Robert Warwick(1878-1964)
- Actor
- Producer
A prominent matinée stage and silent-film star with handsome features
offset only slightly by a prominent proboscis, Robert Warwick was born
and raised in Sacramento, California, as Robert Taylor Bien. The gift
of music was instilled at an early age (he sang in his church choir)
and he initially prepared for an operatic career. Studying vocally in
Paris, he abandoned legit singing for acting after being hired in 1903
to understudy in the Broadway play "Glad of It". He grew quickly in
stature in such popular stage roles as "Vronsky" in "Anna Karenina"
(1907), and was a strong presence in the musical operettas "The Kiss
Waltz" (1911) and "The Princess" (1912), the latter featuring his first
wife, actress Josephine Whittell.
With effortless charm, Warwick segued into romantic film roles, playing dashing leads in Jimmy le mystérieux (1915), The Face in the Moonlight (1915), The Heart of a Hero (1916)--in which he portrayed Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale--Folie d'amour (1917) and A Girl's Folly (1917). At one point he even formed his own production company, Robert Warwick Film Corp. The company produced four films before Warwick temporarily left Hollywood in 1917 to serve in WWI as an infantry captain.
In the 1920s he shifted between Broadway and film leads. His well-modulated voice proved ideal for sound pictures, and he subsequently enjoyed a long career (over 200 films) in grand, authoritative character parts. Among his plethora of movie roles were "Neptune" in Night Life of the Gods (1935), "Col. Gray" in Shirley Temple's Le petit colonel (1935), "Sir Francis Knolly" in Marie Stuart (1936) and "Lord Montague" in the Norma Shearer/Leslie Howard starrer Roméo et Juliette (1936). He also was seen to fine advantage in several of Errol Flynn's rousing costumers such as Le prince et le pauvre (1937), Les aventures de Robin des Bois (1938), La vie privée d'Elisabeth d'Angleterre (1939), and L'aigle des mers (1940). A grand, stately gent, he was often seen impersonating high-ranking military officers, dapper businessmen or stern but benevolent father figure types. The legendary Preston Sturges utilized his services, giving him small roles in Gouverneur malgré lui (1940), Christmas in July (1940) and Un coeur pris au piège (1941) before handing him a standout part as an avuncular studio mogul in Les voyages de Sullivan (1941).
For the most part, however, Warwick was humbled into playing smaller, serviceable roles in adventures and crime dramas, with many of these characters embracing unyielding traditionalist values. Other exceptions to this rule were his hammy, downtrodden Hollywood actor "Charlie Waterman" in Le violent (1950) and his dying tycoon in La cinquième victime (1956). Warwick continued performing well into his 80s. Primarily on TV in his twilight years, he could be spotted frequently on such programs as La quatrième dimension (1959), Maverick (1957) and Le Jeune Docteur Kildare (1961). Divorced from his first wife, he survived his second, actress Stella Lattimore (1905-1960), before dying in 1964 following an extended illness. He had one daughter by his first wife; Rosalind, who bore him two grandchildren, and with his second wife another daughter, Betsey, who was a prominent published poet in Los Angeles and was buried next to her father at Holy Cross Cemetary in Los Angeles in 2007.
With effortless charm, Warwick segued into romantic film roles, playing dashing leads in Jimmy le mystérieux (1915), The Face in the Moonlight (1915), The Heart of a Hero (1916)--in which he portrayed Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale--Folie d'amour (1917) and A Girl's Folly (1917). At one point he even formed his own production company, Robert Warwick Film Corp. The company produced four films before Warwick temporarily left Hollywood in 1917 to serve in WWI as an infantry captain.
In the 1920s he shifted between Broadway and film leads. His well-modulated voice proved ideal for sound pictures, and he subsequently enjoyed a long career (over 200 films) in grand, authoritative character parts. Among his plethora of movie roles were "Neptune" in Night Life of the Gods (1935), "Col. Gray" in Shirley Temple's Le petit colonel (1935), "Sir Francis Knolly" in Marie Stuart (1936) and "Lord Montague" in the Norma Shearer/Leslie Howard starrer Roméo et Juliette (1936). He also was seen to fine advantage in several of Errol Flynn's rousing costumers such as Le prince et le pauvre (1937), Les aventures de Robin des Bois (1938), La vie privée d'Elisabeth d'Angleterre (1939), and L'aigle des mers (1940). A grand, stately gent, he was often seen impersonating high-ranking military officers, dapper businessmen or stern but benevolent father figure types. The legendary Preston Sturges utilized his services, giving him small roles in Gouverneur malgré lui (1940), Christmas in July (1940) and Un coeur pris au piège (1941) before handing him a standout part as an avuncular studio mogul in Les voyages de Sullivan (1941).
For the most part, however, Warwick was humbled into playing smaller, serviceable roles in adventures and crime dramas, with many of these characters embracing unyielding traditionalist values. Other exceptions to this rule were his hammy, downtrodden Hollywood actor "Charlie Waterman" in Le violent (1950) and his dying tycoon in La cinquième victime (1956). Warwick continued performing well into his 80s. Primarily on TV in his twilight years, he could be spotted frequently on such programs as La quatrième dimension (1959), Maverick (1957) and Le Jeune Docteur Kildare (1961). Divorced from his first wife, he survived his second, actress Stella Lattimore (1905-1960), before dying in 1964 following an extended illness. He had one daughter by his first wife; Rosalind, who bore him two grandchildren, and with his second wife another daughter, Betsey, who was a prominent published poet in Los Angeles and was buried next to her father at Holy Cross Cemetary in Los Angeles in 2007.
