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Tyrone Power Jr. III (1913-1958)

Signed Photo with sentiment "Sincere best wishes Tyrone Power ", b/w 8x10 official '20th Century Fox Player' photo, nice.


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Tyrone Edmund Power Jr. (also called Tyrone Power III) 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 theatre (and later in films) in both classical and modern roles. His mother, Patia Riaume (Mrs. Tyrone Power), was also a Shakespearean actress as well as a respected dramatic coach.
It was during a grueling fight scene for the film, Solomon and Sheba (1959) that he suffered heart failure and died at a nearby Madrid hospital.

Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
In his prime, as a 20th Century-Fox star of the 1930s and early 1940s, this dark-haired, almost devilishly handsome star made millions of female hearts flutter every time he appeared on the big screen. He even had that effect on some of his distaff costars: Alice Faye once said kissing Power "was like dying and going to Heaven." And while he could hardly be considered one of filmdom's finest actors, Power got better as he got older, maturing into an able performer who could have ac complished even more had he not died so young.

The son of silent-movie actor Tyrone Power (who died in 1931 shortly after completing his only talkie, The Big Trail), he resolved at an early age to follow in his father's footsteps, acting on stage while still in his teens and making his movie debut as a cadet in Tom Brown of Culver (1932). He played bits in a few other films, including Flirtation Walk (1934), before being offered a contract by Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century-Fox. Power was assigned featured roles in Girls' Dormitory, Ladies in Love (both 1936), and Lloyd's of London (also 1936, as the grown-up character played as a youth by top-billed Freddie Bartholomew) before winning top billing in Love Is News (1937), an insipid comedy-romance that costarred Loretta Young. That same year they appeared together in two other films, Cafe Metropole and Second Honeymoon

In Old Chicago (1938), Henry King's epic of the Windy City at the time of the 1871 fire, had been planned for Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, who would have been loaned to Zanuck by MGM in exchange for the services of Shirley Temple. Harlow's sudden, tragic death scotched the deal, and Zanuck, to preserve his investment in the project, ordered director Henry King to cast the picture "in house." King selected Power and Alice Faye, with Zanuck's blessing (and, some say, his urging). The picture was a huge success, making Power a bona fide star at last. He, Faye, and costar Don Ameche were reunited for King's Alexander's Ragtime Band later that year; it was an even bigger hit. Power and Faye did it one more time, in Rose of Washington Square (1939), a barely disguised version of entertainer Fanny Brice's ill-fated marriage to gambler Nicky Arnstein; it too was a smash, despite Power's limning of a basically unsympathetic character.

Loaned to MGM for Marie Antoinette (1938), in which he starred opposite Norma Shearer, Power spent the next several years at Fox, racking up hit after hit: Suez (1938), Jesse James, The Rains Came, Second Fiddle, Day-Time Wife (all 1939), Johnny Apollo, Brigham YoungFrontiersman (both 1940), The Return of Frank James (1940, in a flashback of his death scene from the 1939 picture), The Mark of Zorro (also 1940, a superb remake of the Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckler with a dashing Power wielding his rapier with great aplomb), Blood and Sand (1941, another remake, this time of a bullfighting saga that originally starred Rudolph Valentino), A Yank in the RAF (also 1941, his only picture with top Fox star Betty Grable), Son of Fury, This Above All, The Black Swan (all 1942), and Crash Dive (1943).

Power then entered the armed services and remained there until the end of World War 2, distinguishing himself in action. He returned from the conflict a changed man, his once-boyish face sporting noticeable lines and a grim cast. Picking up at Fox where he'd left off, Power starred in the film version of Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge (1946), his own experience lending credibility to his performance as the weary protagonist seeking truth and goodness. He played an outright rotter in Nightmare Alley (1947), one of his best parts, as a manipulative mindreader at a successful carnival. Captain From Castile (also 1947), a sober adventure film, was one of his biggest successes of the postwar period. The remainder of his Fox films, however, were a mixed bag. Still a compelling figure on-screen, the star seemed increasingly tired and listless (although some of that was written into his characters): The Luck of the Irish, That Wonderful Urge (both 1948), Prince of Foxes (1949), The Black Rose, An American Guerilla in the Philippines (both 1950), Rawhide, I'll Never Forget You (both 1951), Diplomatic Courier, Pony Soldier (both 1952), and King of the Khyber Rifles (1953).

Director John Ford pressed him into service for his West Point story, The Long Gray Line (1955), and he played the famous pianist in The Eddy Duchin Story (1956). His last year on-screen, 1957, saw the release of three fine films, better than most he'd made that decade. Abandon Ship! was a taut drama about luxury-liner passengers set adrift in a small lifeboat. The Sun Also Rises adapted from Ernest Hemingway's classic "lost generation" novel, featured a perfectly cast Power as Jake Barnes, the story's tragic protagonist. And he contributed a tour de force in his characterization of the murder suspect in Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution adapted from Agatha Christie's short story and play. Increasingly tired and nervous, drinking heavily and not taking care of himself, Power went overseas to shoot the Biblical epic Solomon and Sheba but died of a heart attack while on location; his scenes were reshot with Yul Brynner in the role. Power's three wives included actresses Annabella (1939-48) and Linda Christian (1949-55); his daughter by Christian, Taryn, was an actress during the 1970s. Tyrone Power, Jr., has also made a stab at movies, with such films as Cocoon (1985) and Shag (1989) to his credit.

Copyright © 1994 Leonard Maltin

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