William Powell was at the top of his profession when he appeared in The Thin Man in 1934. He was perfectly cast as the suave Nick Charles, and that is how many of us think of him. But Bill was 42 by that time, having been acting for 22 years, since 1912 on the New York stage and since 1922 in the movies. It took him a while to be able to so convincingly play that character.
Below is Bill in Shadow of the Law (1930) portraying a businessman charged for murder. He is innocent but the witness who can help him prove it has disappeared. No humor and martinis in that role.
In 1926, Bill appeared in White Mice. Neither IMDB nor Wiki has a plot line for the movie. Can't even determine exactly what is going on in this photo. BUT, it does prove that Bill was not born with a mustache. He is already 34, but looks a lot younger. Still .... I'm glad he decided on the mustache. (Montgomery, on the other hand...)
Posts
2 comments:
The marvelous Mr. Powell's film career lasted from 1922 (Sherlock Holmes with John Barrymore) to 1955 (Mr. Roberts with Henry Fonda and James Cagney). Mr. Powell himself lasted 91 years (Born 1892 and died 1984 at the age of 91). He didn't work from part of 1937 to 1939 due to cancer treatment and his grief over Jean Harlow's death. He was a treasure! I've never read anything bad about him from his fellow actors (or his ex-wives for that matter). (Oh, and Kathy, I'm in total agreement on the moustache issue regarding Mr. Powell (yay) and Mr. Montgomery (nay).) lol
I've read a little about his cancer treatment, they tried a rather experimental method. And it appears that it worked! Lucky man. Yeah, how could anyone not like William Powell.
Post a Comment