Richard Ewing Powell was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head.
26 Facts About Dick Powell
2.
Dick Powell was the first actor to portray private detective Philip Marlowe on screen.
3.
Dick Powell was born the middle of three sons of mother Sally Rowena in Mountain View, the seat of Stone County in northern Arkansas.
4.
Dick Powell attended the former Little Rock College before he started his entertainment career as a singer with the Royal Peacock Band, which toured throughout the Midwest.
5.
Dick Powell recorded a number of records with Davis and on his own for the Vocalion label in the late 1920s.
6.
Dick Powell moved to Pittsburgh, where he found great local success as the master of ceremonies at the Enright Theater and the Stanley Theater.
7.
Dick Powell made his film debut as a singing bandleader in Blessed Event.
8.
Dick Powell was borrowed by Fox Film to support Will Rogers in Too Busy to Work.
9.
Dick Powell was a boyish crooner, the sort of role in which he specialized for the next few years.
10.
Dick Powell was upped to star for College Coach, then went back to more ensemble pieces including 42nd Street, Convention City, Wonder Bar, Twenty Million Sweethearts, and Dames.
11.
Dick Powell was top-billed in Gold Diggers of 1935 and Broadway Gondolier, both with Joan Blondell.
12.
Dick Powell supported Marion Davies in Page Miss Glory, made for Cosmopolitan Pictures, a production company financed by Davies' lover William Randolph Hearst, who released through WB.
13.
Dick Powell was reunited with Marion Davies in another for Cosmopolitan, Hearts Divided, playing Napoleon's brother.
14.
Dick Powell made two films with Blondell, Stage Struck and Gold Diggers of 1937.
15.
Dick Powell lost out to Fred MacMurray, another Hollywood nice guy.
16.
Dick Powell's career changed dramatically when he was cast in the first of a series of films noir, as private detective Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, directed by Edward Dmytryk at RKO.
17.
Dick Powell broadened his range appearing in a Western, Station West and a French Foreign Legion tale, Rogues' Regiment.
18.
Dick Powell's character in the 30-minute weekly show was a likable private detective with a quick wit.
19.
Dick Powell returned to comedy with You Never Can Tell.
20.
Dick Powell followed it with The Conqueror, coproduced by Howard Hughes and starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan.
21.
Dick Powell directed Allyson opposite Jack Lemmon in You Can't Run Away from It.
22.
Dick Powell then made two war films at Fox with Robert Mitchum, The Enemy Below and The Hunters.
23.
Dick Powell appeared in and supervised several shows for that company.
24.
Dick Powell was a friend of Hart to Hart actor Robert Wagner and producer Aaron Spelling.
25.
Dick Powell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard.
26.
Dick Powell was the first actor to play private detective Philip Marlowe on radio, in 1945.