Biography - Ty's children

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Annie Power

In April of 1939, Tyrone Power married Annabella (born Suzanne Georgette Charpentier) , a divorcee who was several years older than he. She had a daughter, Annie, who was about nine or ten and living in Europe when the Powers were married. In September 1939, Annabella went to Europe to bring back her daughter. In time, Ty adopted Annie and gave her his name.

Very little information about Annie has been published, other than a few citations in magazines. Among the lengthier citations was an April 5, 1941 diary entry written by Tyrone Power and published in Modern Screen, Feb 1942, Ty wrote: "Been thinking it was time little Annie owned her own horse. No human being has ever been crazier about anything than that child about horses. I realize that takes in a lot of ground, but let it stand. She owns every book about a horse that was ever written. She carves saddles and shoes out of cardboard for her toy horses and spends hours in her room turning old boxes into stables. She rides bareback, Western, and probably upside down." For her birthday in 1941, Ty surprised her with her first horse, whom she named Moonlight. Another citation is from The State, NC magazine, Oct 28, 1944. The article mentioned that, during the summer of 1944, she spent several weeks with him in Morehead North Carolina, where he was serving as marine transport pilot at the Marine Air Station in Cherry Point. In 1954 Annie married Oskar Werner, and they divorced in 1968.

Ty very much wanted more children, and Annabella was keenly aware of Ty's need for children. She wanted very badly to give him a child, but despite her visits to specialists, she was unable to have another baby. In October 1946 Annie's parents separated, and a divorce became final in January 1949.

JUMP TO: Annie Romina Taryn Ty, Jr.

Romina Power

Romina is christened.
When Tyrone Power married Linda Christian in January 1949, they announced that they wanted to have children right away. Later that year, while Ty was filming The Black Rose, the happy couple got the news that Linda was expecting, with a due date of January 1950. On September 20, 1949, the announcement came that Linda had lost the baby boy that she was carrying. In January 1950, the couple announced that she was again expecting a baby, due in October. On May 6, while in Manila with Ty for the filming of An Guerilla in the American Philippines, Linda miscarried again. According to Linda, there were three miscarriages - two boys and a girl, before finally giving birth to a healthy six-pound, eleven-ounce baby girl, Romina, on October 2, 1951. After so many disappointments, the Powers were ecstatic when they finally had their first child!

After her parents divorced in the mid-1950's, Romina's time was split between her two parents. She would spend weeks at a time with her Dad, going with him to the set while he worked. After her dad's death, she saw very little of her mother. She was in boarding schools most of the time, seeing her mother only on holidays. By the early 1960's, she was living in Italy, where her mother had moved.

Romina, from a 1968 Argentina magazine Romina grew up to be a beautiful and talented woman. She began an acting career in Italy, making her film debut at the age of thirteen in Menage all'italiana , released in 1965. A few films followed, and in 1967, she starred in Nel sole, which had her mother in it, as well as Albano Carrisi (stage name Al Bano). Al Bano was already quickly establishing himself as a pop star when they met, and she was establishing a pop career also, recording several solo albums. In the next few years, the two would star in seven movies together. More importantly, they married on July 26, 1970, at the Church of St. Catherine, near Brindisi, Italy. They formed the singing team of Al Bano and Romina Power, which became an immensely popular singing team, especially in Italy and Germany. Romina had a successful singing career for about thirty years, earning numerous gold and platinum albums.

album cover, Romina Power and Al Bano Romina Power is also a talented artist, like both her mother and her Aunt Anne (Tyrone Power's sister). She began painting as a schoolgirl of fourteen. On her official site , she explained that she had been around painters for much of her life. She greatly admired her Aunt Anne, who was a classically trained painter who tried "would give me serious lectures about shading, perspective, and composition." Romina has exhibited her paintings in Venice, Rome, and Florence.

She has published five books in Italian, including 1998's "Cercando Mio Padre" about her father. She spent many years researching the book, interviewing many people who had known him.

Romina has always loved cinema. She commented that "When I was little I would stay glued to the TV watching old movies in black and white. Maybe the excessive love that I feel for the cinema comes from the fact that in order to see my father I would have to go to the set where he was working, so for me, the set was a beautiful, magical place." (Romina Power's official site ) In 2005 she wrote and directed her first film, Upaya, filmed in India.

In the mid 1980's a miracle came into Romina's life when she finally met her younger brother, Tyrone Power IV (Ty, Jr.). They later recorded together the song "A Miracle" for her album, Fragile .

Al Bano and Romina's marriage, which ended in 1999, produced four children. They have a son, Yari, and three daughters Ylenia (who disappeared mysteriously in New Orleans in 1994), Cristel, and Romina Jr.

JUMP TO: Annie Romina Taryn Ty, Jr.

Taryn Power

Proud parents of two beautiful girls!
On September 13, 1953, Linda made Tyrone very happy when she gave birth to another girl, Taryn Stephanie Power. Linda came up the name "Taryn" to honor her father. Her father adored Taryn and her older sister, Romina.

His daughters never got the chance to know him very well. At the time of his death, Romina was only seven , and her sister, Taryn, was just five. Their parents had divorced in 1955, and they lived with their mother. Tyrone would see them as much as possible, but with busy lives and living miles apart, there were too few years and too little time.

Just prior to his death, he sent the girls a note, saying, “I miss you both and I do so look forward to the time we can be together again … Be good girls and work well in school so that Mummy and Daddy can be proud of you … With kisses and hugs to you both, and all my love and a big hello from Debbie. Daddy.”

Dad and Romina help Taryn celebrate her birthday! Like her sister, Taryn grew up to be a stunning woman. For a time, in the 1970's, she was interested in becoming an actress. She made her first film, María, with a Mexican production company in 1972. A few films followed, with Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger being the most known. She also made some television guest appearances during this time. She made a few sporadic appearances post-1970, but, for the most part, she dropped out of acting.

circa 1996 Taryn married and divorced three times. Her first husband was photographer Norman Seeff. They had one child, Tai, born around 1980. Her second marriage was to rock musician Tony Sales, son of well-known comedian Soupy Sales. The couple had two children. Son Tony Tyrone was born around 1984 and daughter Valentina around 1986. She met her third husband, William Greendeer, in 1992, at a summer Sun Dance festival. They were married just over a year later in a tribal ceremony. In 1994, the couple moved from Los Angeles to a farm on the Winnebago reserve in Wisconsin. In April 1996, baby girl, Stella, was born.

As a young adult, Taryn wanted to get to know her father, who was known mainly to her as a screen legend. She made her wishes known to 20th Century-Fox, her father’s studio, and arrangements were made for private screenings of his films. She commented, “My memories of him are from the screen. I related to him mostly as a young good-looking man in films like Marie Antoinette. He did set a high standard for the men in my life.”

Taryn, her brother Ty, Jr. and mother, Linda Christian
circa 1990 In 1990, when asked she sacrificed her own career for family, Taryn said, "It was my choice. Ever since I was a teenager, all I could think about was getting married and having children. It's a heavy responsibility, but I've learned to get involved in every aspect of my children's lives, and I want to be there for all the important moments."

In the late 1980's, Taryn and Romina finally met their half-brother, Tyrone, born after their father's death. The photo to the left, with Taryn, Ty, Jr., and Linda Christian was taken during a special photography session in 1990, with Hello magazine. About seeing Ty, Jr. and her daughter together, Linda said, "It was an incredible and beautiful surprise to me when only a couple days ago I came to visit Taryn and she had invited Tyrone. It was a touching and warm experience."

JUMP TO: Annie Romina Taryn Ty, Jr.

Tyrone Power IV

An adorable little boy! Tyrone loved his daughters very much, yet he longed for a son . His third wife, Debbie Minardos Power, knew when she married him how much having a son meant to him. Just a couple days before his death, he talked excitedly of his wife’s pregnancy. They were both sure that this child would be the boy that he’d wanted for so many years. He said that he loved his girls very much and wanted more girls, yet continued, “But there has to be a boy, too. At least one. There’s got to be another Tyrone. You know, I’m the seventh Tyrone Power, actor. There’s always been one in my family and it’s like a trust, an unbroken line for seven generations, that one boy will be named Tyrone and that he’ll act. You’d be amazed at how much of my life is wrapped up in that idea. I’m the seventh. And now, at last, there’s going to be an eighth.”

On January 22, 1959, just a couple months after Tyrone's death, Tyrone Power IV, the son that Tyrone had waited his entire adult life for, was born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles.

Ty and Debbie's son, Tyrone Power IV, is known as Tyrone Power, Jr., just as Ty was known after his famous father died, and before he became an even bigger name than his father.

He became interested in acting in college when a friend suggested that they try out for a role in a Shakespearean play. Both he and his friends got good roles. The acting bug had hit! Ty, Jr. was a stage actor for seven years in repertory companies and off-Broadway before making the transition to movies. He landed his first movie role in 1985. The role was small but in an important movie, Cocoon. About the small role, he said, "I couldn't say no to working with Jessica Tandy, Maureen Stapleton, and Don Ameche, who'd all worked with my father. It was a wonderful experience." Three years later, he returned for the sequel to Cocoon. He's continued to make movies through the years.

Amazing how much Ty, Jr.'s profile looks like his father's!
With sister, Romina, from the insert of the CD Fragile In late 1987 (November or December), Ty, Jr. met his sister, Romina, for the first time. Then just ten months later, he went on a musical tour of Italy with his sister Romina Power and her then-husband, Al Bano . They also recorded together the song "A Miracle" for her album, Fragile.

In 1994, Ty, Jr. met actress DeLane Matthews during their filming of a movie called The Healer. In October of that year, he proposed to her, giving her the ring that his own father had given his mother. They were married June 18, 1995 at his new Arizona ranch in an outdoor ceremony. It was a quiet ceremony, with only family and a few close friends attending. The Powers had a son, Tyrone Keenan Power. They divorced in 2003.

About not ever getting the chance to know his father, Ty, Jr. commented: "It was really weird for me as a kid, watching his movies and trying to figure out who he was. Here I had this father I never knew. One day he's a pilot, one day he's a cowboy, next day he's romancing yet another gorgeous girl. I'd look at him on screen and ask myself, 'Now how would he have been in the Dad role?'"