TopTenREVIEWS presents the film career and movie reviews of William Powell.
Email to a friend
Birthdate: June 29, 1892
Death date: March 5, 1984
William Powell
ACTOR RANKINGS:
CAREER SPAN
Decade
Movie Score
# Movies
1920s
1.6941
40
1930s
3.9805
35
1940s
2.7103
15
1950s
1.9310
5
Ratings and rankings are based on all available critic reviews & awards.
Overall Actor Score: 
2.8373
2.8373
William Powell Movie Rankings
1
3.2333Young Dorothy Wynant approaches amateur sleuth Nick Charles when her inventor father appears to be a major suspect in a murder case. In fact, Dorothy is so worried about her father's guilt that she tries to convince Nick that she did it. ...more about Thin Man
Actor Awards
- Academy Awards, USA - Best Actor in a Leading Role
DVD from $11.49
(16 sellers)
2
3.1106Orphans Edward "Blackie" Gallagher and Jim Wade are lifelong friends who take different paths in life. Blackie thrives on gambling and grows up to be a hard-nosed racketeer. Bookworm Wade becomes a D.A. vying for the Governorship. ...more about Manhattan Melodrama
- Not Available on DVD
3
3.0063In the depths of the Depression, a party game brings dizzy socialite Irene Bullock to the city dump where she meets Godfrey, a derelict, and ends by hiring him as family butler. ...more about My Man Godfrey
Actor Awards
- Academy Awards, USA - Best Actor in a Leading Role
DVD from $9.98
(9 sellers)
4
2.9938
Mister Roberts is aboard a US cargo ship, working in the Pacific during the Second World War. He'd do anything to leave the quiet of the ship to join in the "action". ...more about Mister Roberts
DVD from $10.89
(13 sellers)
5
2.9823
Steve and Susan Ireland are about to celebrate their 4th wedding anniversary by re-enacting their first date. When Susan's meddling mother interrupts and injures herself. ...more about Love Crazy
- Not Available on DVD
6
2.9740
In late nineteenth century New York a Wall Street broker likes to think his house runs his way, but finds himself constantly bemused at how much of what happens is down to his wife. ...more about Life with Father
Actor Awards
- Academy Awards, USA - Best Actor in a Leading Role
- New York Film Critics Circle Awards - Best Actor
DVD from $5.99
(6 sellers)
7
2.9288
Warren Haggerty is the chief editor of the New York Evening Star. He keeps on delaying his marriage with Gladys because of problems his newspapers must face. ...more about Libeled Lady
DVD from $12.71
(12 sellers)
8
2.8436
Elissa asks Nick to find her missing husband. He had been seeing a bit on the side, and blackmailing a local criminal. David Graham claims he paid the missing husband to get rid of a former girlfriend. ...more about After the Thin Man
DVD from $37.01
(14 sellers)
9
2.8286
A decorated, aristocratic Czarist General is reduced to penury after the collapse of Imperial Russia. An old adversary, now a successful director hires the general to re-enact the revolution which deposed him. ...more about Last Command
- Not Available on DVD
10
2.8169
The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style. ...more about Ziegfeld Follies
DVD from $8.68
(13 sellers)
11
2.8108
Relations between Dr. 'Brad' Bradford and ex-wife Paula are surprisingly romantic. They divorced because Brad hated being dragged into murder mysteries, to which mystery writer Paula is addicted. ...more about Ex-Mrs. Bradford
- Not Available on DVD
12
2.8086
Nick and Nora Charles are looking forward to a day of leisure, but when they make a trip to the race track, they learn that a jockey, who was recently accused of throwing a race, has just been found shot to death. ...more about Shadow of the Thin Man
DVD from $37.01
(14 sellers)
13
2.7695
In this adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's "The Farewell Murder", Nick and Nora (and their dog Asta) visit the estate of Col. MacFay, who is being threatened by a mysterious man wanting revenge for a past injustice. ...more about Another Thin Man
DVD from $37.01
(14 sellers)
14
2.7041
At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, sideshow barker Flo Ziegfeld turns the tables on his more successful neighbor Billings, and steals his girlfriend to boot. ...more about Great Ziegfeld
DVD from $7.99
(13 sellers)
15
2.6939
Friend Tim Winthrop asks criminal lawyer and amateur detective Clay Dalzell to find his girl, Alice, who disappeared a year earlier without a trace. ...more about Star of Midnight
- Not Available on DVD
16
2.6552
Three New York models, Shatze, Pola and Loco set-up in an exclusive appartment with a plan: tired of cheap men and a lack of money they intend to use all their talents to trap and marry three millionaires. ...more about How to Marry a Millionaire
DVD from $10.69
(10 sellers)
17
2.6118
Nick and Nora Charles are attending a charity benefit aboard a gambling ship. The festive atmosphere conceals many tensions among those connected with the ship, with most of the friction centering around Tommy Drake, its unpopular, spiteful band-leader. ...more about Song of the Thin Man
DVD from $37.01
(14 sellers)
18
2.5844
Archer Coe has been found dead in his locked bedroom. The cops consider it suicide, but Philo believes otherwise. When the Coroner shows up, he finds that Archer had been hit with a blunt object, stabbed and shot - making suicide unlikely. ...more about Kennel Murder Case
DVD from $5.16
(6 sellers)
19
2.5661
Idealistic attorney Anton Adam makes headlines when he successfully prosecutes a prominent New York racketeer named Gilmurry. ...more about Lawyer Man
- Not Available on DVD
20
2.5376
Nick and Nora Charles return home to spend time with Nick's family. But Daddy isn't pround of Nick for being a detective instead of becoming a doctor like him. Nora thinks Nick solving a case will get him respect from his Dad. ...more about Thin Man Goes Home
DVD from $37.01
(14 sellers)
21
2.5296
Waldo and Irene have been living with Margit for the four years that they have been engaged. Margit has planned the wedding and the honeymoon - in fact, Margit plans everything down to what they will have for breakfast every day. ...more about Double Wedding
- Not Available on DVD
22
2.4748
Male Polish secret agent and female Russian secret police spy smuggle messages to Petersburg in candlesticks and while chasing after stolen candlesticks discover each other's identity and fall in love. ...more about Emperor's Candlesticks
- Not Available on DVD
23
2.4565
British officer (William Powell) is assigned to duty in Ireland and gets embroiled in Anglo-Irish battles and old girl friend (Edna Best) who is now married to an Irishman (Colin Clive). ...more about Key
- Not Available on DVD
24
2.4291
A young American girl visits Paris accompanied by her fiancee and her wealthy uncle. There she meets and is romanced by a worldly novelist; what she doesn't know is that he is a blackmailer who is using her to get to her uncle. ...more about Man of the World
DVD from $16.37
(10 sellers)
25
2.3469
While alone on a cruise, upstanding, teetotal - and mean - Larry Wilson receives a blow on the head, causing him to revert to his old, forgotten, persona of man-about-town and swindler George Carey. ...more about I Love You Again
- Not Available on DVD
26
2.2739
There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present. With her rich husband, deceased, rich old Lord Kelton and playboy Lord Arthur Dilling are both very interested in the mysterious Fay. ...more about Last of Mrs. Cheyney
- Not Available on DVD
27
2.2739
Suave Dan Hardesty, a convicted murderer, is apprehended by Steve Burke, a police detective, in Hong Kong and accompanied on the SS Maloa headed for San Francisco. On board, Dan romances Joan Ames, a terminally ill socialite. ...more about One Way Passage
- Not Available on DVD
28
2.2510
As told to a psychiatrist: Mr. Peabody, middle-aged Bostonian on vacation with his wife in the Caribbean, hears mysterious, wordless singing on an uninhabited rock in the bay. Fishing in the vicinity, he catches...a mermaid. ...more about Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
- Not Available on DVD
29
2.1369
Prof. Andrew Gentling, in Los Angeles to help found a new college, is inveigled by old flame Catherine Sykes into a midnight drive. ...more about Take One False Step
- Not Available on DVD
31
2.0547
The year is 1884, when Britain rules a quarter of the planet. Ledger stars as Harry Faversham, an officer in Her Majesty's service who is about to marry the vivacious Ethne Eustace when his regiment is called to service in the bloody Sudan. ...more about Four Feathers
DVD from $5.79
(10 sellers)
33
1.7520
Young David, orphaned en route to California, falls into the hands of medicine-show rascal Baltimore Dan. Years later, now a trained thief, he's adopted by eccentric 'Doc' Brown, retired miner and pharmacist. ...more about Treasure of Lost Canyon
- Not Available on DVD
35
1.5981
When a baroness is present during a robbery at a jewellers in Vienna, she finds the gang's debonair leader more attractive than either her husband or her lover. ...more about Jewel Robbery
- Not Available on DVD
36
1.3881
Diplomat is blackmailed for crimes committed while he had amnesia. ...more about Crossroads
- Not Available on DVD
37
1.3698
Dim-witted blowhard, Melvin G. Ashton, is a US Senator who wants to be President. He hires Lew Gibson, a talented PR man who gets Ashton in newsreels and on the front page, never thinking he'll win. ...more about Senator Was Indiscreet
Actor Awards
- New York Film Critics Circle Awards - Best Actor
- Not Available on DVD
39
A Butler (Powell) gets elected to the Hungarian parliament where he opposes his master's government. ...more about Baroness and the Butler
- Not Available on DVD
40
Michael "Beau" Geste leaves England in disgrace and joins the infamous French Foreign Legion. He is reunited with his two brothers in North Africa, where they face greater danger from their own sadistic commander than from the rebellious Arabs. ...more about Beau Geste
- Not Available on DVD
42
Gardoni, a down-on-his-luck vaudeville performer, is taken in by a fellow performer, a clown who has a bicycle riding act. Gardoni shows his appreciation by stealing the clown's act and his girlfriend, whom he marries. ...more about Behind the Make-Up
- Not Available on DVD
43
A ruthless, crooked stockbroker is murdered at his luxurious country estate, and detective Philo Vance just happens to be there; he decides to find out who killed him. ...more about Benson Murder Case
- Not Available on DVD
44
Charles Abbott is a wealthy adventurer in Cuba of the 1850s. He is in love with Narcissa but goes after La Clavel to obtain information on the Spanish. He becomes implicated in the death of his friend Escobar, brother of Narcissa. ...more about Bright Shawl
- Not Available on DVD
45
A beautiful showgirl, name "the Canary" is a scheming nightclub singer. Blackmailing is her game and with that she ends up dead. But who killed "the Canary". All the suspects knew and were used by her and everyone had a motive to see her dead. ...more about Canary Murder Case
- Not Available on DVD
47
Conceited film star Emery Slade was on top in 1932; in 1949, he's broke and still insufferable. Fox producer Crossman enlists Slade's aid to persuade broadway star Rosalie Brooks to star in the film "Bandwagon. ...more about Dancing in the Dark
- Not Available on DVD
54
Sherwood Nash is a swindler who bootlegs Paris fashions for sale at cut-rate prices. His assistant Lynn poses as An American interested in a dress and Snap conceals a camera in his cane. ...more about Fashions of 1934
- Not Available on DVD
55
A rich but hypochondriac heiress inherits a sanitarium. What she doesn't know is that it is a front for bootleggers, and a hideout for criminals on the run from the law. ...more about Feel My Pulse
- Not Available on DVD
58
Attorney's daughter falls for one of his gangster clients. ...more about Girl Who Had Everything
- Not Available on DVD
59
Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbour, the nouveau riche Jay Gatsby. ...more about Great Gatsby
- Not Available on DVD
61
Gar Evans is a con artist, who pretents to be the owner of a "Golden Gate Artificial Rubber Company", and he is looking for investors. Finding them is relativly easy, but it becomes difficult when those want to see the inventor of the synthetic rubber... ...more about High Pressure
- Not Available on DVD
64
The story, told in eight episodes, covers different facets of the American Spirit, from racial and religious tolerance to the dangers of self-centeredness and myopic reasoning. ...more about It's a Big Country
- Not Available on DVD
65
A society gigolo goes after a rich mother and her daughter, but tries to find true happiness with his girlfriend, who is neither rich nor in "society. ...more about Ladies' Man
- Not Available on DVD
67
Loulou (Prevost) falls in love with Maurice (Roche), a musician, and offers a divorce to her husband, Gaston (Blue), who agrees. He concocts a secret plot, however, that will make her become bored with Maurice. ...more about My Lady's Lips
- Not Available on DVD
76
Wealthy Bob Harrison buys all the seats in the theatre to watch Mona Leslie's musical by himself. He loves her, her agent Ned Riley loves her. Conflict ensues. ...more about Reckless
- Not Available on DVD
77
In 1917 Lt. Bill Gordon is headed for France when he meets and becomes friendly with Joel Carter, niece of the Asst. Secretary of War. ...more about Rendezvous
- Not Available on DVD
79
In Renaissance Florence, Tito, a no-good young man pretending to be a scholar, wins the admiration of a blind man who has long looked for someone to finish his scholarly work. He has a beautiful daughter named Romola. ...more about Romola
- Not Available on DVD
80
A movie actress, mistakenly thinking she has killed a fellow actor, goes on the run and finds herself taken in by a Kentucky mountain family. ...more about Runaway
- Not Available on DVD
95
Joan Lyons (Virginia Weidler) and her friend Patricia Drew (Jean Porter) are autograph hounds spending most of their day bumping into, and having tea, with the likes of Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. ...more about Youngest Profession
- Not Available on DVD
Copyright ©2008 TopTenREVIEWS, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of TopTenREVIEWS, Inc. is prohibited.
