William Powell
William Powell was born on July 29, 1892, in Pittsburgh, a place whose character stood some distance from the world of American entertainment he would later enter. He attended Central High School before pursuing more formal training in the performing arts.
After completing his schooling, Powell trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, which prepared him for a professional life on stage and screen. He worked across multiple formats throughout his career — as a stage actor, a film actor, and a television actor — moving through the different platforms that defined American entertainment across several decades of the twentieth century. His career carried him from theatrical performance into cinema and eventually into television, reflecting the broader shifts in how American audiences consumed entertainment during his working life.
Powell worked in English-language productions and remained a citizen of the United States throughout his life. His contributions to the entertainment industry were recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a distinction that acknowledged the body of work he had built across stage, film, and television. That recognition placed him among the figures the industry chose to mark in a permanent, public way.
Powell died in Palm Springs in 1984. The available records point to the early months of that year, with March 5 as the most specific date given. He had been born in Pittsburgh and had spent his professional life working in English-language stage, film, and television productions, ultimately earning the Hollywood Walk of Fame star that continues to mark his presence in the history of American entertainment.
Quotes by William Powell
It seems acceptable today to scream for revolution, without any concept of what will follow it. This is just what the forces at large want, for who will follow a man who doesn’t know where he’s going?
I detest symbolic protest, as it is an outcry of weak, middle-of-the-road, liberal eunuchs. If an individual feels strongly enough about something to do something about it, then he shouldn’t prostitute himself by doing something symbolic. He should get out and do something real.
I can fully appreciate the fury and anger that a person can feel when put through a humiliating experience by a cop, but I would recommend strongly that a person maintain his cool, and in no circumstances lose his temper. If you lose your temper, you are playing right into the cop’s hands.
I do not hold that because the author did a bad job of writing the player need trump it with the same kind of acting. When I go into a picture I have only one character to look after. If the author didn’t do him justice, I try to add whatever the creator of the part overlooked.
Since shotguns are not military weapons, your local sporting goods dealer will have good information about them, as long as you aren’t black, Spanish, or a white freak.
My friends have stood by me marvelously in the ups and downs of my career. I don’t believe there is anything more worthwhile in life than friendship. Friendship is a far better thing than love, as it is commonly accepted.
Have you noticed that the people who actually make the laws, the people in power, never make laws for themselves?
A word of advice: If you get the choice between the upper and lower bunks in a cell, choose the lower. Prisons do not turn off their lights at night, and I spent a sleepless night, without a mattress, with a five-hundred-watt bulb shining directly into my eyes.
Unfortunately, or perhaps it is fortunate that I have always been forced to stand on my acting ability. I haven't a personality such as Jack Gilbert's, for instance, that attracts women and makes them like me for myself. When I am on the screen I must make them forget me entirely and think only of my acting.