acting dynasty that dated back to the 18th century. His great grandfather was an Irish comedian, his father, Tyrone Power Sr., was a huge star in theater and in films and his mother (Patia Riaume) was also a Shakespearean actress as well as a respected drama coach.
As a child he was frail and sickly and his parents took him to California because of the warmer climate. His parents divorced after which he and his sister, Anne, returned to Ohio with their mother. Tyrone maintained a relationship with his father who encouraged his early dreams of becoming an actor. He appeared in his father’s stage production of “The Merchant of Venice” in Chicago and held him as he died of a heart attack on the set of a film, a fate that would befall him less than 30 years later.
He got a few small roles in minor films, but steady work in Hollywood was elusive despite his awesome good looks. In 1936, after a screen test, Twentieth Century Fox offered him a contract. He soon catapulted to leading roles and within a year, he was one of Fox’s leading stars. He was not an actor of tremendous caliber or range and most of his roles were superficial albeit colorful, displaying his fine face and figure. He joined the Marines Corp in World War II and was sent to the South Pacific.
After the war, he sought deeper roles and got his best reviews for “Nightmare Alley” (1947) in which he portrayed a con man. Despite this and his enormous stardom, he still could not land those roles that required real skill and dramatic talent. He worked on stage and also produced films. Perhaps his best performance of the 1950s was in Billy Wilder’s “Witness For the Prosecution.” (1957). In Madrid, Spain, on November 15, 1958, during a dueling scene with George Sanders on the set of “Solomon and Sheba,” Tyrone Power collapsed and died of a heart attack before reaching the hospital.
He was only 45 years old when he died and he left three children, all of whom have followed their famous father in the acting tradition.
What are some of YOUR favorite Tyrone Power performances?