1878-1964
Actor Robert Warwick was born Robert Taylor Blen on this day probably in Sacramento, California (his parents were English and some sources cite that he was actually born in the UK just before they immigrated to the U.S.). He went from movie star leading man to extremely successful character actor on television. His career lasted an impressive 63 years. Initially drawn to music, he had the intent of going into that most dramatic side of music, opera performance--which he did indeed study for. He wound up in acting classes to improve his drama chops in operatic performance studies, but found acting a much more interesting avenue to pursue. He subsequently made his Broadway stage debut in 1903--he was not alone, one John Barrymore was also making his debut in the same play. Warwick got into the film industry 11 years later, making his motion picture debut in mining drama The Dollar Mark, shot on location in Ontario, Canada and produced by William A. Brady Photo Picture Plays (distribution by Selznick's World Film). It was a rarity for it's time, an actor making a film debut in a feature length film at such an early date (he actually did not appear in very many shorts in the silent era, another rarity). Though he debuted in film and worked steadily through 1910's, he was still a fixture on the stage and, in fact, left films for most of the 1920's, until the coming of the wide spread use of sound in films. His sophmoric film appearance came in the Maurice Tourneur directed stock market melodrama Man of the Hour (October 1914). His most well known early film is Alias Jimmy Valentine, a formerly lost film filmed at the Peerless studio in Fort Lee, NJ, was again directed by Tourneur, and released in February of 1915. Continuing to work with William Brady production company, Warwick worked with a number of director of note in just 1915 alone. In addition to Tournuer, he was directed by Albert Capellani, Oscar Eagle and Frank Hall Crane. By 1916 his was a movie star in every sense of the term. He began working with director Emile Chautard, making Human Driftwood and Sudden Riches in short succession. In 1917 he teamed back up with Tourneur with the comical parody of the film making that was A Girl's Folly (another film that we are fortunate to be able to still screen). He next showed up in the Ralph Ince directed mystery The Argyle Case. Though Warwick technically has only one direct producing credit to his name, he started--in connection Harry Rapf Productions--his own production company bearing his name; The Argyle Case was the first production from the company and the only one not directed by Léonce Perret. Ultimately the company only turned out a handful of films, including the film that Warwick himself directly produced--The Accidental Honeymoon--in 1918. Warwick worked staedily through 1920, but despite being a huge star, juggling his stage work with film work was too large a work load and he felt he needed to make a choice between the two. He chose the stage. After 1920, he only appeared in two more films in that decade. His last film of 1920 was the Paramount comedy The Fourteenth Man. In 1924 he appeared in The Spitfire a Betty Blythe film directed by Christy Cabanne, it was his last silent film appearance. His only other film from the decade was the full sound Unmasked in 1929, an Edgar Lewis film produced and distributed by Weiss Brothers, it was a very late De Forest Phonofilm sound system film, and feature length to boot (it is also among the list of film lost to us). Warwick next appeared in a film in 1931--The Royal Bed--and his career in front the camera after this point was a very long one. Warwick was 52 years of age when this film was released, his middle aged good looks and serious acting talent lent him to high profile supporting character roles. As the decade progressed, his film appearances became greater in number; though Hollywood was itself greatly impacted by the Great Depression, so a number of his most memorable roles from the time period came in b-grade pictures. Warwick made his television debut pretty early in 1949 in the historic series "Your Show Time" in the July 1 episode Colonel Starbottle for the Plaintiff--though his small screen career did not really take off until 1955. And, of course, it's Spooktober, so here are few titles that he appeared in that fit with the season: Doctor X (1932) with Lionel Atwill & the scream queen herself Fay Wray, The Whispering Shadow (1933) with Bela Lugosi, Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933) with Warner Oland, I Married A Witch (1942) with Veronica Lake, and one appearance each on Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the November 27 episode The Long Shot in 1955 and The Twilight Zone in the 1960 episode The Last Flight which aired on the 5th of February (he also appeared along side horror icon Boris Karloff in Devil's Island in 1939). Warwick ended his acting career on film on a television series. His last acting role came in The Bed I've Made episode of series "Dr. Kildare" which aired on the 20th of December in 1962. He was 84 years old when the episode ran. Warwick died a year and a half later on the 6th of June in 1964 at the age of 85 and 1/2 years old. He is buried at Holy Cross in Culver City. In addition to being an actor, was a World War I veteran.
[Source: Find a Grave]
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