So too was Footlight Parade (also 1933), with Keeler and James Cagney. (WB) got him basically to repeat the role in Gold Diggers of 1933, another big success. Back at Warner Bros., he supported George Arliss in The King's Vacation, then was in 42nd Street (both 1933), playing the love interest for Ruby Keeler. He was a boyish crooner, the sort of role in which he specialized for the next few years.

He was borrowed by Fox Film to support Will Rogers in Too Busy to Work (1932). He made his film debut as a singing bandleader in Blessed Event. was sufficiently impressed by Powell's singing and stage presence to offer him a film contract in 1932. bought Brunswick Records, which at that time owned Vocalion. Powell moved to Pittsburgh, where he found great local success as the master of ceremonies at the Enright Theater and the Stanley Theater. Ruby Keeler and Powell in Footlight Parade (1933) Dick Powell in a trailer for Dames (1934) Dick Powell and Inez Asher Guest stars for the premiere episode of The Dick Powell Show, 'Who Killed Julie Greer?' Standing, from left: Ronald Reagan, Nick Adams, Lloyd Bridges, Mickey Rooney, Edgar Bergen, Jack Carson, Ralph Bellamy, Kay Thompson, and Dean Jones, seated, from left, Carolyn Jones and Dick Powell. He recorded a number of records with Davis and on his own for the Vocalion label in the late 1920s. Later, Powell joined the Charlie Davis Orchestra, based in Indianapolis.

After a final trip to Cuba together, Mildred moved to Hemphill, Texas, and the couple divorced in 1932. ĭuring this time, he married Mildred Maund, a model, but she found being married to an entertainer not to her liking. Powell attended the former Little Rock College before he started his entertainment career as a singer with the Royal Peacock Band, which toured throughout the Midwest. The family moved the boys to Little Rock in 1914, where Powell sang in church choirs and with local orchestras and started his own band. His brothers were Howard (the eldest) and Luther (the youngest). Powell was born the middle of three sons of Ewing Powell and mother Sally Rowena in Mountain View, the seat of Stone County in northern Arkansas. He was the first actor to portray private detective Philip Marlowe on screen. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility and successfully transformed into a hardboiled leading man, starring in projects of a more dramatic nature. Richard Ewing Powell (Novem– January 2, 1963) was an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and studio head.

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