Tyrone Power, Sr.
(1869-1931)

Power, Frederick Tyrone (1869-1931) Born in London, he was the grandson of the famous Irish comedian, the first Tyrone Power (1795-1841), and father of the dashing film star Tyrone Power Jr. His father was the concert pianist Harold Power. Tyrone was educated at Dulwich College in England. When his family emigrated to America in 1886, he was sent to Florida to study orange raising on a citrus farm. As he always wanted to be an actor, his life as a farmer quickly ended and he made his stage debut in St. Augustine, FL in The Private Secretary in 1886. He toured the US, Britain and Australia becoming a famed matinee idol using the name Tyrone Power II and Tyrone Power the Younger. He made his New York debut in 1891 at the Union Square Theatre, and in 1894 he became a leading man with Augustin Daly’s famous company where he did The Taming of the Shrew and later went with him to England. He appeared successfully with Fanny Januschek and later joined up with Minnie Maddern Fiske (1899-1902) where among other parts, he played the Marquis of Steyne in Mrs. Fiske’s Becky Sharp, a role for which he was especially well received. Other big plays were Ulysses (1903); The Servant in the House (1905); and Chu Chin Chow (exotic musical, 1907). In 1912 he was acclaimed for his Brutus in Julius Caesar and in 1922 he appeared as Claudius in John Barrymore’s Hamlet. Later in his career he performed largely in major supporting roles in Shakespeare revivals. His last New York appearance was in The Merchant of Venice, in 1931 with the Chicago Civic Shakespeare Society. In 1914 he made the transition into film where continued to play the leading man until age moved him into often villainous character roles. At home one night after shooting on the film The Miracle Man in 1931, he suffered a massive heart attack and died in the arms of his 17 year old son, Tyrone Power, Jr. He was 62.