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Tyrone Power was one of the leading male sex symbols in Hollywood from the 1930s through the 1950s. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 5, 1914. His parents, Frederick Tyrone Edmund Power and Helen Emma Reaume Power, were both Shakespearean actors and were known on stage as Tyrone Power and Patia Power. Both had the extraordinary opportunities to perform with many of their generation’s most beloved and acclaimed actors.
As a child, Tyrone was very frail, forcing his family to move to a warmer climate to aid his failing health. They headed to the West Coast, where they settled in San Diego. There, Patia taught her son breathing exercises and had him study enunciation, pronunciation and articulation. Later, Tyrone would be awarded with the 1946 International Sound Research Institute award for diction.
Tyrone’s health eventually improved and the family moved back to Cincinnati. Tyrone interest for the dramatic arts grew and, before too long, he began getting in involved with various dramatic programs. Unfortunately, he often found himself bored with other classroom requirements.
Like his father and many others before him, Tyrone was seduced by the applause he received as a stage performer. After graduating from high school, Tyrone joined his father in Quebec where the senior Power gave him a crash course in acting. From there, Tyrone Sr. and Young Tyrone (as he was known then) performed together for the first time in a stage production of “The Merchant of Venice.” Tyrone Power's metamorphosis into stardom had begun.
Tyrone’s major film career began in May of 1932, with a minor part in the film “Tom Brown of Culver,” directed by William Wyler. He soon found the lack of movie opportunities to be quite frustrating and, in the summer of 1934, Tyrone left California for New York. While on the East Coast, Tyrone tried theatre and radio work where he befriended actor Don Ameche. Don would later serve as the best man in Tyrone’s first wedding. By the spring of 1936, Tyrone was back in Hollywood working as a character actor for the newly formed studio Twentieth Century Fox. Tyrone’s big break came when Darryl F. Zanuck, the studio head, took a chance and cast Power as the leading man in the million dollar production of “Lloyds of London.” The picture was a success, largely due to Tyrone’s stellar acting abilities and natural knack for being in front of the camera.
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