16 Facts About William Powell

1.

In 1907, young William Powell moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated from Central High School four years later.

2.

In 1912, William Powell left the AADA at the end of one year, and worked in several vaudeville and stock companies.

3.

William Powell later performed as Francis I in When Knighthood Was in Flower with Marion Davies, which was considered the most expensive film production to date.

4.

Under contract to Paramount throughout most of the 1920s, William Powell played villains in the early part of his career.

5.

William Powell played Philo Vance at Paramount Pictures three more times, and once at Warner's in his final appearance in the role in The Kennel Murder Case.

6.

William Powell sensed that I was in awe of him, so from the start, he did what he could to put me at ease.

7.

Loy and William Powell starred in the Best Picture of 1936, The Great Ziegfeld, with William Powell in the title role and Loy as Ziegfeld's wife Billie Burke.

8.

William Powell's career slowed considerably in the 1940s, although he received his third Academy Award nomination in 1947 for his role as the formidable Clarence Day Sr.

9.

William Powell's son became a television writer and producer before a period of ill health and depression led to his suicide in 1968.

10.

William Powell was devastated by her death in an airplane crash in 1942.

11.

William Powell was engaged to marry Jean Harlow, his co-star in Reckless, until her sudden death in 1937.

12.

On January 6,1940, three weeks after they met, William Powell married his third wife, actress Diana Lewis, to whom he remained married until his death in 1984.

13.

William Powell underwent surgery and experimental radium treatment, which put the disease in full remission within two years.

14.

William Powell died in Palm Springs, California, on March 5,1984, at the age of 91 from pneumonia, nearly 30 years after his retirement.

15.

William Powell is buried at the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California, near his third wife Diana Lewis, and his only child, son William David Powell.

16.

William Powell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1636 Vine Street.