Frank Powell

Francis William Powell (May 8, 1877 – unknown) was a Canadian-born American stage and silent film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter who worked predominantly in the United States. He is also credited with "discovering" Theda Bara and casting her in a starring role in the 1915 release A Fool There Was. Her performance in that production, under Powell's direction, quickly earned Bara widespread fame as the film industry's most popular evil seductress or on-screen "vamp".

Early life and stage career Frank Powell was born in 1877 in Hamilton, Canada, the child of Elizabeth and Francis Powell. However, a 1916 notice in the trade paper Variety does confirm Powell's close and early connection to Cleveland. In an April 26 news item titled "Frank Powell Resting", the widely read publication announces that the 38-year-old director was traveling to Cleveland, "his boyhood home", for a vacation. What is known about Powell's 12-year stage career is that he worked with playwright Kirke La Shelle and performed in at least two major Broadway productions. In 1904 he performed in the play Tit for Tat at the Savoy Theatre, and the next year he both acted in and served as a director for Augustus Thomas's comedy The Education of Mr. Pipp. He then relocated for several years to England, where he directed productions for actress Ellen Terry before returning to North America. In its October 15, 1915 issue, the Austin Statesman and Tribune provides details about the course of Powell's initial stagework with Terry, background that he shared with the newspaper in an interview:

Film In New York in 1909, Powell expanded his career into the rapidly expanding motion picture industry, working initially as an actor and scriptwriter at Biograph Studios. There he also co-directed his first film with D.W. Griffith and demonstrated an adeptness at directing comedies. For the 1914 Pathé film The Taint, he bought a steam locomotive and then destroyed it in a dramatically staged derailment. The stunt did not go as planned. It was reported that the "wild" unmanned engine jumped the tracks and "narrowly missed hitting the platform on which Mr. Powell and his camera were stationed." Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

Later, as a freelancer, Powell directed the first film made by George Kleine's production company. He was then hired near the end of 1914 by Fox Film Corporation, where he directed two highly popular films starring Theda Bara. The first one, A Fool There Was, was released in January 1915 and made the young actress an international star and gave her the nickname "The Vamp". Often credited with "discovering" Bara, he had cast Bara six months earlier in a very minor role in her onscreen debut for the Pathé drama The Stain. In his 1926 reference A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture Through 1925, film historian Terry Ramsaye describes Powell's initial casting and promotion of Bara:thumb

Death The date, exact location, and cause of Powell's death remain uncertain due to the lack of conclusive documentation. The presence of various Frank Powells in historical records in different states, conflicting information in federal indexes, and the ongoing need to find a corroborating obituary in a newspaper or trade publication leave many questions regarding Powell's final years and death unanswered.

Selected filmography Actor The Friend of the Family''' (1909)In the Watches of the Night' (1909)The Mended Lute (1909)With Her Card (1909)A Corner in Wheat (1909)His Duty (1909)In Old California (1910)The Impalement (1910)The Newlyweds (1910)The Man (1910)The Rocky Road (1910)The Rose of Surrey (1913), as Edmund Grey Director The Kid (1910) May and December (1910)Never Again (1910)A Gold Necklace (1910) The Lucky Toothache (1910)Jane Shore (1911)Puppets of Fate (1912)His Last Dollar (1914) Anna Rose (1914) The Corsair (1914) Officer 666 (1914)The Stain (1914)The Taint (1914)A Fool There Was (1915)Children of the Ghetto (1915)From the Valley of the Missing (1915)The Devil's Daughter (1915)Princess Romanoff (1915)A Woman's Past (1915)Charity? (1916)The Chain Invisible (1916)The Fourth Estate (1916) The Scarlet Oath (1916)The Witch (1916)Mary Moreland (1917)The Dazzling Miss Davison (1917) The Final Payment (1917)The Mirror (1917)Hedda Gabler (1917)The Debt (1917)Mrs. Balfame (1917)Motherhood (1917)Heart of the Sunset (1918)You Never Know Your Luck (1919) The Unbroken Promise (1919) The Forfeit (1919)Astray from the Steerage (1921)On Her Honor (1922)Rancher or Ranchers (1923)

ProducerCharity (1916) Motherhood (1917)The Dazzling Miss Davison (1917)Hedda Gabler (1917)Mrs. Balfame (1917)Mary Moreland (1917)The Forfeit (1919) Screenwriter Everybody's Business (1917) Enchantment (1920) In Full Cry (1921) A Soul's Awakening'' (1922)