Anyone else think so? According to my calculations, he would have been 44 when this was made. He also died shortly afterward.
shareIt's a shame he looks so haggard. I think he looks too old for the role. Too bad William Holden wasn't available.
shareActually Tyrone was 42 when it was filmed. He gives a horrible performance and Holden would have blown doors off anything Power was capable of. Laughton was one of the greatest-ever screen actors, but Tyrone was simply DREADFUL in this.
shareActually, I thought Tyrone did well but I can also see Holden in this (a very natural actor).
But I did smirk every time he was referred to as a young man.
Global Warming, it's a personal decision innit? - Nigel Tufnel
I would have cast Dirk Bogarde in the Leonard Vole role in "Witness for the Prosecution."
sharePeople seem to forget that Ty Power, along with Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and other actors saw active service in WWII.
For the first time in their Hollywood-insulated lives, they experienced REAL bullets and bombings, with no fallen extras getting up when a director yelled, "Cut!"
Like most other GI's, they returned from war aged beyond their years, and for some, the experience led to drinking, divorce, etc.
In modern terms: PTSD.
Just to set the record straight, please allow me to add some details.
Clark Gable was forty years old and had no military experience when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He enlisted for duty anyway, God Bless him. But then what was the War Department supposed to do with a famous movie star who had no military skills? They send him to officer candidate school (OCS), and then rapidly promote him through the ranks. Since he is unqualified for any officer position, and few enlisted positions, in the US Army Air Forces, they make him a special case. He becomes the only officer aerial gunner in the United States Army Air Forces. He flies five (5) combat missions over occupied Europe and then is pulled out, only twenty missions shy of his normal tour of duty. Then they send him home to do bond selling tours. He may have had PTSD, but if he did it was likely caused before he enlisted when his wife, Carole Lombard was killed in an airplane accident during a bond selling tour.
Tyrone Power enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1942. The Marines also sent him to OCS just as the USAAF had done with Clark Gable. I don't know if that was only based on age, though Tyrone was not yet 30, or experience as an actor, but neither he nor Clark show any college education. Ty did have 180 hours as a private pilot and was accepted into transport flying. The Marines thought he was too old for fighters or attack, even though he was two years younger than "Pappy" Boyington. He flew stateside until February 1945 when his transport unit went overseas to the Pacific. It is unlikely that he developed PTSD as he did not serve in a combat role, though he was in a combat theater.
Brig. Gen. James M. Stewart had graduated from Princeton University with a BS in architecture and spent some of his salary as an actor on flying lessons. By the time the army tried to draft him in 1940 he had earned a commercial pilot's license. After being rejected for being underweight for his height, he went on a weight gaining regimen and tried to enlist. He finally got in and applied for a commission and a pilot rating. Both were granted without additional training. Mind you, he is both a college graduate and a multi-engine instrument rated pilot at this point. Soon, he is an instructor pilot on B-17s, but he is not satisfied. He keeps pressing for combat duty, which he also eventually gets as a B-24 pilot and operations officer. He was also promoted several times, finishing the war as a colonel and executive officer of a bomber group. He stayed in the reserves and earned another promotion in time to brigadier general. There is no indication that any symptoms of PTSD plagued him.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
One of the first things I recall thinking when I saw him in this film was that he looked very ill...and yes, prematurely aged, I attributed the aged look to the onset of illness, as he died the following year, I believe.
shareNo, I don't think he looks much older than 44. He looks about 44.
sharefrom the trivia section:
"Tyrone Power was generally felt to look too old for the young character he played. "
Tyrone Power burned the candle at both ends when he returned from the war. His drinking, partying and running around with other women caught up with him. This was the last film he completed. He died during the filming of his next picture ,'Solomon and Sheba' (1959)
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I don't know how hard he partied. I bet a lot of actors partied hard. What I have read about his medical situation is nothing prior to the heart attack that killed him.
Smoking ages the skin and sometimes the heart. If he was a heavy smoker, and many people were in those days, that alone could have caused all the symptoms that we've seen, that is a prematurely aged skin and a weakened heart.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
I read somewhere that he had 2 minor heart attacks prior to this and prior to filming Solomon and Sheba, the doctor found irregularities with his heart. I'm sure smoking and drinking exacerbated the problem. Didn't his father die of a heart attack as well and he has a family history of it?
Too lazy to check the sources, lol.
Global Warming, it's a personal decision innit? - Nigel Tufnel
I thought that I had read something about an earlier heart condition. However, when I searched on the internet before my post that you replied to, I could not find any concrete reference to it.
<shrug>
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
Hmmm...
I've just discovered Tyrone Power and been watching his films recently. Just saw this film today.
So I'm not an older fan that has read books and bios about him. But so far, I've enjoyed every single film I've seen him in.
I think I remember reading about the heart issues from another post from a Tyrone Power fan. It's probably there on the board.
Global Warming, it's a personal decision innit? - Nigel Tufnel
Anyone else think so? According to my calculations, he would have been 44 when this was made. He also died shortly afterward.
Dietrich had plastic surgery by then and was using an artificial face lift, hence her more youthful appearance. But still remarkable that she's 13 years older than Powers.
Global Warming, it's a personal decision innit? - Nigel Tufnel
He was probably just 42 filming this but I agree, he looked 10 years older than his actual age. A good looking 50 year old no doubt but he also looked tired/haggard in this, especially in the beginning. But there were scenes where I thought he looked much better like when he was finally in court. Was the court scene filmed first or was he initially sick/getting over something that made him look much better later?
I notice that he aged a lot actually, even in 1947 for The Razor's Edge, he was 32-33 but looked late 30s.
But it seems, despite looking older and haggard in this, both Dietrich and Laughton had crushes on him. He must've looked a lot better in person. And if he could still have men and women go gaga even when he looked sick, I wonder how beautiful he was in person in his 20s.
Global Warming, it's a personal decision innit? - Nigel Tufnel
If you like Tyrone Power, then you must watch, if you haven't done so already, Marie Antoinette. You will see just how beautiful he was. He looks god enough to eat.
He didn't want to be known as a pretty face, but as a serious actor (as he came from a long line of theatrical actors); so yeah, he wasn't going to try to remain pretty for the fans. So he didn't look after his looks. And I do believe that he had a pre-existing heart condition/family history of heart disease. He did a public service announcement for the American Heart Association not long before he passed.
I haven't seen Marie Antoinette, I will now! Thanks!
There's only film of his that I've seen so far that I don't like is Jesse James.