Biography for
Dick Powell (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

14 November 1904, Mountain View, Arkansas, USA

Date of Death

2 January 1963, West Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer of the lymph glands)

Birth Name

Richard Ewing Powell

Height

6' (1.83 m)

Mini Biography

In the 1930s , Dick Powell was the juvenile lead in the Warner backstage musicals opposite such rising stars as Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell. After his career in musicals, he was cast in private-eye roles and became a producer and director for both TV and movies.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>

Spouse

June Allyson	(19 August 1945 - 2 January 1963) (his death) 2 children
Joan Blondell	(19 September 1936 - 14 July 1944) (divorced) 1 child
Maude Maund	(1925 - 1927) (divorced)

Trivia

He was a vocalist with Charlie Davis's orchestra before entering film.

Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA.

Father of Ellen Powell, from his marriage to Joan Blondell. He adopted Joan's son, Norman S. Powell in February 1938.

Died on the same day as Jack Carson. They had different forms of cancer.

Father of Dick Powell Jr. from his marriage to June Allyson.

His parents were Ewing and Sallie Rowena Thompson Powell.

His brother Luther Powell was born October 30, 1906, and died August 15, 1996. His brother Howard Smith Powell was born October 13, 1899, and died in January, 1986.

He was yet another casualty of the 1956 film The Conqueror (1956) filmed near a nuclear test site in Utah. Many of the people involved with the film, including Powell, who directed, eventually died of cancer, either caused by, or exacerbated by, working on it. Others included actors John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Ted de Corsia, and Agnes Moorehead.

His daughter Pamela Powell was adopted during his marriage to June Allyson.

As of early 2007, his birthplace in the small town of Mountain View, AR still stands on the north side of Main Street. It's a modest circa 1895 house (sadly in a state of benign neglect) with a wraparound porch with a small historical marker and a badly weathered display out in front that details his 1936 engagement to Joan Blondell, marriage to June Allyson and more recent death of his brother.

His estate was reportedly valued at $10,000,000 at the time of his death.

In the 1940s he sold his 55-foot yacht, Santana, to lifelong sailing enthusiast Humphrey Bogart. The vessel subsequently achieved celebrity status as "Bogie's Boat" due to his numerous seafaring expeditions, and Bogart even named his production company, Santana Productions, after it.

In The Day of the Locust (1975), Powell was portrayed by his son Dick Powell Jr..

Featured in "Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir" by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry (McFarland, 2003).

He was awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard, for Television at 6745 Hollywood Boulevard, and for Radio at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.

He was a lifelong member of the Republican party.

Personal Quotes

The best thing about switching from being an actor to being a director is that you don't have to shave or hold your stomach in anymore.

[observation, 1936] I'm not a kid anymore but I'm still playing boy scouts.