Warren William  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Warren William (December 2 1894 - September 24 1948) was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After moving from Broadway to Hollywood in the silent period, he reached his peak as a leading man in early 1930s pre-Production Code films. He was a contract player at the Warner Bros. studio and was known for portraying amoral businessmen, lawyers, and other heartless types, including the Sam Spade character (renamed "Ted Shane") in the first remake of The Maltese Falcon, called Satan Met a Lady (1936) with Bette Davis.

He also played sympathetic roles, however, as in Imitation of Life, in which he portrayed Claudette Colbert's love interest. He appeared as her love interest again that year, when he played Julius Caesar to her Cleopatra in Cecil B. DeMille's version of Cleopatra. And he was the swashbucking D'Artagnan in the 1939 version of The Man in the Iron Mask, directed by James Whale.

William was the first to portray Earl Stanley Gardner's fictional defense attorney Perry Mason on the big screen and starred in four fast paced, comical, and highly entertaining Perry Mason mysteries. He also played Raffles-like reformed jewel thief The Lone Wolf for Columbia Pictures beginning with The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) with Ida Lupino and Rita Hayworth, and he starred as detective Philo Vance in two films in that series, 1934's The Dragon Murder Case and 1939's The Gracie Allen Murder Case (billed below Gracie Allen).

William died on 24 September 1948 in Hollywood, California of multiple myeloma.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Warren William has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1551 Vine Street.

Filmography

• The Town that Forgot God (1922)
• Plunder (1923)
• Twelve Miles Out, uncredited (1927)
• Honor of the Family (1931)
• Expensive Women (1931)
• Under Eighteen (1932)
• The Woman from Monte Carlo (1932)
• Beauty and the Boss (1932)
• The Mouthpiece (1932)
• The Dark Horse (1932)
• Skyscraper Souls (1932)
• Three on a Match (1932)
• The Match King (1932)
• Employees' Entrance (1933)
• The Mind Reader (1933)
• Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
• Goodbye Again (1933)
• Lady for a Day (1933)
• Bedside (1934)
• Upperworld (1934)
• Smarty (1934)
• Dr. Monica (1934)
• The Dragon Murder Case (1934) as Philo Vance
• The Case of the Howling Dog (1934) as Perry Mason
• Cleopatra (1934)
• Imitation of Life (1934)
• The Secret Bride (1934)
• Living on Velvet (1935)
• The Case of the Curious Bride (1935) as Perry Mason
• Don't Bet on Blondes (1935)
• The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935) as Perry Mason
• The Widow from Monte Carlo (1935)
• Times Square Playboy (1936)
• Satan Met a Lady (1936)
• The Case of the Velvet Claws (1936) as Perry Mason
• Stage Struck (1936)
• Go West Young Man (1936)
• Outcast (1937)
• Midnight Madonna (1937)
• The Firefly (1937)
• Madame X (1937)
• Arsène Lupin Returns (1938)
• The First Hundred Years (1938)
• Wives Under Suspicion (1938)
• The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) as The Lone Wolf
• The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939) as Philo Vance
• The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
• Day-Time Wife (1939)
• The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady (1940) as The Lone Wolf
• The Lone Wolf Strikes (1940) as The Lone Wolf
• Lillian Russell (1940)
• Trail of the Vigilantes (1940)
• Arizona (1940)
• The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date (1941) as The Lone Wolf
• The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance (1941) as The Lone Wolf
• Wild Geese Calling (1941)
• Secrets of the Lone Wolf (1941) as The Lone Wolf
• The Wolf Man (1941)
• Wild Bill Hickok Rides (1942)
• Counter-Espionage (1942) as The Lone Wolf
• One Dangerous Night (1943) as The Lone Wolf
• Passport to Suez (1943) as The Lone Wolf
• Strange Illusion (1945)
• Fear (1946)
• The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947)