Pro Footballer Disappeared Into a West Hollywood Motel for 25 Years. Now He’s Talking

The sign went up on the balcony of the Holloway Motel. It announced a City Hall meeting. Ramiel Petros and Nicholas Freeman finally shouted up.

They told WEHOonline they had walked past the barn-red building on Santa Monica Boulevard every day. The man on the balcony was always there. They had never stopped.

“We asked Tony what was going on, and he told us that the City was going to purchase the motel and turn it into an interim housing program,” the directors said. “After our brief interaction we felt like we wanted to know more about this man on the balcony, and to document his last days in this iconic motel.”

That man was Tony Powell. Tony’s 77. Turns out, he’s lived a life well worth telling.

Tony was a professional footballer (soccer player) in England in the 1970s, playing for the Norwich City before walking away from the game. He moved to America in the early 1980s and arrived in West Hollywood in 1984. He spent 25 years as the sole resident and manager of the Holloway Motel — the barn-red building on Santa Monica Boulevard, just past the IHOP, that thousands of drivers passed without a second thought.

The documentary Petros and Freeman made about Powell — The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel — premiered at Tribeca and screened at BFI Flare. It runs through this weekend – May 30 – at Lumiere Cinema. Tickets are available here — catch the trailer here.

Powell came to West Hollywood specifically. He described it, on camera, as the place where he could finally be himself.

“Of all the places Tony has lived, he spent the bulk of his life in West Hollywood,” the directors said. “His joy of living at the motel was getting to meet the regulars and passersby who would visit West Hollywood, and to get to watch his neighbors walk past him on Santa Monica Blvd.”

When he left England, he cut off contact with his family entirely. No calls. No letters. He disappeared. In West Hollywood he built a life. He had a lover named David. David died of AIDS in the 1980s. The film follows Powell as he reconnects with his sisters — and with David’s sister.

West Hollywood changed around him. After Covid, the change became harder to ignore.

“Tony mainly noticed a change after Covid, and felt the shuttering of many local businesses to be a stark and disappointing shift,” the directors said. “He loved West Hollywood for its vibrancy, but in his final years at the motel, that energy faded.”

When the City moved to purchase the Holloway and convert it to transitional housing, Powell was priced out of staying locally. He was heartbroken to leave.

“To him ‘West Hollywood’ will always be what he thinks of when he thinks of ‘home,'” the directors told us. “But the catalyst of having to leave becomes a big motivator for Tony in changing his life and confronting his past. In some ways having to leave West Hollywood closed one part of his life, and set him on a new course.”

The film was produced by Robbie Rogers, the former LA Galaxy player who came out publicly while still playing professionally. Rogers connected with Powell in a way the directors said was immediate.

The film was also executive produced by Greg Berlanti, the television producer and longtime West Hollywood resident behind some of the most widely seen LGBTQ+ storytelling on American television.

“Him and Tony could speak a different language when it came to soccer, and in many ways Robbie was a testament to what Tony’s life might have been if he had been born in a later generation,” the directors said. “He uniquely knew the importance of having a closeted athlete tell his story, and was a major advocate in getting Tony’s story to the world.”

Since the film started screening in West Hollywood, something else happened. People started recognizing Powell. Not from his football career. From the balcony.

“What’s been so remarkable about Tony’s story being shared is how many people remember him as the man on the balcony,” the directors said. “There are so many people with remarkable stories, and if we are brave enough to talk to each other our community is stronger for it.”

The West Hollywood run has been personal for Petros and Freeman in a way Tribeca was not.

“Our community brings a different level of compassion and understanding to Tony’s story, and have rallied around the film in an extremely personal way,” the directors said. “This is a homecoming for the film, and the community support has been so energizing to us and Tony.”

The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel has been extended through May 30 at Lumiere Cinema. Tickets are available now.