Thomas McCreery Powers was born in 1890 in Owensboro, Kentucky. His father, Colonel Joshua D. Powers, was a banker; his uncle was sculptor Hiram Powers. Tom Powers' mother loved the theatre and enrolled him at ballet school at age three. 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. Powers apprenticed to a pantomime troupe for ten years and became a star of Vitagraph Westerns. 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.