This photograph was taken on the set of “Solomon and <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Sheba” on November 15, 1958 in Madrid, Spain. Power had been filming a fight scene with actor George Sanders when he became weak and collapsed. Nobody realized at the time that he was having a massive heart attack. Power retired to his small, Coachman trailer where he took a nap and died in his sleep less than four hours after this photo was taken. It was a tragic end to one of Hollywood’s greatest stars.
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Unfortunately, Tyrone Power shares with Errol Flynn the distinction of having been smeared after his death. Regarding Power’s alleged homosexuality, I defer to actor Jack Elam who knew Power as well as anyone. When I brought up these allegations in my interview with Elam on June 20, 1998, he became angry and said “Let me tell you something – you tell them they’re full of shit! I mean they’re just full of it! I remember he told Zanuck “Before we finish this picture, put this guy (Elam) under contract.” So I was put under contract at Fox. About three months later he did a picture called “An American Guerilla in the Philippines.” I had a bit part in it, if you remember, nothing important, but I was in the Philippines for a long time on that picture. And I had dinner with Ty many, many nights. And it wasn’t just me. I spent a lot of time with him and talked with him a lot about everything in the world. He loved to converse. He had a very great mind, and he loved to talk. I would have smelled it if there was anything at all. I would have known. There’s no way those people saying that stuff about Ty aren’t full of shit!
— Shamrock
Anonymous
September 18, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I agree with Jack Elam, whom I met several times at Fox and Universal and once at Columbia. I had lunch often with Ty Power when I was under contract to Fox in the early fifties and dinner on a couple of occasions. Never once did he make any attempt to discuss homosexuality or bisexuality or make a pass physically or verbally. I also went to his home in Bel Air twice, once with my first wife Gloria, and again never saw any suggestion of gayness or bisexuality. It is so easy to speak badly of people when they are dead and cannot fight back, as has so often been the case with biographers discussing Errol Flynn. As I sytated in my just-published memoirs, Googie's: Coffee Shop to the Stars, I was there with these famous stars and I know the ones who were gay and the ones who were not; and despite the innuendos about Power and Flynn, I assure you this was not the case. Best to all, Steve Hayes