He calls himself Tyrone Power Jr. In reality he is Tyrone Power IV of the fifth generation in a distinguished acting clan that traces back to the early 19th century.
The current Tyrone Power is the youngest offspring of the movie star and his widow Debbie Minardos, born several months after his father died in 1958 during production of "Solomon and Sheba" in Spain.The similarity between father and son is astonishing. Tyrone IV closely resembles his father physically: black hair, slightly cleft chin, dark, sensitive eyes bordered by long lashes, and a duplicate grin.
Young Power is 3 inches taller, deeper of chest and broader of shoulder than his sire.
He inherited his father's serious demeanor and sincere, straight-forward manner. He echoes his father's gentlemanly ways and holds his own space with personal dignity.
The other afternoon in a Beverly Hills cafe, Power spoke quietly and with poise about his heritage.
"It's very nice to hear all of the good things people have to say about my dad, especially when I think of his long career and the number of movies he made," Power said. "I've always been treated kindly by people who knew him.
"Still, it's hard to piece together a picture of what my father was like. It's odd, but I learned to ride a bicycle in the cemetery where he is buried. My mother and I lived on a steep, winding street not too far away."
Power, 35, has seen some 20 of his father's 50 movies as a means of getting to know him better.
" `Witness for the Prosecution' is my favorite," he said. "I liked his later pictures the best, as did he, I'm told. He played all kinds of parts in romantic dramas, musicals, adventure pictures, costume films and comedy. His favorite was `Nightmare Alley.'
"The truth is, I can't really learn much about my father from his films because he was such a good actor he was always caught up in character. But I could see a little of his development as an actor.
"Of course you can always get a glimpse of somebody's personality through his work. I learned more from watching some taped interviews like `Person to Person' with Edward R. Murrow. It was the first time I saw him when he wasn't polished or performing. He told a couple of jokes that didn't work.
"He was just being himself, and I was able to get an idea of what he would have been like when I got home from school or something. It was my Dad. I just started crying.
"It's hard for any child to grow up not knowing his father. Maybe I'd have felt more of a sense of loss if Dad had died when I was 7 or 8.
"I was adopted soon after my father died when my mother married (producer) Arthur Loewe. He's been my Dad ever since."
The Loewes were divorced and the youthful Tyrone grew up in Mexico with his mother.
Power realizes the movies were a tough business to crack when his father broke into films in 1932. It is considerably more difficult now.
"My father and grandfather (third in the line) were picking oranges for a living on the outskirts of Los Angeles during the Depression when they heard 20th Century Fox was looking for new faces," he said. "Dad went to the studio to ask about it and they signed him to a contract."
He still collects family playbills and posters going back to his great-great grandfather, the first acting Tyrone Power.
"My great-great grandfather was Irish but lived in England and distinguished himself on stage in the 1820s," he said. "He was lost at sea before the Civil War.
"I have a copy of his published memoirs, including his description of the Battery at the tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, which was still a wooden fort with cannons. It was titled `Tyrone Power's Impressions of America in the Year 1837.'
"From the old wood-cut portrait of him, I can see a family resemblance.
"I know less about my great grandfather, who was a pianist as well as an actor. He immigrated to the United States. His son, my grandfather, spent much of his life in Canada but worked in theater and movies here in Hollywood."