Description:
One of the most popular actors of the Classical Hollywood period, Tyrone Power's appeal was initially based around his outstanding beauty, his looks remaining key to his star persona throughout his 25-year career and almost 50 films. This book presents the first substantial academic study of Power and employs a range of approaches, including stardom and genre theory, to reappraise his career from various angles including gender, genre and image. Textual analysis coincides with discussions of Power's multi-layered performances in a variety of genres while engaging with industry systems, specifically Twentieth Century-Fox, his home studio for almost two decades, and situates Power's performances within the contexts of industry regulations, such as the Production Code, and industry technological advances, such as CinemaScope.
Brief description: Gillian Kelly was awarded a PhD from the University of Glasgow in 2015 and her areas of academic interest include constructions of stardom and celebrity in the media, with a strong focus on male performers and American masculinity. Her first monograph, Robert Taylor: Male Beauty, Masculinity and Stardom in Hollywood (University Press of Mississippi, 2019) was shortlisted for the prestigious BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies) Award for Best Monograph in 2020. Her chapter 'Robert Taylor: The 'Lost' Star with the Long Career' is included in the edited collection Lasting Screen Stars: Personas that Endure and Images that Fade (Palgrave McMillan, 2016), and she has contributed to several journals including Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Celebrity Studies and Alphaville.
Review Quotes: What is the place of Tyrone Power in cinema history? This question motivates the first comprehensive overview of the actor's career, tracing his trajectory from bit player to leading man, until his premature death at the age of 44. Kelly succeeds in revealing the talent behind the star image of a much neglected figure of the classic Hollywood studio era.-- "Sue Harris, Queen Mary University of London"