 A former big screen song and dance man, Powell shifted to private eye roles when he was cast as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in the 1944 motion picture, Murder, My Sweet. He then recreated that character for an audio version on Lux Radio Theater. And that led to radio detective Richard Rogue in Rogue's Gallery. His next series, his best remembered. Richard Diamond, private detective, came to NBC Radio in the spring of 1949, with many of the episodes penned by future film director, Blake Edwards.