1869-1931
The actor that the world has come to know as Tyrone Power Sr. was born on this day in London, England as Frederick Tyrone Edmond Power. His father was himself an actor turned merchant dealing in wine. His grandfather was the noted Irish stage actor William Grattan Tyrone Power who was the first actor professionally using the name Tyrone Power (his father, a landed noble, was also named Tyrone Power). Most of this Tyrone Power's acting career was spent on the stage, though his early years were not spent learning the craft. Curiously, he was sent by his parents to the American state of Florida in order to learn citrus farming as an apprentice when he was only 14 years of age. Hating that lot in life, he ran away two years later and joined up with a theater company in St. Augustine. He made his formal stage debut there a year later at the age of 17. He proved to be a very talented actor and quickly moved on to specializing Shakespearean roles. Power would come to film acting much later in life, having spent three very successful decades on the stage before doing so (remember that motion pictures were first emerging as a technology right around the time that he made his stage debut). The first film in which he appeared in was in Famous Players 1914 melodrama Aristocracy. Though he had a fairly long film acting career after this, he did not make a large number of film appearances--having appeared in just over 40 productions through the year 1930. His last film, the early John Wayne western The Big Trail, was his only talking motion picture appearance and the only film that he made in the 1930's. He was to appear in Paramount's The Miracle Man, starring Sylvia Sidney, but he collapsed on the set on the 23rd of December in 1931--having suffered a massive heart attack. He died on the set in the arms of his 17 year old son, Tyrone Power III. Today he mostly remembered for being the father of his much more famous and well known son. He is listed as having a "non cemetery burial"--though because his son is buried at the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery, many sources cite that he is buried there as well. Though I can find no information as to where he was actually buried, it does not appear that he was ever moved to the public cemetery at any point after the untimely death of Tyrone Power III (however, I suppose anything is possible; "Tyrone Power Jr." as most people knew him, has a very elaborate tomb there that could have also served as a family crypt of sorts).
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| The two Tyrone's together, just before Power Sr.'s death. |
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