Robert Warwick

Warwick was born Robert Taylor Bien in 1878 to Louis and Isabel (Taylor) Bien. Some sources say he was born in England; others say Sacramento, California. His father was of French ethnicity. Bien studied music in Paris and trained for two years to be an opera singer, but acting proved to be his greater calling. He met his future wife, Arline Peck in Paris; the American couple married in 1902. After his return to the United States, he started in theatre and then film. Warwick started making silent films in 1914, with his early work including The Mad Lover (1917) and Thou Art the Man (1920). He made numerous productions in the 1910s primarily in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Two films, Alias Jimmy Valentine and A Girl's Folly, both directed by Maurice Tourneur, have been preserved, and showcase Warwick as a silent actor, as well as Tourneur's directing talent. Both are available in the 21st century on home video. From the 1920s on, Warwick alternated doing plays and silent films. He was fifty when sound films arrived, and though middle aged and with his matinee idol looks fading, he found plenty of work in character roles, much enhanced by his rich, resonant voice, eloquent diction, and aristocratic manner. When the studios moved to Los Angeles, Warwick followed. Warwick's extensive filmography includes such classics as The Little Colonel (1935) with Shirley Temple and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn. He was one of a number of actors favored by director Preston Sturges and appeared in many of his films, among them Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942) and Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). He also appeared in I Married a Witch (1942) and Man from Frisco (1944).