William Powell
Audiences rate William Powell’s films higher than 99% of the 3,467 people with 10 or more films on ThumbScore. See the full ranking
Free to watch now (26 Oct): My Man Godfrey (Pluto TV, Plex, Prime Video (free), Cineverse, Tubi, Kanopy, Hoopla, Fawesome) · The Thin Man (Kanopy).
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The ThumbScore for William Powell (86.5%) is the average audience approval rating across 11 films. Each movie's ThumbScore represents the percentage of real audiences who rated it positively. A higher score means more of William's films are well-received by everyday viewers.
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times: for The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and Life with Father (1947). After high school, he left home for New York and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of 18. In 1912, Powell graduated from the AADA, and worked in some vaudeville and stock companies. After several successful experiences on the Broadway stage, he began his Hollywood career in 1922, playing a small role as an evil henchman of Professor Moriarty in a production of Sherlock Holmes with John Barrymore.
His most memorable role in silent movies was as a bitter film director opposite Emil Jannings' Academy Award-winning performance as a fallen general in The Last Command (1928). This success, along with Powell's pleasant speaking voice, led to his first starring role as amateur detective Philo Vance in the "talkie" The Canary Murder Case (1929). Powell's most famous role was that of Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, beginning with The Thin Man in 1934, based upon Dashiell Hammett's novel. The role provided a perfect opportunity for Powell, with his resonant speaking voice, to showcase his sophisticated charm and witty sense of humor, and he received his first Academy Award nomination for The Thin Man. Myrna Loy played his wife, Nora, in each of the Thin Man films. Their on-screen partnership, beginning alongside Clark Gable in 1934 with Manhattan Melodrama, was one of Hollywood's most prolific, and they appeared in 14 films together.
Born 1892-07-29 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Died 1984-03-05.
On ThumbScore, William Powell appears in 11 films with an average audience score of 86.5%, most frequently in the Comedy genre.
Sources: TMDB
