Biography
Tom Powers, born Thomas McCreery Powers, was an American actor who worked in theatre, film, radio and television. After training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he appeared in Vitagraph Pictures films from 1911 to 1917 before concentrating on stage work. On Broadway he created the role of Charles Marsden in Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude (1928) and succeeded Orson Welles as Brutus in the Mercury Theatre production of Caesar (1938).
Powers returned to films in 1944 when Billy Wilder cast him as Mr. Dietrichson in Double Indemnity. He subsequently appeared in over 60 further film and television roles, often as middle-aged businessmen, military officers or police figures, including Capt. Hendrickson in The Blue Dahlia (1946) and Metellus Cimber in Julius Caesar (1953). He died in 1955.
