Quotes and Anecdotes

This page consists of remarks about Ty, mostly by people who knew him.

Please note: These quotations were derived from many sources. None of the quotes were taken from other web pages. Please do not use the quotations on another web page without citing this web page as your source.

Anne Baxter
(leading lady in Crash Dive, Luck of the Irish; supporting player in The Razor's Edge; stage tour John Brown's Body)

"He was the most beautiful man I ever saw. No question."

Dorothy Kilgallen
(columnist who also became a personal friend)

"Now there is a dream man!" (reviewing Ty's star-making turn in Lloyd's of London)

Patricia Neal
(leading lady in Diplomatic Courier)

"Ty was the only movie star I ever had a crush on as a child. I told Ty that Patsy Lou Neal had once written him a passionate love letter and wondered why she had never received an answer."

Coleen Gray
(leading lady in Nightmare Alley)

"He had an aura about him that set him apart from everybody else. I had an enormous crush on him and felt his feet never touched the earth."

Annabella
(Ty's first wife)

"Tyrone had maybe one little fault -- he didn't know enough to say no to someone like Mr. Zanuck. I'm sure he wanted Tyrone to belong to Fox, but it didn't stop my love for Tyrone or Tyrone's love for me."

David Niven
(actor and personal friend)

"Ty was everybody's favorite person, and all agreed that he was that great rarity -- a man who was just as nice as he seemed to be. With his flashing good looks, graceful carriage, and easy laughter, it was no surprise that he was a Pied Piper to women -- they followed him in droves wherever he went -- but Ty was a simple person, with a great down-to-earthness and modesty about himself."

Basil Rathbone
(villain in The Mark of Zorro)

"Power was the most agile man with a sword I've ever faced before a camera. Tyrone could have fenced Errol Flynn into a cocked hat."

Gene Tierney
(leading lady in Son of Fury, The Razor's Edge, and That Wonderful Urge)

"Ty was warm and considerate. He had a beautiful face."

Sophia Loren
(Italian actress, who began film career in 1950 and continues to work today)

"Tyrone Power was the god of my adolescence.I would return to see his pictures over and over again. I would go first thing in the morning and stay through the last showing at night."

Maureen O'Hara
(leading lady for The Black Swan and The Long Gray Line)

"Working with Ty Power was exciting. In those days, he was the biggest romantic swashbuckler in the world. Murderously handsome! But what I loved most about Ty Power was his wicked sense of humor."

Henry King
(director of 11 of Ty's films and personal friend)

"Tyrone Power was one of the genuine professionals among the actors I've dealt with. I suppose "craftsman" might be another proper term."

"People always seem to remember Ty with sword in hand, although he once told me he wanted to be a character actor. He actually was quite good -- among the best swordsmen in films."

"I'm proud of the fact that Ty and I got along so famously, both on screen and off. We were good friends."

"I hope my own boys will grow up to be like him."

Debbie Reynolds
(actress who worked with Tyrone's wife, Linda in 1954's movie, Athena)

"Tyrone Power, as a star, was right up there with Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. And being in his physical presence was almost overwhelming. He was so beautiful, so charming, so gentle, so sensitive, and so kind -- to everybody. Sometimes Tyrone would drive over from 20th Century-Fox where he worked to have lunch with Linda. We were all thrilled just to see him -- he was so sensational looking."

Lana Turner
(Ty's romantic interest off-screen, in 1947)

"I love that guy. Be sure you bring him back to me." (said to Bob Buck, Ty's co-pilot, as they were ready to leave September 1, 1947, for Europe and South Africa)

Bob Buck
(*Ty's co-pilot in the 1947 trip, which began a lifelong friendship.)

"He was loaded with natural ability, terrific coordination. Ty and Basil Rathbone were known as the best fencers in the movie world."

"He was an all-American boy, but he could talk religion, philosophy, art, literature -- most things except politics. He felt that fame shouldn't necessarily set someone up to run for office; politics, he believed, was a special game. If you wanted to play it, it was something you had to take on full-time if you wanted to accomplish anything."

*There is a wonderful chapter in Bob Buck's book, North Star Over My Shoulder , which gives in detail an account of the trip that Ty, Bob Buck and others took to Europe and South Africa in 1947. There are many delightful incidents that Buck reports... great insights into Ty.

Lynn Bari
(played Ty's sister in Blood and Sand)

"Ty was one of my great crushes."

Raymond Massey
(co-star of John Brown's Body)

"He never complained. He proved to himself that in the theatre he could be as great as his father and as his father had hoped he would be."

"He remained a dear and close friend of Dorothy's (Massey's wife) and mine for the rest of his short and merry life. He crammed an awful lot into it. He had a great capacity for having fun, a capacity distressingly rare these days."

Dorothy Lamour
(Ty's leading lady in Johnny Apollo)

"There was one absolutely gorgeous man in Hollywood I had admired from afar for several years. When I saw him in a nightclub or at a motion picture function, I would just stare. And when I was told that Twentieth Century-Fox wanted to borrow me for a film with this dream man, I nearly fainted. At last I was going to work with -- and more than likely, be kissed by -- Tyrone Power. Of course I tried to be very sophisticated, but privately, on the inside, I was very excited. As I began to know Ty, I decided the word "devil" certainly suited him. Not only was he more handsome off screen than on (and that took some doing), but he was one of the funniest men I ever met."

Peter Duchin
(son of Eddy Duchin, speaking of the making of The Eddy Duchin Story)

"Three of Dad's best Hollywood friends -- Cary Grant, Van Johnson, Tyrone Power -- had wanted to play the title role. The choice of Power, with his dark looks and boyish charm, seemed perfect."

Ethel Merman
(second leading lady in Alexander's Ragtime Band)

"Some reporter questioned me about Ty. Sonja and half of the women in America were insane about him, but I just shrugged and said that he wasn't my type. That quote received wide play in the press. But I didn't mean it the way they interpreted it. Ty and Clark Gable -- they just don't make them like that anymore. I admired Ty, but when I said he wasn't my type, I should have gone on and said I probably wasn't his type either. Once after work I had a drink with him, and that's the closest I ever got to Tyrone Power. He was glamour personified, and so was the girl he married, Linda Christian."

Alice Faye
(leading lady in In Old Chicago, Rose of Washington Square, and Alexander's Ragtime Band)

"Kissing Ty was like you'd died and gone to heaven."

"He wasn't arrogant. He wasn't full of himself, but I've never seen anyone as handsome as Ty."

Elsa Maxwell
(well known hostess who knew Ty well)

"He takes great pride in what he does. He's a very nice star actually. He doesn't make trouble. He isn't temperamental. Those who work with him -- executives and members of his company and crew adore him: Talk among themselves of his sweetness and wish sometimes that, for his own good, he was less sweet. But this, I am sure, will never be. For, however he grows, the fundamental strains I have known in him never alter."

Bill Gallagher
(long time friend and personal secretary)

"Well-read, Ty has a curious and interesting mind. He loves people. There's a note of excitement about Ty that echoes in everything he does. Perhaps it's his zest for life-living. But with it, he is considerate of everyone. Because he is democratic and genuinely likes people."

Piper Laurie

(leading lady in The Mississippi Gambler)

"Tyrone Power was Saturday afternoons!" (speaking of going to the movies on Saturday afternoon)

"When you get kissed by Tyrone Power you hear bells...bells like on a switch engine. His kisses make your ears clang. I'm liable to wind up with bells in my belfry."

Roddy McDowall
(played Ty as a boy in Son of Fury)

"Ty was 23 when he became this gigantic star. He never seemed to be a neophyte or a gangling boy. He was a young leading man immediately."

"Everybody just loved him!"

"There was a panache, a grace, and a breeding about him that was enviable to both men and women. Mothers would like him to take their daughters out. Guys would like to have him for his brother."

"There's never been anybody else like him -- that's what makes stars -- he was unique"

Terry Moore
(leading lady for King of the Khyber Rifles)

"Oh, I just thought he was the most romantic, beautiful man I'd ever seen."

"He's like one of the last of the nobility."

Evie Johnson
(close personal friend and former fiancee)

"He loved flying. He loved excitement. And he loved danger. He had a wonderful war record, and he was an extremely good pilot."

"You couldn't help but just like him immediately, and when you got to know him, you just loved him."

Linda Christian
(Ty's second wife)

"Before me was a tall dais covered with a brocade and decorated with garlands of white lilac, and in front two handsome gilden chairs. And there stood Tyrone, quiet and beautiful at this great moment of our lives." (about their wedding)

"My mind was racing through memories and thoughts in an endless chain. Ty was dead, at forty-four, when there should have been so much of life ahead for him. The reality was difficult to grasp -- of someone close, alive and apparently healthy, and then just suddenly gone. I felt numb and heartsick." (about his death)

Taryn Power
(Ty's second-born daughter)

"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. "

"I would have liked to have talked to him -- I would have liked to hug him -- I would have liked to just had a daddy. I think he watches out for us, and he's still with us."