With his name shining all over this land of ours, and audiences world-wide hailing him as one of the screen?s top-flight personalities, you?d think wouldn?t you, that Tyrone Power would be a pretty satisfied young gent, that he figured he had the world by the tail and could swing it as he pleased?

Yeah, that?s what anybody might think.

But not Tyrone. Not this lad whose skyrocketing to fame is one of the phenomenal success stories of the picture colony. Such a thought would be as alien to his nature as temperament creeping into his generous soul. He comes of too long a line of actors not to realize the futility of taking himself too seriously, not to be able to evaluate his true worth. Not to the studio, or to the screen, but to himself.

On the screen, Tyrone gives the impression that he is one of our finest young actors. And he is. The studio thinks so, and so does the public. But Tyrone??

Tyrone regards himself still as just a novice at the art of acting! A tyro!

When Hollywood talent scouts sought out the young player appearing in summer stock at West Falmouth, Mass., back in 1935, they were politely but firmly rebuffed with the quiet remark? ?I?m not ready for anything in the movie line.?

Instead of seizing upon a studio contract-a year previously he would have swooned at the thought of any studio offering him a contract-he went on to Broadway, to play the role of Benvolio, friend of Romeo, in Katherine Cornell?s new show, Romeo and Juliet

Despite his heritage of the stage-his father, you recall, was the celebrated Tyrone Power, his mother a well-known figure of the footlights, and his paternal great-grandfather the greatest English actor of his day-Tyrone always had been intensely interested in the screen. Before embarking upon a stage career in the east, he had attempted to carve out a movie existence, with no success whatever. He had, therefore, turned eyes stageward, in an effort to make a name for himself so that studios would accord him attention.

And then, once the opportunity presented itself to enjoy the fruits of his carefully-planted seeds, to reject all offers with that explanation? ?I?m not ready for anything in the movie line.?

Surely, this assertion along suffices to single out young Mister Power as a most extraordinary young actor.

Even when his agent, later, begged him to take a screen test, he hesitated. Was he ready for the plunge? When he did go to Hollywood, he told himself, he wanted ?to land, not to creep.? This reluctance was based upon the fact that he still believed himself untrained, that by remaining on the stage he would achieve that background so necessary to an actor.

Nevertheless, he took that test?.and a new star was born.

Tyrone did not, as you might imagine, leave the stage for Hollywood convinced of his own ability, now that he had had experience in the theatre. He felt, though, that the opportunity offered him as a result of that test was too good to pass up, so he took the next plane to Hollywood, and reported to Darryl Zanuck, head of the studio placing him under contract.

They liked one another immediately, Zanuck and the young actor. Power felt his confidence rising upon their first meeting. And the producer, one of Hollywood?s greatest discoverers of talent, saw in the youthful eager face, the shy nervous demeanor, the budding of real acting genius.

From the first it was apparent that Power would be a smashing success. Zanuck rushed him into a small role in Simone Simon?s Girl?s Dormitory, and instantly letters by the hundreds poured into the studio, demanding to see more of this young actor who made an infinitesimal part the most memorable event of the picture.

Ordinarily, a studio, under these circumstances, would begin to build such an actor into a glamorous personality, award him roles, hand-tailored, to establish once and for all the aura of glamour which attached so definitely to him. Zanuck chose to direct his young find?s career, through different channels.

He took a long view of the boy?s future. In Power he knew he had a unique personality, not merely a ?glamour-boy,? an actor able even from the beginning to portray a wide variety of roles and characterizations. Ingrained in the lad was a natural knowledge of acting that would not brook limitations, and he reckoned-and correctly-that his career would best be benefited by casting him in as many widely-divergent impersonations as possible. He would raise him as an actor, rather than as just another ?glamour-boy.?

Romantic roles, older roles, comedy, unsympathetic, sympathetic-heavies?it fell to Tyrone?s lot to enact them all. And immediately both Power and Zanuck felt the brunt of criticism for the actor having appeared in some of them.

In Power the public saw a personality of glamour, everything about him bespoke this quality. As such, the public could not understand how a matinee idol could be cast in unsympathetic roles. Past experience indicated that glamour-boys always enacted glamorous roles on the screen. Such characterizations as those in Jesse James and Rose of Washington Square confused them, turned topsy-turvy all pre-conceived notions. And because of this, letters from fans rolled in decrying against the kind of parts the studio was giving their favorite.

But look at it from Zanuck?s viewpoint?.

?Tyrone Power doesn?t have to depend on glamour for his success,? the executive declares. ?While he has all the attributes of masculine charm, he is above all else one of the screen?s finest actors. He comes of a long line of fine dramatic artists, and was thoroughly trained in his youth. There is no more versatile actor on the screen-his parts do not have to be tailored, and therefore he can play any type of picture. He will never be typed, for the public has shown that it will accept him for his acting talents in any type of picture, comedy or drama, historical or modern.

This is Zanuck?s opinion, the opinion of a man who thoroughly knows his picture-public as well as the business of making stars and pictures. Tyrone is particularly grateful for the way the producer has handled his career.

?There?s so much to learn in the acting craft that had I been typed, kept in one type of role, I wouldn?t have progressed very rapidly,? he tells you, seriously. ?By impersonating so many different types of characters, I feel that my education has been speeded up immeasurably.

?I?m still a beginner, you know. I haven?t been acting very long, despite my mother having trained me in dramatics and diction since childhood. And the care with which my father labored to teach me Shakespeare.

?I have a long way to go before I?ll be satisfied, before I feel that I?m honestly qualified to call myself a real actor. My father devoted many, many years to learning his art. How can I, then, a comparative novice, expect to learn all about acting in the few years I?ve been on the stage and screen?

?For that reason, I welcome every opportunity to try something different. I hope I?m actor enough to play a role for what it is, for its intrinsic worth, rather than insisting that I be cast in parts which will win me sympathy. Only in that way can I hope to build up to the position I want eventually to attain. I still have a great many years to go to anywhere equal my father?s success aside from fame and money.?

There you have Tyrone?s view of the situation, too. Granted he is one of the most famous figures on the screen today, and most decidedly one of the reigning favorites, he does not feel his goal nearly reached. To his mind, he still is the tyro struggling to learn acting, to really accomplish something. That he has tasted success as a film favorite is immensely gratifying, but it does not necessarily connote the fact he is a great actor. That is yet in the offing, a goal far distant despite his acquisition of fame and acclaim.

New responsibilities undoubtedly will have their effect upon his acting. As a result of his marriage to Annabella and acquiring a ready-made family-in the person of his wife?s nine-year-old daughter by a previous union-there already is appearing a new poise, an added depth, for he takes his new estate seriously. Already, off the screen there is indication of change. This added background unquestionably will enhance and elevate him to new levels.

Tyrone Power today stands in the unique position of a world-famous actor who does to yet regard himself as one fully entitled to bear that designation. Acting, to this last of the Power line, represents not merely acclaim; it is something deeper than that. It is utter satisfaction a knowledge of work perfectly executed. Until that day, still so far distant in his own mind, Ty will be a tyro!