The secret life of Tyrone Power

by Hector Arce

Book Overview

Secret Life of Tyrone Power, The by Arce, Hector This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553133101
• ISBN13: 9780553133103
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Wish I read the reviews before i got this

it is hard to describe one's disappointment on reading an awful book about a favourite star.Ty Power was one of the great stars of hollywood's golden age, just watch him in films with loretta young or gene tierney and you'll be wiped out by their combined beauty. His films are fun and great and you can see his talent shine through. he died at a tragically young age and seems to be overlooked by film historians. he excelled in all genres, comedy, romance, adventure, war, westerns, historical dramas and musicals. his films made over $1billion. watch him to see what real star power was and is. he does not deserve this book of innuendo. how can the author write about what he was thinking??? This is a feeble poorly written attempt at a biography and I for one am ashamed that i bought it. Power deserves a re-evaluation as a classic star. in TCM's book of leading men he doesn't even get a mention, whereas mickey rooney and paul muni do!!!! P.S. I met his daughter Romina in Rome and she is a lovely dignified lady, and so in some way i feel for her at having to put up with trash written about her father. by the way I am a gay man so i am not being prejudiced. i just don't believe in outing people when they are dead and can't defend themselves, and with no evidence. Isn't there a law against such things. Tyrone power was and is one of my favourite stars of a bygone age. if you want a good biography get 'the last idol' by fred lawrence guiles. don't waste your money on this. thank god i bought mine second hand!

Not So Secret Life of Tyrone Power

[...] First, this book was published in 1979. This is a very long time ago and many of the people who knew Tyrone were still alive. At the beginning of the book there is the Acknowledgments that Hector Arce lists of all the people he spoke with and who helped him with the collaboration of the project. Most of these people are now dead, but I certainly recognize a lot of the names listed who would know about Tyrone Power. Secondly, he does not say that Tyrone was a homosexual - cut and dried - he says he had his foot in both worlds. Tyrone was obviously bisexual which half of Hollywood is. I thought it was a very good biography of a complex man who most likely was not as happy as he could be. He was a beautiful man who I am sure all of Hollywood wanted a piece of. Many bisexual and homosexual men are tortured souls. Read the biography of Montgomery Clift. This book about Tyrone is not a bad read and I recommend it as this is all that is out there in the way of a biography of Tyrone Power.

Revealing Portrait

There's no way I have of proving the accuracy of this book; I just have to assume it tells the truth.According to the text, Power was driven by homosexual instincts, and constantly frustrated by his choosing to suppress them. Looking, talking and acting like a very much heterosexual man, Power is painted as a homo trapped in his body. The result of the suppression is an endless series of extremely painfully failed marriages and courtships, some of which left him financially and emotionally in shambles.All of this while trying to maintain the screen and private lifestyle of a star. Further, his motivation was to live up to his formidable family heritage of thespian excellence. Power's plight to me was reminiscent of that of Rock Hudson's. He was not at all inside what he appeared to be outside--"forced" by society to "live a lie," never to be able to "come clean" and live his normal lifestyle, this actor emerges as truly tragic. In one of his best roles, "Nightmare Alley," one can see where Power was striving to somehow shed his "pretty boy" image and reach for acting heights. After that excellent performance (and some credible stage work) it was not until his role in "Witness for the Prosecution" that he again achieved histrionic excellence. His marriages were all total disasters. His "gay" associations were too tension-filled to be fulfilling for him. Thus, he ended his life a basically spent man, drinking heavily and trying in vain to have successful heterosexual relations. That the general public was completely unaware of any of this, was a blessing. Otherwise, he would have suffered even more. A well-written biography of a troubled actor, who managed to also reign successfully as an extremely popular, international film star. All that glittered was certainly not gold here. A reveling portrait of the man behind the billing.