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William Powell was an actor from the 1920s to the 1960s. He was born in 1892 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he was far from an overnight success. He became a stage actor when he was 20, and it would be 12 years before he went to Hollywood, and for the first seven years, he worked for Paramount Pictures, mostly playing villains! He became a star with The Canary Murder Case in 1929, which was made as a silent movie, but remade with sound, and it was Powell's wonderful voice that made him a star. In 1931, he switched to Warner Bros., and then in 1934 to MGM, where he became a top star, first with Myrna Loy in Manhattan Melodrama, and then with her again in The Thin Man the same year (he was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this first film in the series). He had been married to Carole Lombard from 1931 to 1933 (and they made My Man Godfrey together, for which he was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award), and he was also very memorable in his movies with Kay Francis, which included One Way Passage. In 1935, he made Reckless with Jean Harlow, and the two were engaged, but she took sick and passed away in 1937. Powell took a year off after her death, but returned to make many Thin Man sequels and other successful movies. In 1940, he married Diana Lewis after only knowing her for three weeks, and she was 27 years his junior, but their marriage lasted the rest of his life! As he aged, he seamlessly moved to older leading parts and character roles, including in Life With Father (for which he was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award), Mister Roberts, and scores of others! He retired in 1955, and lived a quite life until his passing in 1984, at the age of 91. He lived a most remarkable life! AND Myrna Loy was an actress from the 1920s to the 1980s. She was born Myrna Adele Williams in 1905, and amazingly, she made 78 movies between 1925 and 1933, and she FINALLY got her big break when she signed with MGM, and the next year she made both "The Thin Man" and "Manhattan Melodrama", and the rest, as they say, was history! But what took Hollywood and film goers so long to recognize her amazing beauty and talent? In her early years of making movies, her "exotic" look led her to sometimes be cast as an Asian or Polynesian! She remained a major box office star for over two decades, and she had wonderful chemistry with ALL of her leading men, including William Powell, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and many others! Some of her other movies include: The Best Years of Our Lives, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, and countless others.

Important Added Info: Note that this REPRODUCTION still has been personally autographed (signed) by BOTH William Powell AND Myrna Loy! Also note that many celebrities kept multiple 8" x 10" (or smaller) copies of good publicity images of themselves to sign for fans, and also many memorabilia shops sold such copy stills themselves. While they are not original stills, they are usually excellent clear copies, with a great shot of that celebrity in their heyday, which, when signed by the celebrity, makes for a wonderful framed picture on any fan's wall!

About the Collection this Item Comes From
Note that this item (and 126 others we are auctioning this week, each in its own auction) was consigned to us by a man who was a successful business man, and in late 1989, he decided to take up the hobby of obtaining autographed stills! He obtained current addresses of many celebrities of the 1920s through the 1950s who were still alive, and he also purchased original vintage stills on those celebrities (when he could find vintage ones), or he purchased repro stills when he could not find vintage ones. He then wrote a nice detailed handwritten letter to each of those stars, enclosing one or more photos, and he described in detail what he liked about their career, and how much of a fan he was. The celebrities who received his letters mostly replied by sending back the item(s) signed, and sometimes they wrote nice letters as well! Our consignor continued with this hobby for around 2 1/2 years, and over that time he was able to acquire a large number of signed stills, which he has consigned to us. In this set of auctions we are auctioning 127 of his autographed items (and we will auction others from his collection in future "all signed" auctions). We feel certain that the autographs on these items are authentic! Note that each of the 127 items from this consignor all have this paragraph on them.

UPDATED 10/19/2010: Note that the consignor of this still had sent us other items that were from the 1980s and 1990s and we mistakenly listed this still as '90. However, this still is from the 1970s (and it would have been impossible for William Powell to sign it in 1990 because he died in 1984!).

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