47 Facts About Tyrone Power

1.

Tyrone Power received his biggest accolades as a stage actor in John Brown's Body and Mister Roberts.

2.

Tyrone Power's sister, Ann Power, was born in 1915, after the family moved to California.

3.

Tyrone Power's mother was Roman Catholic, and her ancestry included the French-Canadian Reaume family and French from Alsace-Lorraine.

4.

Tyrone Power went to Cincinnati-area Catholic schools and graduated from Purcell High School in 1931.

5.

Tyrone Power joined his father for the summer of 1931, after being separated from him for some years due to his parents' divorce.

6.

Tyrone Power's father suffered a heart attack in December 1931, dying in his son's arms, while preparing to perform in The Miracle Man.

7.

Tyrone Power tried to find work as an actor, and, while many contacts knew his father well, they offered praise for his father but no work for his son.

8.

Tyrone Power appeared in a bit part in 1932 in Tom Brown of Culver, a movie starring actor Tom Brown.

9.

The director Henry King was impressed with his looks and poise, and he insisted that Tyrone Power be tested for the lead role in Lloyd's of London, a role thought already to belong to Don Ameche.

10.

Tyrone Power was billed fourth in the movie but he had by far the most screen time of any member of the cast.

11.

Tyrone Power walked into the premiere of the movie an unknown and he walked out a star, which he remained the rest of his career.

12.

Tyrone Power racked up hit after hit from 1936 until 1943, when his career was interrupted by military service.

13.

Tyrone Power was named the second biggest box-office draw in 1939, surpassed only by Mickey Rooney.

14.

In 1940, the direction of Tyrone Power's career took a dramatic turn when his movie The Mark of Zorro was released.

15.

Tyrone Power was a talented swordsman in real life, and the dueling scene in The Mark of Zorro is highly regarded.

16.

Tyrone Power could have fenced Errol Flynn into a cocked hat.

17.

Tyrone Power reported to the United States Marine Corps for training in late 1942, but was sent back, at the request of 20th Century-Fox, to complete one more film, Crash Dive, a patriotic war movie released in 1943.

18.

Tyrone Power was credited in the movie as Tyrone Power, USM.

19.

Tyrone Power attended boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, then Officer's Candidate School at Marine Corps Base Quantico, where he was commissioned a second lieutenant on June 2,1943.

20.

In July 1944, Tyrone Power was assigned to Marine Transport Squadron -352 as a R5C transport co-pilot at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina.

21.

Tyrone Power was later reassigned to VMR-353, joining them on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in February 1945.

22.

Tyrone Power returned to the United States in November 1945 and was released from active duty in January 1946.

23.

Tyrone Power was promoted to the rank of captain in the reserves on May 8,1951.

24.

Tyrone Power remained in the reserves the rest of his life and reached the rank of major in 1957.

25.

When Tyrone Power died suddenly at age 44, he was buried with full military honors.

26.

Darryl F Zanuck was reluctant for Power to make the movie because his handsome appearance and charming manner had been marketable assets for the studio for many years.

27.

Tyrone Power was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his costume roles, and he struggled between being a star and becoming a great actor.

28.

Tyrone Power was forced to take on assignments he found unappealing, such movies as American Guerrilla in the Philippines and Pony Soldier.

29.

Tyrone Power next appeared in Diplomatic Courier, a cold war spy drama directed by Henry Hathaway which received very modest reviews.

30.

Tyrone Power's movies had been highly profitable for Fox in the past, and as an enticement to renew his contract a third time, Fox offered him the lead role in The Robe.

31.

Tyrone Power turned it down and on 1 November 1952, he left on a ten-week national tour with John Brown's Body, a three-person dramatic reading of Stephen Vincent Benet's narrative poem, adapted and directed by Charles Laughton, featuring Power, Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey.

32.

Tyrone Power made The Mississippi Gambler for Universal-International, negotiating a deal entitling him to a percentage of the profits.

33.

Between November 1954 and April 1955, Tyrone Power toured the United States and Canada in the role, ending with 12 weeks at the ANTA Theater, New York, and two weeks at the Colonial Theater, Boston.

34.

For Tyrone Power's last completed film role he was cast against type as the accused murderer Leonard Vole in the first film version of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, directed by Billy Wilder.

35.

Tyrone Power returned to the stage in March 1958, to play the lead in Arnold Moss's adaptation of Shaw's 1921 play, Back to Methuselah.

36.

The couple tried to make their marriage work when Tyrone Power returned from military service, but they were unable to do so.

37.

On September 1,1947, Tyrone Power set out on another goodwill trip around the world, piloting his own plane, "The Geek".

38.

Tyrone Power flew with Bob Buck, another experienced pilot and war veteran.

39.

Buck stated in his autobiography that Tyrone Power had a photographic mind, was an excellent pilot, and genuinely liked people.

40.

However, in 1948 when "The Geek" reached Rome, Tyrone Power met and fell in love with Mexican actress Linda Christian.

41.

Turner claimed that it could not have been a coincidence that Linda Christian was at the same hotel as Tyrone Power and implied that Christian had obtained Power's itinerary from 20th Century-Fox.

42.

Tyrone Power entered into an affair with a British actress, Thelma Ruby.

43.

Tyrone Power's will, filed on December 8,1958, contained a then-unusual provision that his eyes be donated to the Estelle Doheny Eye Foundation for corneal transplantation or retinal study.

44.

Deborah Tyrone Power gave birth to a son on January 22,1959, two months after her husband's death.

45.

Tyrone Power remarried within the year to producer Arthur Loew Jr.

46.

Tyrone Power is shown on the cover of The Beatles' album Sgt.

47.

In 2018, Tyrone Power was ranked the 21st most popular male film star in history.