A veteran of the Broadway stage, notably in plays by George Bernard Shaw, he created the role of Charles Marsden in Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude.

He entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at age 16, and he studied drama, wrote and produced plays, and practiced stage design in a small theatre in the attic of his home.

[3] Powers appeared in over 70 silent films from 1911 to 1917 opposite such actors as Florence Turner, Harry T. Morey, Clara Kimball Young, Alma Taylor and John Bunny.

His best-known roles included Gregers Werle in The Wild Duck, the captain in Androcles and the Lion, and Bluntschli in Arms and the Man — all in 1925 — and King Magnus in The Apple Cart (1930).

[10] Powers moved to the West Coast after becoming ill with arthritis,[3] and became a full-time movie actor when Billy Wilder invited him to play the murder victim in the 1944 film noir classic, Double Indemnity.