Tyrone Power

On Nov 14-16, 2008, an event was held at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre to mark the 50th anniversary of his untimely passing. Four of his films were screened: Love Is News (1937), The Mark of Zorro (1940), The Razor's Edge (1946) and Nightmare Alley (1947). In attendance were his children, Tyrone Power Jr., Romina Power and Taryn Power. Also attending were several actors who worked with him, including Coleen Gray, Piper Laurie, Terry Moore and Jayne Meadows.

Has his own chapter, "Disillusioned: Tyrone Power" in "The Star Machine" by Jeanine Basinger, Alfred J. Knopf Publishers, 2007.

Charlton Heston wrote in his 1995 autobiography "In the Arena" that while filming Ben-Hur (1959) he was shocked to learn of Power's sudden death, especially since the actor was only a decade older than him. He said the incident made him think about his own mortality for the first time.

In her 1982 autobiography "Lana: The Lady, The Legend, The Truth", Lana Turner revealed that she had gotten pregnant by Power in December 1946. When Power's wife Annabella refused to give him a divorce, Turner was forced to undergo an abortion or face them both losing their respective careers.

His last complete work was a public-service announcement for television (in which he appeared on a motion-picture set in costume) about spotting the signs of a heart attack and going to the hospital to have a doctor check it out. The film still exists and has been shown in biographical tributes. Power died of a heart attack while filming Solomon and Sheba (1959) shortly after the public-service spot first aired.

He originally turned down the part of "Leonard Vole" in Witness for the Prosecution (1957) due to depression over his film career. He was doing a lot of stage work and told Billy Wilder that he wasn't sure he ever wanted to make another film. Without Power, Wilder dropped the project, as they needed a star of his magnitude. Later, the producers went back to him and offered him $300,000 plus a percentage of the film, and he agreed to do it.

Friend of Eddy Duchin. Portrayed Duchin in The Eddy Duchin Story (1956) and like Duchin, died at a young age.

He was originally cast in Richard Burton's role in The Robe (1953).

In Dreamboat (1952), a large photo of Power is prominently displayed on the wall of the agency Clifton Webb and Anne Francis enter in New York City.

Children: Romina Francesca born 2 October 1951, Taryn born 13 September 1953 and Tyrone William born 22 January 1959 were all born at Cedars Hospital, Los Angeles, California.

When he was working on forming a theater company in Europe in the 1950s, he hired author Nora Sayre to read plays. She writes about that time in her book, "On the Wing," and about Power's relationship with girlfriend Mai Zetterling and the woman who was to become his third wife, Debbie Minardos.

He gave a commencement speech at the University of Tampa in 1948. He was awarded an honorary degree in the Arts.

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.

Was involved in an illicit affair with Judy Garland that ended when he would not leave his wife for her (January-May 1943).

Cartoon artist C.C. Beck, on the Marvel Comics website, states that several characters in the Captain Marvel series were based on film stars. The mighty Egyptian magician Ibis the Invincible, who was featured in every issue of Whiz Comics, was based on Tyrone Power as he appeared in The Rains Came (1939).

His 1938 Photoplay cover is the first shot in the film Enter Laughing (1967).

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.

Played a West Point cadet (uncredited) in Flirtation Walk (1934). Twenty-one years later he starred in The Long Gray Line (1955), again about West Point, but this time as the legendary enlisted man, Martin "Marty" Maher, whose service to the Academy will never be forgotten.

Both he and his father Tyrone Power Sr. died while "on the job", requiring their roles to be recast and re-shot--his father in The Miracle Man (1932) (replaced by Hobart Bosworth) and he in Solomon and Sheba (1959) (replaced by Yul Brynner).

The novel "Quicksilver" by Fitzroy Davis chronicles, in fictional form, a tour of "Romeo & Juliet" with Katharine Cornell that Power was with in the 1930s before going to Hollywood. Others in the cast included, at various times, Orson Welles, Brian Aherne and Basil Rathbone. All the names have been changed but many of the stories in the book did actually happen. When Aherne joined the cast, Welles was demoted, taking over Power's role, and Power moved into a smaller one. This is included in the book. It was a best-seller, written in 1942 after many of the actors had Hollywood success, and the story goes that Cornell tried to buy up all of the copies. Given that Davis knew these actors' fates by the time he wrote the book, it's easier to figure out who was who, though it appears the author did mix various traits among the characters in order to make the actors less recognizable.

In 1920, lived at 212 S. Cordova Street, Alhambra, California.

, (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.

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.