This post is my entry in the Gone Too Soon blogathon, hosted by Jessica at her blog Comet Over Hollywood.

Who Was that Handsome Man? Matinee Idol Tyrone Power, Jr.

Even though he didn’t appear on screen until the movie was almost over and his bit part only lasted a few short minutes, audiences watching Girls’ Dormitory (1936) made sure that it wasn’t the last time we’d see the beautiful face of Tyrone Power, Jr. on film. When movie goers filled out preview cards after screening the movie, they made it very clear that they were interested in seeing more of the handsome young actor. If the story I read is true, even legendary gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was so taken by him that she sat through a second screening of the movie just to make sure she caught his name in the credits.

This reaction was welcome news to the executives at the newly formed Twentieth Century-Fox studio who were in need of finding fresh talent to compete with MGM’s leading male stars such as Robert Taylor and Clark Gable. It wasn’t long before Tyrone Power would be signed to a seven year contract and his fast ascension to big time Hollywood movie star would begin. Over the next few years the “star system” that was employed by the major studios at the time would shape his career and typecast him in a way that would eventually leave him frustrated, angry, and bitter by the limits it placed on him.

Tyrone Power: Object of Desire

I’m not very familiar with the career of Hedy Lamarr, considered by many to be the most beautiful actress of her day, but I have heard his career compared to hers in that like her, he was often treated as an object of desire. The studio promoted his status as a sex object through fan magazine layouts, and more portrait photos were taken of him than of any other male star. He was almost always the focus of his scenes and the lighting would usually fall on close ups of his face. No other star got this kind of treatment despite the fact that many of his female co-stars such as Loretta Young, Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth, and Gene Tierney were some of the most beautiful women in Hollywood.

Tyrone Power and Loretta Young: Romantic Movie Idols

Loretta Young, his co-star in the movie Ladies in Love (1936) and already an established star herself, was aware of this. In one of the special features included in the Tyrone Power Matinee Idol Collection Young’s daughter Judy Lewis mentioned that her mom worried about it and said, “no one is going to look at me, they’re only going to look at him in the close ups because he’s so beautiful.” Well, she was right about the viewers looking at him, but what she didn’t realize is that they would also be just as smitten with her. The pair soon became romantic idols to movie fans everywhere, and photos of them were circulated all around the country.

It wasn’t long before romantic sparks flew between the two of them, and they began to be seen all over town together. Fan magazines had a field day covering their relationship and dubbed them “the prettiest couple on and off the screen.” She was even by his side when he had his handprints and footprints put in cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theater on May 1, 1937.

Their relationship would bring to light another problem that Tyrone Power was to face throughout his career; the desire of the studio to keep him a bachelor in order to keep his female fans happy. Rumor has it that studio head Darryl F. Zanuck was not happy about the closeness the two shared and was ultimately responsible for breaking them up. This also became an issue when he and his future wife Annabella met and fell in love on the set of the movie Suez (1938). Zanuck apparently tried to stop their marriage by sending her to London to do films, but she refused. They eventually did get married in 1939, but her career at 20th Century-Fox suffered for it and due to several other issues, their marriage ended in 1948.

More Than Just a Pretty Face

There was no doubt that Tyrone Power was considered one of the most handsome actors of his day. Just listen to the words of a few of his leading ladies:

“Working with Ty Power was exciting . . . {he was} murderously handsome” – Maureen O’Hara, co-star in The Black Swan

“He was more handsome than anybody before or after him. The most handsome man that has ever been in film.“ – Coleen Gray, co-star in Nightmare Alley

“He was the most beautiful man I ever saw. No question.” – Anne Baxter, co-star in The Razor’s Edge

“Oh, I just thought he was the most romantic, beautiful man I’d ever seen.” – Terry Moore, co-star in King of the Khyber Rifles

The Quest to Become a Serious Actor

I’m sure he appreciated the admiration of his beautiful leading ladies and he was grateful to be given the chance to become a star, but what he wanted more than anything was to be taken seriously as an actor, especially given his family background. Tyrone Power, Jr. as he was known at the beginning of his career (the Jr. would be dropped after Ladies in Love) was the great grandson of the first Tyrone Power, a famous Irish comedian and the son of Tyrone Power, Sr., a successful theater star and matinee idol.

In his first few years as a movie star, he made mostly romantic comedies and costume dramas such as Love is News and Second Honeymoon with Loretta Young, Thin Ice and Second Fiddle with ice skating star Sonja Henie, and Alexander’s Ragtime Band and Rose of Washington Square with Alice Faye. When he asked Darryl F. Zanuck to place him in more dramatic roles, he was cast in the movie The Rains Came (1939) opposite Myrna Loy.

Unfortunately, this role did not quite earn him the respect he was looking for but instead he was awarded the first ever “Harvard Lampoon” Worst Actor Award, which I can only imagine added to his frustration. Around 1940 he started complaining privately about the types of roles he was playing and began telling friends that he wanted to leave Hollywood and return to the stage.

In her book “The Star Machine” author Jeanine Basinger explained his problem this way, “He was shaped easily and efficiently into his type, and fit it so well that he couldn’t become the serious actor he wanted to be. Tyrone Power is never listed among the Cagneys, Gables, Stewarts, Grants, Coopers of his own era, because the star machine made him too well. Just as he was a perfect product, he could never be more than a perfect product. He couldn’t be a legend. He could only be beautiful.”

In 1940, he would play one of his favorite and most well-known roles in the movie The Mark of Zorro, the first of many swashbuckler roles he would play throughout his career. The movie was a huge success and for the second year in a row, he was named King of the Box Office in a poll of motion picture exhibitors.

First Lieutenant Tyrone Power

When studios started making more war movies, he starred in two of them, A Yank in the R.A.F. with Betty Grable and the serious drama This Above All with Joan Fontaine. In 1942, he began to feel like he was not making enough of a contribution to the war effort so he enlisted on his own as a private in the Marine Corps. By all accounts, he was a great Marine and pilot who flew supplies into and the wounded out of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He took great pride in wearing his uniform and took his responsibility very seriously. After compiling an outstanding war record, he came home in 1945 a decorated First Lieutenant.

Before I move on to his career after the war, I wanted to share this wonderful video I found of his wife Annabella greeting him upon his return from the war.

The Fight for More Serious Roles Continues

When Tyrone Power returned from the war, Darryl F. Zanuck promised him a more serious role as he had been requesting, this time in the movie The Razor’s Edge starring Gene Tierney and Anne Baxter. Even though he would go on to receive some of the best reviews of his career for that movie, Fox wanted him to return to roles similar to those of his early career. Instead he fought hard to be allowed to star in the film noir classic Nightmare Alley.

Although Zanuck was worried the role would hurt his “pretty boy” image, he finally agreed. Power received mostly positive reviews for his performance in the role which is said to have been his favorite and the one he was most proud of.

Unfortunately, Zanuck would not allow audiences to see the movie for long. Fearing that they would not want to see him in such a negative light, he pulled Nightmare Alley from the theaters after just a few weeks and rushed out the movie Captain of Castile to take its place.

Tyrone Power’s Return to the Stage

In the early 1950′s, Tyrone Power was becoming increasingly unhappy in his roles and asked to be terminated from his Fox contract. Behind the scenes, he privately complained about his bitterness over how he was used by the studio throughout his career. Longing for more substance, he returned to the stage, performing in such plays as Mister Roberts and John Brown’s Body. He would go on to make one more movie for Fox, The Sun Also Rises, before starring in the MGM murder mystery Witness for the Prosecution. Power once again received great reviews for his performance and the movie was one of his most critically acclaimed.

He then went to Spain to begin filming the Biblical drama Solomon and Sheba. While filming a dueling scene with friend and co-star George Sanders on November 15, 1958, Tyrone Power collapsed of a heart attack and died while being taken to the hospital. He was only 44 years old. Sadly, he met the same fate as his father who had suffered a heart attack in December 1931, actually dying in his son’s arms when Tyrone Jr. was only about 17 years old.

After his death, a memorial service was arranged at a nearby air base in Spain with George Sanders delivering the eulogy. Memorial services were also held back in the States at what is now known as the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. To this day, Tyrone Power still has a huge fan base and there are yearly memorial services held at the cemetery on the anniversary of his death.

What Could Have Been

With his death coming at such a young age, we are left to wonder what could have become of Tyrone Power’s career after the studio system faded away. As Jeanine Basinger so fittingly stated, “The saddest thing about Tyrone Power’s final years is that he himself could only learn what he should have understood from the beginning. Once the machine made him a movie star, he could never be anything but a machine made movie star . . . Had he not been so beautiful, he might have been given more challenging parts, but Hollywood knew people would pay money to see Tyrone Power without his shirt on, whether he was acting or not. For someone without talent, it was the perfect job. For Tyrone Power, who actually could act, it had to have been some kind of hell.”

Those are sad words indeed, but I will choose to remember Tyrone Power for the great actor that he was and the wonderful contributions he made to the world of film.

I would like to thank Jessica for the chance to participate in this wonderful event honoring some of the great artists that we lost way too soon. Please take a moment to visit her blog and read all the other wonderful entries. Over 30 bloggers participated in this event and the amount of talent covered is nothing short of amazing. Enjoy!