Warner Anderson

Biography

Starting out as a child actor in silent films--he made his film debut at five years of age in The Sunbeam (1916), but didn't make another film for almost 30 years, in 1943's This Is the Army (1943)--Warner Anderson appeared in burlesque and vaudeville as a teenager, and enjoyed a career in Broadway plays. His no-nonsense demeanor and commanding voice served him well in playing corporate executives, judges, army officers and other authority figures. His most famous role, however, was as the detective paired with Tom Tully in the early TV series The Lineup (1954), the pilot of which was directed by Don Siegel and was so well received it was released as a feature film. In contrast to his usual upstanding, if somewhat stern, roles, Anderson turned in a first-rate performance as a cowardly, treacherous and murderous soldier in the Gregory Peck western Only the Valiant (1951). He made his last film in 1966--an uncredited part in The Bubble (1966)--and then turned to television. He died of cancer in Santa Monica, CA, in 1976.