Who was the first actor to play the detective Philip Marlowe on screen?

Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler. Dick Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) an American singer, actor, film producer, film director and studio head was the first actor to portray the private detective Philip Marlowe on a movie screen.

In 1944, Powell's career changed. Instead of a role as a romantic leading men, he was cast in the first of a series of films noir, as private detective Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, directed by Edward Dmytryk. The film was a big hit, and Powell had successfully reinvented himself as a dramatic actor. He was the first actor to play Philip Marlowe – by name – in motion pictures.

Later, Powell was the first actor to play Marlowe on radio, in 1944 and 1945, and on television, in a 1954 episode of Climax!