Charles River Editors - William Powell: The Life and Legacy of One of Early Hollywood’s Most Acclaimed Actors

William Horatio Powell was born on July 29, 1892, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In giving their child such a flamboyant middle name, it might seem that his parents were trying early on to set him on track toward stardom, but this was far from the truth, as both Nettie and Horatio Powell would later insist. Little William would be their only child, and they doted on him from the beginning. In one of those charming puff pieces that Hollywood often put together in the 1930s, Horatio told a reporter, "You want to know where Will got his acting trend? Look at his mother. What an actress she would have made. Never had a chance to do it, of course, but I don't believe there's anyone on the stage would have made a better comedienne. She had it in her." The reporter himself noted, The first thing this baby did to distinguish himself from all the other babies of Pittsburgh was to sit up in his crib at the age of five months, wag his right forefinger at his admiring parents and remark, I umpha basha arga. Not once, but many times he did it. Long before he could talk in any accepted terms, Powell, junior, made speeches from his crib and highchair. There was no question that they were intended to be speeches, because they were accompanied by gestures and a noble, intent expression. I umpha basha arga became a tradition in the Powell family...After watching him for some time Mrs. Powell said breathlessly to her husband, I'm sure he's going to be a preacher. Father Powell demurred...Bill's father had the American ambition to see his son in something that would be profitable as well as successful. He's going to be a lawyer, he said. Look at the way he uses that forefinger.

In 1907, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Horatio pursued his accounting career and young William continued to enjoy the type of idyllic childhood that Norman Rockwell would later make iconic. He attended Central High and enjoyed acting in school plays, such as The Rivals. When he graduated in 1910, he enrolled in the University of Kansas, where his father encouraged him to prepare for a legal career.

Seemingly out of nowhere, William surprised his parents by leaving college and taking a job as a telephone operator. He wanted to earn enough money to be independent of his parents, but when this did not work out, he persuaded a wealthy aunt to give him $700 with which to pursue his dream. He then packed his bags and headed for the big city, enrolling in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. The school was the first of its kind in the English-speaking world, though it had still been around for less than 30 years at that point.

With motion pictures still in their infancy, the Academy was still training stage actors, but in 1900 a young man named Cecil B. DeMille graduated from the institution, and he would go on to change the role of motion pictures in American society forever. For his part, while he was at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, Powell studied alongside future stars Jason Robards, Sr. and Edward G. Robinson, graduating with the latter in 1912.

Robards, Sr.

Robinson

After graduation, Powell found work in vaudeville, first appearing in a walk-on role in The Neer-Do-Well in 1912. The following year, he had a larger role in Within the Law through 1915. While acting in that production, he met actress Eileen Wilson, who was also in the play. After they were married within the year, William worked his way onto a Broadway stage in Spanish Love . In 1920, the Columbia Daily Spectator called Spanish Love a real show, and...hot stuff," adding, There is an odd mixture of burlesque and tragedy in the play, and yet, acceptable....William Powell as Javier, [is] worthy of mention...