Addison Powell

Addison Powell (February 23, 1921 – November 8, 2010) was an American actor born in Belmont, Massachusetts, whose career spanned Broadway, film, and television across several decades. His parents, Edward Henry and Kathrene (née Barnum) Powell, were both school teachers. Powell earned a bachelor's degree from Boston University before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, serving as a navigator and completing more than 30 combat missions aboard B-17 bombers based in East Anglia, United Kingdom. Following the war, he pursued formal dramatic training at the Yale School of Drama, graduating with the class of 1948.

Powell's stage career brought him to Broadway between 1953 and 1987, with credits including The Shrike, Fragile Fox, Big Fish, Little Fish, The Enemy Is Dead, and Coastal Disturbances. His film work began in the late 1950s with The Mating Game (1959), alongside Debbie Reynolds, and continued with In the French Style (1963), featuring Jean Seberg. He appeared in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) as Abe, a bank robber, in a cast led by Steve McQueen. In 1975, Powell took roles in both The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, with Michael Sarrazin, and Three Days of the Condor, starring Robert Redford, in which he played a rogue CIA officer. He portrayed Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in the 1977 Gregory Peck biopic MacArthur, and later appeared opposite Donald Sutherland and Charles Durning in the 1987 murder mystery The Rosary Murders.

On television, Powell was best known for his recurring role as Dr. Eric Lang, a mad scientist who created the character Adam, on the ABC series Dark Shadows, which ran from 1966 to 1971. He also appeared in the first seasons of both Law & Order and The Mod Squad, and guest-starred in a 1976 episode of Gibbsville. In 1977, he co-starred as a detective alongside Frank Sinatra and Martin Balsam in the television film Contract on Cherry Street. Powell portrayed Admiral Harold Stark in the 1988 miniseries War and Remembrance, opposite Robert Mitchum, and appeared in Gorton's Fish commercials in 1982.

In 1950, Powell married Bunnie Rowley, with whom he had three children: Mary, Julie, and Michael. The family lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Powell and Rowley remained married until her death in 1995. In his later years, Powell resided in Vermont for twenty-two years, most recently at the Shelburne Bay Senior Living community in Shelburne. He died on November 8, 2010, at the age of 89.