Tyrone Power

Born in Cincinnati (Ohio), on May 5, 1914, Tyrone Edmund Power – Tyrone Power III – came from a family of actors whose most illustrious ascendant had been Tyrone Power I, who amassed immense prestige in 19th-century Ireland. For his part, the future Hollywood star was a sickly boy, marked by the divorce of his parents, who, although he relied mainly on the mother figure, admired the acting talent of Tyrone Power II , his father.

Determined to follow in his footsteps, the boy enrolled in the New York School of Dramatic Art. When he finished his studies, Tyrone Sr. (the clan didn’t put much effort into finding names) offered to give him a push since he was well connected, and the two of them shared stages. But when this veteran actor of titles like The Big Journey was rehearsing his role for The Miracle Man with Sylvia Sidney , he suffered a heart attack that caused him to die suddenly in the arms of his son, a harbinger of the sad end, also with his boots on. , which awaited him.

At that time, the young man had already made a name for himself in Hollywood, but he was established mainly when the director Henry King was dazzled by his talent when he was preparing the casting for Lloyds of London , to the point that he insisted on giving him one of the main roles, to despite the fact that Don Ameche had been hired for the same . It wasn’t easy convincing the producer, Darryl F. Zanuck, to trade a star for an unknown. But the actor shone, sharing character –at different ages– with the British child prodigy Freddie Bartholomewat the height of his popularity. And although Power was listed fourth in the credits and posters, he was the performer who spent the most time on screen, and the one who attracted the most attention from viewers.

After the success of the film, Fox offered him a permanent contract, and the actor repeated with the same director, King, in the sibling rivalry drama Chicago (1937) and in the excellent western Land of the Bold , where he played the outlaw Jesse James, along with the unrepeatable Henry Fonda , who was his brother Frank on the screen. The production company saw Power’s enormous potential, casting him in charge of a series of highly successful films that cemented the actor’s rise to the top of “swashbuckling,” as the cape genre is known in Hollywood. and sword.

His greatest success in this area was Rouben Mamoulian ‘s El signo del Zorro , where he played the highly celebrated masked hero in 1940, exactly two decades before the birth of Antonio Banderas . The villain, none other than the mythical Basil Rathbone , a skilled fencer, praised his skills in handling steel. “Tyrone Power was the most agile swordsman I’ve ever faced. He’d give a good brush up on Errol Flynn ,” he commented, citing the actor he himself had previously faced in the mythical Robin of the Woods .

Reporting back to King, Power made the most of his adventurous image in Black Swan , Captain Castile ,  The Prince of Foxes and Caravan South . In 1939 he married the French actress Suzanne Georgette Charpentier, artistically known as Annabella , whom he had met while filming the historical drama Suez . He separated from her in 1948, after her eldest daughter, Ann, was born. Later he had two other daughters (the singer Romina Power and the short-lived actress Taryn Power ) with the Mexican Linda Christian .. Finally, he was together for half a year with the very young Deborah Jean Montgomery Minardos, mother of his posthumous son Tyrone Power IV, the only boy.

Right after World War II, Power continued to play many roles in his vein, in films such as Captain King , but he also set out to turn to more dramatic roles with the splendid The Razor’s Edge , adapted from the novel by W. Somerset Maughan , where he played one of his best roles, Larry Darrell, an aviator who questions the meaning of human life after the death of the partner who saved him.

Another of the peaks of his career was Cradle of Heroes , where the teacher John Ford extracted oil from the actor, turning him into an Irish officer who served for 50 years as an instructor at the famous West Point military academy. And what about his work in the drama The Alley of Lost Souls , as an ambitious individual who works in a traveling fair? Everything points to the fact that if it weren’t for his untimely death, Power would have followed a similar path to that of Burt Lancaster , another adventure film icon who in his maturity was recycled to complex roles.

Power’s other great work is undoubtedly Leonard Vole, accused of the murder of the widow who named him heir in Witness for the Prosecution , a judicial masterpiece by the unrepeatable Billy Wilder , who adapted a play by Agatha Christie . Curiously, the circumstance occurs that the brilliant filmmaker was not quite convinced that it was appropriate for the character, due to his natural mannerism.

“I can’t believe that Tyrone is the right Leonard Vole, I see him as overly sensitive to be accused of murder, he doesn’t quite fit with the idea I have of the character,” he told Marlene Dietrich in a hallway . But she tried to convince him to trust him. “You should never judge an actor by his appearance. There you have Charles Laughton , his character is the very essence of brutality, egocentrism, the most latent machismo, and instead his sensitivity is so transparent that it can be undone “. Years later, Wilder thanked the German actress for changing his mind.

In the final stretch of his career, Power coincided with his main rival, Errol Flynn , in Fiesta , an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway ‘s first great novel , where he played Jake Barnes, an impotent journalist who meets the nurse ( Ava Gardner ) again with the one who had a relationship.

He was shooting a fight with the character of George Sanders in Solomon and the Queen of Sheba , by King Vidor , at the Sevilla Films studios in Madrid , when the actor began to feel bad (he was unaware that he was suffering from angina). At the Rúber clinic, on Juan Bravo street in Madrid, his death was certified, still dressed as the legendary monarch of Israel, a role in which he had to be replaced by Yul Brynner . The unfortunate event took place on November 15, 1958. “I will never be able to forget him, he was an extraordinary being and there is not a single day of my life that I do not remember him. He was a true gentleman and one of my best friends,” he commented a lot. later Gina Lollobrigida , his co-star in the film.