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; 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); his novels incl. The Lost Air (1830) and The King’s Secret (1831); issued Impressions of America (1836); John Buckstone wrote special roles for Power; he was lost at sea returning from America on board the President, 13 [var 21] March 1841; 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
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).
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.]
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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.
The British Library holds Impressions of America, during the years 1833, 1834, and 1835. By Tyrone Power, Esq., 2 vols. (1836).
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.)
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