--- name: "Dick Powell" canonical: "https://film.one/person/dick-powell" roles: ["Actor"] born: "14 November 1904" died: "2 January 1963" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 71 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-19T22:57:49.800284+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Dick Powell Actor. Born 14 November 1904 in Mountain View, Arkansas, USA. Died 2 January 1963. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 14 November 1904, Mountain View, Arkansas, USA - **Died:** 2 January 1963 - **Active:** 1933–1935 - **Also known as:** Richard Ewing Powell, Дик Пауэлл, Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell - **Frequently works with:** [Ross Alexander](https://film.one/person/ross-alexander.md), [Ruby Keeler](https://film.one/person/ruby-keeler.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 71, as actor, over 3 titles - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 1 of 3 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Romance 3, Comedy 2, Drama 1, Fantasy 1, Music 1 - **Screen time:** 5 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $27m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Powell, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q287977, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0694090/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/19328 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*42nd Street*](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) (82) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Dick Powell > Dick Powell spent a decade as Warner Bros.' boyish crooner, singing to Ruby Keeler rather than at the balcony, then traded it for Philip Marlowe and a run of hard-boiled men. The early quiet is the thing to go back for. In *42nd Street* (1933) Dick Powell is the boy grinning at Ruby Keeler over a piano, and the grin is doing most of the work. Keeler reads her lines as if they had been handed to her a minute before; Powell supplies the warmth for the pair of them and asks for nothing back. That was the job Warner Bros. signed him for in 1932, a singer and bandleader out of the Pittsburgh theatres, and for the best part of a decade he did it: the clean-cut juvenile in the Busby Berkeley musicals, opposite Keeler or Joan Blondell, the tenor who sang to the girl. He was better at it than the parts deserved. The usual charge against the early Powell is that he was wooden, or at any rate a genial crooner and not much more, and there are stretches of *Gold Diggers of 1933* (1933) where the charge sticks. But watch him in *Flirtation Walk* (1934), in the Hawaiian half hour that Frank Borzage shoots by low firelight before the film marches off to West Point. He sings softly, lets a look run a beat longer than the script needs, and stays still while the dancers work in silhouette around him. We were charmed, more than a studio programmer had any right to charm us, and it was his quiet that did it. The film around him is slight; he is not. The turn came in 1944. Powell had been asking for dramatic parts, and RKO cast him as Philip Marlowe in *Murder, My Sweet*, with Edward Dmytryk directing. We have not reviewed it, so we will say only what the record shows: the crooner did not come back. What followed was a run of tired, hard men in film noir, *Pitfall* (1948) among them, and then *The Bad and the Beautiful* (1952). The change of image was as complete as Hollywood has managed, and it took because he kept the underplaying and dropped the smile. He directed six films from 1953 and co-founded Four Star Productions for television, and he described himself in a way that suggests he knew exactly what he was. "I started out with two assets: a voice that didn't drive audiences into the streets, and a determination to make money." The first is too modest; the voice was pleasant and he used it with more taste than the studio did. The second explains a career that always went where the work was. If you know only the Marlowe, go back to *42nd Street* and look at the boy at the piano. He is already holding something back. ## Biography Dick Powell was an American actor, singer, producer and director. Born Richard Ewing Powell in Mountain View, Arkansas, he began his career as a singer with the Charlie Davis Orchestra and later worked as a master of ceremonies in Pittsburgh theatres. He made his film debut in Blessed Event (1932) and rose to prominence as a boyish crooner in Warner Bros. musicals, including his credited role as Billy Lawler in 42nd Street (1933), as well as Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) and Footlight Parade (1933). Powell later reinvented himself in dramatic roles, notably as Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet (1944). He directed several films, among them The Enemy Below (1957) and The Conqueror (1956), and co-founded the television production company Four Star Productions. He appeared in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and died in Los Angeles in 1963. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, encyclopediaofarkansas.net.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *A Midsummer Night's Dream* (1935), Fi1m 74, as Lysander — [page](https://film.one/film/a-midsummer-nights-dream.md) - *Flirtation Walk* (1934), Fi1m 57, as Dick "Canary" Dorcy — [page](https://film.one/film/flirtation-walk.md) - *42nd Street* (1933), Fi1m 82, as Billy Lawler — [page](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) ## Complete filmography (84) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *That's Dancing!* (1985), Actor - *Going Hollywood: The '30s* (1984), as (archive footage) - *Paper Moon* (1973), Thanks - *Ghostbreakers* (1967), Executive Producer - *The Losers* (1963), Executive Producer - *Ricochet* (1961), Executive Producer - *Who Killed Julie Greer?* (1961), as Host / Inspector Amos Burke · Executive Producer - *One Must Die* (1961), Actor - *The DuPont Show with June Allyson* (1959), series, as Paul Martin, Dr. Timothy McVey - *Woman on the Run* (1959), Director - *The Hunters* (1958), Director, Producer - *The Enemy Below* (1957), Director, Producer - *You Can't Run Away from It* (1956), Director - *Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre* (1956), series, Creator - *The Conqueror* (1956), Director, Producer - *Climax!* (1954), series, as Philip Marlowe - *Susan Slept Here* (1954), as Mark Christopher - *Split Second* (1953), Director - *The Bad and the Beautiful* (1952), as James Lee Bartlow - *Four Star Playhouse* (1952), series, as Willie Dante, Eddie White, US Marshal Philip Dana, Burt Stroude, Graham, Paul, Mike Donegan, Dan, Dan Hodges, Dave Robinson, Fred, Chris, Eddie, Jeff, Dave, Capt. Avery, Andrew, Will Sonnett, Fleet Mason, Grover Doane, Steve, Priest, Philip Benton, Dan Matson - *You Never Can Tell* (1951), as Rex Shepherd - *The Tall Target* (1951), as John Kennedy - *Cry Danger* (1951), as Rocky Mulloy · Director - *The Jack Benny Program* (1950), series, as Dick Powell - *Right Cross* (1950), as Rick Garvey - *The Reformer and the Redhead* (1950), as Andrew Hale - *Mrs. Mike* (1949), as Sgt. Mike Flannigan - *Rogues' Regiment* (1948), as Whit Corbett - *Station West* (1948), as Lt. John Martin Haven - *Pitfall* (1948), as John Forbes - *To the Ends of the Earth* (1948), as Commissioner Michael Barrows - *Johnny O'Clock* (1947), as Johnny O'Clock - *Cornered* (1945), as Laurence Gerard - *Murder, My Sweet* (1944), as Philip Marlowe - *Meet the People* (1944), as William 'Swanee' Swanson - *It Happened Tomorrow* (1944), as Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens - *True to Life* (1943), as Link Ferris - *Riding High* (1943), as Steve Baird - *Three Cheers for the Girls* (1943), as Singer (archive footage) (uncredited) - *Happy Go Lucky* (1943), as Pete Hamilton - *Star Spangled Rhythm* (1942), as Dick Powell - *In the Navy* (1941), as Thomas Halstead - *Model Wife* (1941), as Frederick "Fred" Chambers - *Christmas in July* (1940), as Jimmy MacDonald - *I Want a Divorce* (1940), as Alan MacNally - *Naughty but Nice* (1939), as Professor Donald Hardwick - *Going Places* (1938), as Peter Mason - *Breakdowns of 1938* (1938), as Elly Jordan (archive footage) (uncredited) - *Hard to Get* (1938), as Bill Davis - *Cowboy from Brooklyn* (1938), as Elly Jordan - *Hollywood Hotel* (1938), as Ronnie Bowers - *Varsity Show* (1937), as Charles 'Chuck' Daly - *The Singing Marine* (1937), as Bob Brent - *On the Avenue* (1937), as Gary Blake - *Gold Diggers of 1937* (1936), as Rosmer Peck - *Stage Struck* (1936), as George Randall - *Hearts Divided* (1936), as Jerome Bonaparte - *Colleen* (1936), as Donald Ames - *One And One Is One* (1936), Director - *Dick Powell and Joan Blondell home movies: "No. 3, Normie"* (1936), Actor - *Dick Powell and Joan Blondell home movies: "No. 5"* (1936), Actor - *Dick Powell and Joan Blondell home movies: "No. 1, From beginning"* (1936), Actor - *Thanks a Million* (1935), as Eric Land - *Shipmates Forever* (1935), as Richard 'Dick' Melville III - *A Midsummer Night's Dream* (1935), as Lysander — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/a-midsummer-nights-dream.md) - *Page Miss Glory* (1935), as Bingo Nelson - *Broadway Gondolier* (1935), as Richard 'Dick' Purcell, aka Ricardo Purcelli - *Gold Diggers of 1935* (1935), as Dick Curtis - *Flirtation Walk* (1934), as Dick "Canary" Dorcy — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/flirtation-walk.md) - *Happiness Ahead* (1934), as Bob Lane - *Dames* (1934), as Jimmy Higgens - *Twenty Million Sweethearts* (1934), as Buddy Clayton - *Wonder Bar* (1934), as Tommy - *Convention City* (1933), as Jerry Ford - *College Coach* (1933), as Phil "Sarge" Sargeant - *Footlight Parade* (1933), as Scotty - *Gold Diggers of 1933* (1933), as Brad - *42nd Street* (1933), as Billy Lawler — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) - *The King's Vacation* (1933), as John Kent - *The Road Is Open Again* (1933), as The Songwriter - *Just Around the Corner* (1933), as Jerry - *Too Busy to Work* (1932), as Dan Hardy - *Big City Blues* (1932), as Radio Announcer (voice) (uncredited) - *Blessed Event* (1932), as Bunny Harmon ## Gallery - ![A 1949 publicity photo of Dick Powell, costumed as Richard Diamond, Private Detective.](https://film.one/media/person/1225901/gallery-770bf976c4c7.jpg) A 1949 publicity photo of Dick Powell, costumed as Richard Diamond, Private Detective. — AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Dick_Powell_as_Richard_Diamond%2C_Private_Detective.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Dick Powell](https://film.one/media/person/1225901/gallery-90a66c87cb45.jpg) Dick Powell — Image via TMDB - ![Dick Powell](https://film.one/media/person/1225901/gallery-d389c9c61ddc.jpg) Dick Powell — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 2 won - Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame 1996: Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame (won) - Trustees Award 1963: Trustees Award (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/dick-powell