Richard Ewing Powell was an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility and successfully transformed into a hardboiled leading man, starring in projects of a more dramatic nature. He was the first actor to portray private detective Philip Marlowe on screen.
Dick Powell in 1962
Image: Dick Powell signature
Ruby Keeler and Powell in Footlight Parade (1933)
Dick Powell in a trailer for Dames (1934)
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The genre originated in the 1920s, notably in Black Mask magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op and Sam Spade first appeared. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep, published in 1939. Chandler's early short stories, published in pulp magazines such as Black Mask and Dime Detective, featured similar characters with names like "Carmady" and "John Dalmas", starting in 1933.
Humphrey Bogart in the trailer for the 1946 film The Big Sleep
Ed Bishop had the title role in BBC Radio's Philip Marlowe radio drama series.
Marlowe, as he appeared in volume 9 of Detective Conan
Photo of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall from the 1946 film ''The Big Sleep''