Today would have been the 100th birthday of Tyrone Power. Power, one of the biggest box office draws of his day (in 1939, he was second only to Mickey Rooney), is remembered primarily for his swashbucklers and costume dramas, though he appeared in just about every genre.
He was a hero in real life, as well, serving as a Marine pilot in World War II, during which he flew in cargo and flew out the wounded during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinanawa.
He was descended from a long line of distinguished actors, dating back to his great-grandfather (also named Tyrone Power), who was born in 1795. He was also related to Laurence Olivier and theatrical director Tyrone Guthrie.
In the 1950s, increasingly dissatisfied with the roles he was being offered, Power started to devote more time to the stage. Not wanting to completely alienate one of their most profitable stars, 20th Century Fox began to offer him more latitude in choosing his projects.
Sadly, Power died of a massive heart attack while shooting a duel with George Sanders in King Vidor’s “Solomon and Sheba” in 1958. He was 44 years old.
It was pretty standard during the Golden Age of Hollywood for actors to appear as just about any ethnicity. Though he himself was of Irish, English and French Huguenot ancestry, Power was cast as Hispanic or Latino on several occasions, most notably as the matador in “Blood and Sand” and of course as Don Diego Vega and his alter ego in “The Mark of Zorro.”
I don’t intend this as a backhanded salute to Cinco de Mayo – I am sure there must be justifiable ambivalence over the Spanish conquest of Latin America among a certain segment of the population – but here’s Power in all his glory, from “Captain from Castile” (1947).
“Captain from Castile” was filmed on location in Mexico and incorporates a real volcano in mid-eruption. The stirring music is by Alfred Newman.
Main title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqTNEssSe2M
The famous Conquest march: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXVWSAMq6aA
Theatrical trailer (not in Technicolor?!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB62g7-H8Kc
PHOTO: Power with Jean Peters
