Tyrone Power: The Last Idol

by Fred Lawrence Guiles

Book Overview

This biography captures the restless spirit of Tyrone Power-an American film, stage, and radio actor who appeared in dozens of films, often as the handsome romantic lead. Guiles argues with vivid... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385143834
• ISBN13: 9780385143837
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 389 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent!

I agree with the premise of this book totally and disagree with the other review, which in my opinion, is misinformed. I had the privilege of seeing Tyrone Power in several plays, and he was magnificent. He received fantastic reviews which are documented in such publications as The New York Times and the Herald Tribune. Not to mention, his recording of John Brown's Body, which he toured with along with Raymond Massey and Judith Anderson, apparently two other rotten actors (?) is phenomenal. Twentieth Century Fox did everything they could to keep him a matinee idol and nothing else. When he made "Nightmare Alley," in which he got the finest reviews of his career, the studio did not publicize the film and released it as a B movie. That's fairly rotten, considering all the money he made for them. Tyrone Power did not only work for Twentieth Century Fox. He worked for Columbia, MGM, and United Artists as well, but Fox also hardly ever loaned him out. As far as his lifestyle, what lifestyle are we talking about? The one that was revealed after he was dead so he couldn't sue? You cannot libel the dead; they have no rights. That's why tell-all books come out after people die. And whether he had a bad lifestyle or not, what about Errol Flynn's lifestyle? Rock Hudson's? Tyrone Power's looks got in the way of many roles he played, that is for certain. He deserved better than what Fox gave him, but those were the days when studios held you in virtual slavery. Actors (and Power was no exception) constantly owed money on their contracts, and any breaks, such as to do theater, which Power often did, were added on to their contracts. Fox made a fortune on this man, but because he was a home-grown property (and I know this as a writer with my first publisher) they treated him like dirt. We made you, we can break you. And tin Power's case, they nearly did.

Read between the lines...

I'm a fan of Tyrone Power & really enjoyed his book. However, one of Powers' main complaints in life was not being respected as an actor and this is blamed, almost entirely, on 20th Century Fox and I don't agree with it.Fox was the only studio willing to give Power a chance, even if it was based purely on his looks and not his acting talent. Over the years, his acting skills would develop, but not enough to convince the studios to cast him in more substantial, non-glamour boy roles. To change this glamour boy image, he pursued such masculine activites as joining the marines, riding motorcyles and flying planes. To prove he could act, he took every opportunity perform on the stage. But to no avail... the studios weren't convinced in the end.Perhaps it is because they knew he wouldn't leave because no other studios were all that bothered with him in the beginning and and in later years his reckless off screen lifestyle meant that he had to stay with Fox & take whatever roles he was given just to make ends meet.Tyrone Power owed his career to 20th Century Fox. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be writing this review because I wouldn't know who he was.