When Tyrone Power died on November 16, 1958, the world lost one of its most exciting, vibrant men. He had everything it too to make a matinee idol--poise, charm intelligence, background, looks. But where he could make the ladies happy by just performing, by being an image of virility and success, he could hardly make himself happy in his own married life.

Tyrone was only 44 when he was stricken with a fatal heart attack on the set of Solomon and Sheba in Madrid. He was at the height of his career, with nowhere to go but up. And he had at last found the settled love he had searched a lifetime for when he married Deborah Minardos, his third wife, only a few months before.

Power was born to success; it had been in his family for generations. The first Tyrone Power, his great-grandfather, was a prominent actor in Ireland and England. His grandfather, Harold, was a concert pianist, while his father, Tyrone II, was an eminent Shakespearean actor, once referred to as "the greatest hope of the American stage." The youngest Tyrone's mother, known professionally as Patia Power, was renowned for her magnificent voice and stage and on radio.

So, when Tyrone Power III was born in Cincinnati May 5, 1914, his future was assured. I f hew as Power, he could make it. And he did.

Tyrone spent his childhood in the proverbial theatrical trunk while his parents trouped around the country. He first performed at age seven in a production with his mother, and although critics favored his performance, education rather than acting was his pursuit for the next ten years. Tyrone was educated in Catholic academies in Cincinnati, but when it came time for college, he elected to learn drama from his father instead.

In 1931, the elder Power went to Hollywood for a part in the movie The Miracle Man, and Tyrone made sure to be behind the scenes at all times, to observe his father, to learn. What he observed instead was his father's death, a death prophetic of his own, 27 years later. His father was stricken on the set and as death took him he lay in his son's arms.

Tyrone remained in Hollywood, eager to act, but producers were chilly to him. They were afraid that because his father had been so talented, the younger Tyrone could only remain in his shadow. Ty was disappointed--but not discouraged--so he began to perform in little theatres in the area, developing his talents, absorbing everything he could. Soon he was ready to appear with a theatre company in Chicago, and found himself in the same cast with Don Ameche, a man who was to prove a lasting friend. Other roles followed, and within a short time, Tyrone found himself in New York--the real proving ground--but he also found he had great competition.

Until he finally got steady work understudying for burgess Meredith in a play starring the great Katharine Cornell, Ty was living on five dollars a week. Immediately following his understudy experience, he appeared with Miss Cornell in Romeo and Juliet and St. Joan--and attracted a lot of attention, including Hollywood producers, who muttered a quick "oops!" and dragged him back.

Ty's first two movie roles were inconsequential, but once he was cast as lead in Lloyds of London, he reputation was assured. Suddenly he was star; women swooned when they saw him; is fan mail ad to be carted away in trucks.

Ty never liked to be known as a sex symbol or a glamour boy, but his love life was all too glamorous. He sought beautify, had no trouble finding it, but was too restless for a deep, lasting love. He once remarked that "Nothing else matters or counts except that I'm free," a comment indicative of his constantly unsettled love life. In his first ears of stardom, he wooed Phyllis Brooks, Sonja Henie, and Janet Gaynor in rapid succession. Then came beautiful French actress Annabella, and a torrid romance which attracted international attention--and opposition. Those who frowned on the steadily more serious romance were Power's mother and his studio. Here he was the hottest male star to hit the screen in years, the romantic ambition of every red-blooded female. If he married would he lose his fans? Maybe not, if he married a "nice American girl" and lived happily ever after. But Annabella was not only not American, she was older than Ty, a divorcee, and a mother. For a while it looked like Ty's fans were beginning to resent this intrusion in their dreams of cloud nine with their idol, but Ty made it plain he didn't give a hoot, and in 1939 he wed Annabella. While Mother and the studio held their breaths, wondering whether the thousands of broken young hearts would break the Power bankroll, Ty soon proved that marriage certainly hadn't hurt his star status, for, on a tour shortly after his marriage, a mob of girls rushed him and practically crippled his hand.

The marriage looked good at the start, and Tyrone did not hesitate to tell the public how much he loved his new wife. "This woman's helped me discover in myself more than I've ever been able to find alone," he once said. within a short time, however, there were vague rumors of trouble, which didn't get a chance to develop, for Ty went to war in 1941 as a Marine pilot. When he returned from service in 1946, the gossip took up where it left off, and within a short time, Annabella publicly commented that Tyrone was a "changed" man. He was moody, restless. A separation was forthcoming, and even before they finally divorced in 1948, Ty was well on his way in another series of headline romances. First was Gene Tierney, who had recently been divorced from Oleg Cassini, and then Lana Turner. both these relationships, however sooner or later became "just a friendship," which was quite a change of feelings for Lana, because she’d been left waiting at the altar. Ty had been quite set on marrying Miss Turner, had held a gala fete to celebrate the engagement, and then had left for Rome to complete a movie before the wedding. Enter Linda Christian, a sultry Mexican who had her sights set on Tyrone, and she got him, much to Miss Turner's chagrin, to say the least. Lana had had no inkling of any goings-on in Rome, and was all set to meet Ty's plane with open arms when he returned. Ty, however, unable to face the wrath of Hollywood's top glamour girl, landed at another airport. He soon returned to Rome, where he married Linda in JANUARY, 1949, in a historic church, cheered wildly by Italian fans.

The marriage lasted not more than five years, but Ty honestly had wanted it to last forever. to him, marriage was sacred. It was the only way he knew to achieve the certain abiding love he so hungered for. In other words, he never intended his marriages to fail. But as much as he wanted to, he could never give all of himself. The harder he tried, the more restless he got. while married to Linda, he saw the characteristic desire for freedom overtaking him. He thought the only way to save the marriage would be to have children, a lasting family tie. Perhaps his marriage to Annabella had not lasted because there were no children to bind him forever to the fireside, he conjectured. So Linda and Tyrone decided to have a family and on October 2, 1951 she bore him his first daughter, Romina, and on September 13, 1953, his second, Taryn.

Yet as much as he loved his children--and his wife--a separation took place in 1954. He just couldn’t' handle it any more. Tyrone Power was an unhappy man. The gossip columns were humming with all kinds of accusations, but no one ever knew exactly what the truth was. In 1955, Linda brought suit for divorce, charging her husband had become "cool and distant"--the old syndrome. Ty, however ,blamed the failure on Linda's interest in British actor Edmund Purdom. Perhaps he just wasn't able to see his own failure. perhaps Linda was not the woman to understand his emotional deficiency.

All this time Ty's career was reaching even newer heights. If anything, his marital headlines only added to hi popularity. Fro 1938 to 1940 he was Hollywood's top money maker. He appeared in film after film, some of the most notable of which were CAFE METROPOLE, ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND, THIN ICE, ROSE OF WASHINGTON SUQUARE, JOHNNY APOLLO, BLOOD AND SAND, A YANK IN THE RAF, RAZOR'S EDGE and CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE. It is a pity that a man who he’d success in the palm of his hand could be so terribly unhappy.

After his second divorce, Ty announced bitterly, "I never expect to marry again. I'm a two-time loser." So when he married again--for the last time--in May, 1958, it was a surprise, more for him than anyone else. Although time ruthlessly denied a future for his happiness with Debbie Minardos, 26 year old divorcee form Mississippi, there is not doubt that Debbie gave him all that was needed to make his last few months on earth worth a lifetime. He was in love, deeply--and calmly. His smile showed he was finally a happy man, bright with promise. And to add to their bliss, Debbie became pregnant. "We'll have a boy, I know," Ty beamed shortly before the fateful trip to Spain, "a Tyrone IV."

Yes, Ty was right. He had a son, Tyrone Power IV, born early in 1959. but Tyrone Power II was gone, snatched from life at a time when he so wanted to live, to be happy at last. In spirit, thought, he will live on, a cherished memory, a symbol of a kind of success which is one in a million, an image of a man. Those to whom he was a hero will always be able to remember him through the reels and reels of film in the lat show archives. And those closest to him will see him through his three children. For the Power heritage is a strong one, built to endure.

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