Michael Latham Powell was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger.
19 Facts About Michael Powell
2.
Michael Powell has been played on screen by Alastair Thomson Mills in the award-winning short film Oran na h-Eala which explores Moira Shearer's life-changing decision to appear in The Red Shoes.
3.
Michael Powell was born in Bekesbourne, Kent, and educated at The King's School, Canterbury and then at Dulwich College.
4.
Michael Powell started work at the National Provincial Bank in 1922 but quickly realised he was not cut out to be a banker.
5.
Michael Powell entered the film industry in 1925 through working with director Rex Ingram at the Victorine Studios in Nice, France.
6.
Michael Powell first started out as a general studio hand, the proverbial "gofer": sweeping the floor, making coffee, fetching and carrying.
7.
Michael Powell made his film debut as a "comic English tourist" in The Magician.
8.
Michael Powell signed on in a similar role on Hitchcock's first "talkie", Blackmail.
9.
From 1931 to 1936, Michael Powell was the director of 23 films, including the critically received Red Ensign and The Phantom Light.
10.
In 1937 Michael Powell completed his first truly personal project, The Edge of the World.
11.
Michael Powell gathered together a cast and crew who were willing to take part in an expedition to what was then a very isolated part of the UK.
12.
Nonetheless, Michael Powell was brought in to save a film that was being made as a vehicle for two of Korda's star players, Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson.
13.
The film was The Spy in Black, where Michael Powell first met Emeric Pressburger in 1939.
14.
Michael Powell had stood Storer Clouston's plot on its head and completely restructured the film.
15.
Michael Powell's films came to have a cult reputation, broadened during the 1970s and early 1980s by a series of retrospectives and rediscoveries, as well as further articles and books.
16.
In 1927 Michael Powell married Gloria Mary Rouger, an American dancer; they were married in France and stayed together for only three weeks.
17.
Michael Powell lived with actress Pamela Brown for many years until her death from cancer in 1975.
18.
Subsequently, Michael Powell was married to film editor Thelma Schoonmaker from 19 May 1984 until his own death from cancer at his home in Avening, Gloucestershire.
19.
Michael Powell's niece was the Australian actress Cornelia Frances, who appeared in bit parts in her uncle's early films.