RIP Nosher Powell

According to his official webpage and Facebook, boxer, actor, stuntman Nosher Powell died April 20, 2013. He was known both as an actor (credited variously as Nosher Powell, Freddie Powell, Frederick Powell or Fred Powell) and as a stuntman and former boxer.

Powell was born in Camberwell, London, England. His younger brother, Dennis ‘Dinny’ Powell 1931, followed a similar career, acting and stunt co-ordinating many films, as have his sons Greg Powell [1954- ] and Gary Powell [1963- ].

Powell had an extensive but mostly uncredited career in stunt work and acting. In 1969, he portrayed the role of the powerful thug Lord Dorking in ‘My Partner the Ghost’ TV series (1969-1971). Apart from his acting career, Powell was a heavyweight boxing champion in the worlds of unlicensed fighting and the professional arena. He also worked as a sparring partner for Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, among others. The last fight of his career was against Menzies Johnson. Nosher won the fight on points, over eight rounds. According to his autobiography, Nosher had a total of seventy-eight fights: fifty-one as a professional, with nine losses, though he was never knocked out. Boxrec.com, though, lists Nosher as losing sixteen times as a professional, with nine of those losses being by KO, two by TKO and five on points.

As an actor and stuntman Nosher appeared in over 90 films many uncredited including doing stunts in “Fistful of Dollars” (1964) and “For a Few Dollars More” (1965).