DICK POWELL
Dick Powell
- © Warner Bros.
- (Dick Powell in Gold Diggers of 1933, 1933)
Biography
BIO
Dick Powell was born Richard Ewing Powell in Mountain View, Arkansas, in 1904.
He started his entertainment career as a band vocalist and recorded a number of records in the late 1920's with The Charlie Davis Orchestra.
Warner Bros. signed him to a film contract in 1932, at the age of 28. He went on to star in such musicals as 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade often appearing opposite Ruby Keeler or Joan Blondell.
After musicals fell out of favor in the late 1930s, Powell was able to re-invent himself as a dramatic actor in the 1940s, starring in such film noir classics as Murder, My Sweet (1944). His last film appearance was in 1954.
Powell went on to appear on television and co-starred, along with David Niven, Charles Boyer and Ida Lupino, in the long-running Four Star Playhouse (1952-1956).
He teamed up again with Charles Boyer and David Niven to produce a Broadway play in 1977, but it closed after less than a week.
Powell was married three times:
- Mildred Maund (1925-1927), divorced;
- Joan Blondell, actress, 1936-1944, two children, divorced. He adopted Blondell’s son, Norman S. Powell, a film production manager. Their daughter is the film make-up artist Ellen Powell.
- June Allyson, actress/singer, 1945-1963, two children.
Powell died in Los Angeles from lymphoma in 1963, at the age of 58.
Additional Broadway stage history is available at: 
Additional biographical information is available at: 
