Powers, Tom

(1890-1955)

   Owensboro, Kentucky-born Tom Powers attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA), after which he appeared in a Pennsylvania production of In Mizzoura (1911). He gained notice in two New York productions, Mr. Lazarus and Mile-a-Minute Kendall, both in 1916, then made an auspicious debut in musicals, introducing Jerome Kern's "Till the Clouds Roll By" in Oh, Boy! (1917). Most of his subsequent work was in nonmusicals, with notable performances in Why Not? (1922) and in Theatre Guild productions of Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck (1925) and three George Bernard Shaw plays: Androcles and the Lion (1925), The Man of Destiny (1926), and Arms and the Man (1926). Powers scored later successes in Philip Barry's comedy White Wings (1926) and in Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer PRizE-winning drama Strange Interlude (1928). He replaced Orson Welles* in the Mercury Theatre* production of Julius Caesar (1938). He also had a lengthy motion picture career, appearing most memorably as the victim in Double Indemnity (1944).