Life
1797-1841; b. 2 Nov., Waterford; son of the comic actor William Grattan
Tyrone Power; played part of Alonzo in Sheridan’s Pizarro (Isle
of Wight, 1815); acted in London; played romantic roles in Shakespeare;
acted Major O’Flaherty in Richard Cumberland’s The West Indian and Sir Lucius O’Trigger in Sheridan’s The Rivals;
toured America successfully in the 1830s; lost at sea returning from America
on board the President, 13 [var 21] March 1841; wrote and performed
stage-Irish plays with amiable central characters incl. Pat Rooney in
The Omnibus (?1833) and Major O’Dogherty in St Patrick’s
Eve (1837); novels incl. The Lost Air (1830) and The King’s
Secret, 3 vols. (London: E. Bull 1831); issued Impressions of America
(1836); John Buckstone wrote special roles for Power; there is a lithographic
portrait by A. D’Orsay (1839); Power was subject of an article by
John Cole Calcraft in Dublin University Magazine, XL (1852). PI
DIB DIW RAF MKA OCIL
[ top ]
Works
Fiction, The Lost Heir and The Prediction (London:
E. Bull; NY: J. & J. Harper 1830); The King’s Secret,
3 vols. (London: E. Bull 1831), 318, 308, 377pp.; also [The Gipsy of
the Abruzzio [1831];
Plays, Married Lovers: A Petite Comedy in Two Acts (London: E. Bull Baltimore: J. Robinson 1831); Born to Good Luck, or the Irishman’s Fortune [Lacy;’s Acting Edn.] (London: T. H. Lacy [1832]); St. Patrick’s Eve, or the Order of the Day (London: Chapman & Hall 1838); Paddy Carrey, or the Boy of Clogheen (NY: Samuel French [1879]); O’Flannigan and the Fairies, unpub. (1836); Etiquette, or A Wife for a Blunder (1836), unpub.; How to Pay the Rent: One Act Farce (London: Gilbert & Piper [1840]), another edn. (London: Acting National Drama, Vol. IX [n.d.]); also The Omnibus: A Frace in One Act (NY: Clinton DeWitt [n.d.]).
Miscellaneous, Impressions of America During the Years 1833-35, 2 vols. (London: R. Bentley; Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard 1836), and Do. [facs. rep.] (NY: Benjamin Blom 1971) 1836).
[ top ]
Criticism
J. W. Calcraft, ‘Tyrone Power: A Biography’, in Dublin University
Magazine (Sept.-Nov.-Dec. 1852); Montrose F. Moses, Famous Actor Families (1906), contains chap. on “The Power Family” [incls.
Calcraft, supra.]
[ top ]
References
Stephen Brown, S.J., Guide to Books on Ireland (Dublin:
Talbot 1912), cites Tyrone Power listing 12 dramatic titles; further,
GBI lists Mrs S. C. Hall Groves of Blarney (1836), with Tyrone
Power. [See also Peter Kavanagh, 1946.]
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, 1789-1850 (Colin Smythe 1980), Vol. II, lists plays and performance dates, Married Lovers (Covent Garden, 2.2. 1831); Born to Good Luck, or the Irishman’s Fortune (Covent Garden, 17.3.1832); St. Patrick’s Eve, or the Order of the Day (Drury Lane, 24.11.1832); Paddy Carrey, or the Boy of Clogheen (Covent Garden, 29.5.1833); O’Flannigan and the Fairies, unpub. (Covent Garden, 24.4.1836); Etiquette, or A Wife for a Blunder (Covent Garde, 16.5.1836); How to Pay the Rent, One Act Farce (Haymarket Th., 2.4.1840). COMM, William Winter, Tyrone Power (NY: Moffat, Yard 1913), and Do. [facs. rep.] NY: benjamin Blom 1972).
Brian McKenna (Irish Literature, 1978), cites John W. Cole [Calcraft] ‘Tyrone Power, a Biography’, in Dublin University Magazine, Vol. 40 (1852); Michael Cavanagh, ‘Irish Celebrities, Tyrone Power’, in Celtic Monthly, 2 (1879); Works as above.
British Library holds Impressions of America, during the years 1833, 1834, and 1835. By Tyrone Power, Esq., 2 vols. (1836).
[ top ]
Notes
Namesake: The Tyrone Power who wrote Born to Good Luck was
not the actor noted for comic Irish roles. (See Robert Hogan, ed., Frank
Fay’s Towards a National Theatre, Dolmen 1970), note, p.110.)
TV power: Bernard Adams writes: ‘Tyrone Guthrie, back in 1931, had seen television as eventually supplanting radio - indeed he saw it becoming “the most popular method entertainment, and consequently ... the most powerful medium of propaganda in the history of the world.”’ (Denis Johnston: A Life, 2002, p.184.)
Kinsmen: A son Harold Power worked in theater; also his Frederick Tyrone Power (2 May, 1869-30 Dec. 1931), a successful actor on stage and silent films. (Information supplied by Robin Mueller, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.)
[ top ]