I was watching My Man Godfrey yesterday and in discussion with a friend in irc, and we were pondering whether he was as nice a guy as his onscreen persona. I thought, who better to ask than the film buffs of the Straight Dope?
So… was he really as wonderful as my friend and I have currently decided he must have been?
I seem to recall he was considered a generaly nice guy by those who knew him.
Judging by his romantic history, he managed to remain friends with his exes after the divorces, and when he finally married Diana Lewis, they remained a couple for 44 years.
Agreed. He had already been in a zillion movies by the time he became a star so he was beyond the getting blinded by early fame catastrophe. He was well respected as an actor and a person.
The only real “scandal” in his life came in the mid-30s. He was in a torrid affair (all Hollywood affairs are torrid) with Jean Harlow when she suddenly died of uremic poisoning which led to some rumors about her. During his depression over that he contracted cancer and decided to keep it a secret which led to rumors (still sometimes repeated) that he had caught syphilis from her.
He eventually made a comeback but you can see that he was older and slower in his pictures from 1940 on.
Powell genuinely seems to have been that rarity: a sane and successful movie star. Too bad there weren’t more like him.
For a very fun read, try The William Powell and Myrna Loy Murder Case, by George Baxt. All Baxt’s series of Hollywood mysteries use the star’s public personas as much as their true selves, but this one has him paired properly platonically with Myrna Loy while worried over Harlow’s illness. Everybody else in Hollywood is treated with total bitchiness, the true allure of this series.
Thanks for the information. Interesting! It sounds like he would have been worth knowing. I might have to get that book, it sounds like my cup of tea! 
I read where Carole Lombard said he had a teeny dick.
Carole Lombard said that Clark Gable had the teeny dick. One inch smaller and he would have been the queen of Hollywood. Powell was the opposite.
She was married to him for only 3 years when she was killed in a plane crash. Cite for her saying that about her own husband?
You havent been married, have you? 
The money line from Carole Lombard on Gable is “Daddy was never much use in the sack.”
I guess, if you’re Clark Gable, you don’t even need to try. That line around the block isn’t going anywhere.