He joined the British Army and served in the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers Cadet Corps.

To break the monotony of drill and PT he took up boxing with the regimental team, but as the war progressed he was selected for No 4 Special Service (Commando) unit, taking part in the 1942 raid on Dieppe, during which he was briefly knocked out, and in the D-Day invasion.

In 1946, he met with the actor Dennis Price which led to him getting a job as an extra at Pinewood Studios.

[3] He was sparring at the London's Polytechnic Boxing Club and soon became a founding partner in a stunt team by Captain Jock Easton.

[4] Powell performed stuntwork in many films, including The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Longest Day (1962), Cleopatra (1963), Zulu (1964), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and The Man Who Would Be King (1975).