William Powers

Biography

Before the talkies took over, William Powers slipped through cinema’s first decade like a shadow, leaving his fingerprints on three wildly different silents. In 1913 he helped unleash Traffic in Souls, the era’s sensational exposé of white-slavery panic. A year later he resurfaced with The Better Man (1914), a redemption tale that traded urban dread for moral second chances. By 1920 he had traveled to mist-soaked Ireland to shape Rosaleen Dhu, a romantic melodrama that sent audiences home humming Celtic airs. Then, as if the projector bulb had popped, Powers stepped away—his legacy fixed in flickers, titles, and the hush of a darkened nickelodeon.