Warren William: Actor and Hobbyist Inventor
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During the 1930s and ‘40s, Warren William emerged as a leading man in movies playing ruthless criminals and businessmen, and later debonair detectives. He was the first actor to portray Perry Mason on screen and starred in the movie series The Lone Wolf, about a former jewel thief turned detective. Off-camera, Warren William found solace from the stress of Hollywood by enjoying hobbies of sailing and inventing.
Early Life
Warren William was born Warren William Krech on December 2, 1894, in Aitken, Minnesota, as one of five children. His father was a newspaper publisher. Initially, William considered the vocations of a sea captain, architect, and engineer. He said, “. . . after finding out that to be an engineer, as I really wanted, I’d have to be excellent at mathematics—and I’ve always hated mathematics . . . [My sister Pauline] kept after me to go on the stage, I thought I might as well try it. I’ve always loved tinkering around in a tool shop and I rather fancied myself as an amateur inventor, but I realized this would never turn into a particularly well-paying profession.” William studied at the Academy of Dramatic Artists in New York for 2 years until World War I (1914-18). He served as a sergeant during the war, where he was approached by a New York producer to perform in shows entertaining the armies in France. William remembered the experience as “a bed to sleep in, decent hours, recognition in a great work-ha [sic], playing in airplane hangars, rickety old barns, quaint French municipal theaters, with plenty of ventilation from shell-holes. It was good fun and darned good training.”
During this time in France, he wrote letters to his sister’s friend, Helen Nelson, who he later married in 1922. After the war, they lived in New York, where he continued acting by appearing in Broadway plays that he’d label as “flops and failures.” William appeared on screen for a role in the serial Plunder (1923), starring Pearl White. His wife Helen recalled, “We had fun in those early days when Warren was invading Broadway. We learned to make the best of simple things, to give and to take. Perhaps we were sometimes happier than now, with the responsibilities that money brings.”
Pre-Code Hollywood (1930-34)
Meanwhile, as movies began to incorporate sound, the industry entered an era remembered as Pre-Code Hollywood. In the early 1930s, existing censor codes weren't enforced as severely, and movies portrayed life with an unflinching frankness. Warren William’s performance in Broadway’s The Vinegar Tree (1930) led to him being cast in his feature movie debut, Honor of the Family (1931), starring Bebe Daniels. Since talking movies were still new, an actor’s voice was critiqued as part of their ability to emote. Picture Play wrote of William’s performance, “His voice is excellent, his enunciation perfect and his presence magnetic.”
He was under contract at Warner Brothers, a studio known during this period for innovative musicals and resilient characters in crime dramas inspired by contemporary events. Warren William’s sophisticated voice and suave manner equipped him to portray charismatic characters. The complex decisions his characters faced were seen in roles such as a street cleaner turned deceitful businessman running his uncle’s match factory in The Match King (1932) co-starring Lilli Damita; a lawyer torn between morals while defending the underworld in The Mouthpiece (1932) co-starring Sidney Fox; a carnival fortune teller who exploits vulnerable people in The Mind Reader (1933) co-starring Constance Cummings; and a married businessman whose affair has dangerous consequences in Upper World (1934), co-starring Ginger Rogers. The aesthetic of Warren William’s movies was summarized by The New Movie Magazine in 1933 as “fast, sparkling entertainment with a story just a trifle off the beaten path.”
In between these box office successes, Warren William showed his versatility in other genres. His supporting role as a lawyer in the Busby Berkely musical Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) supplied the subplot of falling in love with a chorus girl, played by Joan Blondell, which was the third of five movies he made with Blondell. William also starred in Frank Capra’s Academy-nominated Lady for a Day (1933) as a gambler who helps a homeless woman (May Robson) enter society to protect her daughter’s reputation (Glenda Farrell) in the rags-to-riches story. Furthermore, he portrayed Julius Caesar in Cecil B. DeMille’s award-winning epic Cleopatra (1934) starring Claudette Colbert, while also co-starring that same year as the leading man to Colbert in the Academy-nominated Imitation of Life (1934).
The Hays Code
By 1934, the Hays Code, a censorship code led by William Hays (1879-1954) and influenced by organizations such as the Legion of Decency, enforced what subject matter was appropriate for movies. The goal was to make movies suitable for all audiences, but the intense restrictions caused inconveniences for productions. Scripts had to be reviewed before filming, yet script rewrites and reshoots of scenes were common before movies were approved for general exhibition. The Hays Code remained in effect until 1968, when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), now called the Motion Picture Association (MPA), established the movie rating system known today.
Mae West, who Warren William co-starred with in Go West Young Man (1936), was known for writing her own material and remembered the Hays Code in 1976: “It was my suggestion that they read the script before I shoot the scene, so that’s what they did. I’d take [a line] out and put something else in [if the censors opposed]. Sometimes I put extra things in that I knew they were gonna take out, just to make them happy . . .”
Furthermore, the Hays Code reflected the racial prejudices of the era. Shirley Temple, the most successful child star of the 1930s, later referenced in 1988 how the Hays Code re-shaped her movies: “[Bill Bojangles Robinson and I] were the first interracial dancing couple—ever. And I heard that anytime our hands touched, that in the south of our country, those scenes would be cut out in dance numbers.”
However, the Hays Code didn’t affect Warren William as strongly. Lauded as “a master of suavity and a finished farceur,” he continued to play believable characters. While revealing his real-life army experience helped him play a sergeant, he said in 1933, “Every experience in life helps an actor in the portrayal of the character he represents. . . .”
Warren William as Detective
Warren William transitioned from antihero roles to playing crimefighters. The audience was already familiar with many of these detectives, who were based on literary characters. He starred as Perry Mason in the first screen portrayal of the lawyer created by Erle Stanley Gardner. William’s first Perry Mason movie was The Case of the Howling Dog (1934), which led to four other movies until 1936. By 1936, William’s contract with Warner Brothers ended and he was freelancing across various studios in drama and comedy, while returning to his signature detective roles in between. For instance, William portrayed Philo Vance in The Dragon Murder Case (1934) and The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939). Philo Vance, created by S.S. Van Dine, was previously portrayed on screen by William Powell and Basil Rathbone, of Sherlock Holmes fame. Both actors gave more serious performances, while William’s relaxed interpretation was observed as a “whimsical sleuth.”
Other detective roles included Satan Met a Lady (1936) opposite Bette Davis, inspired by Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, and Arsène Lupin Returns (1938) starring Melvyn Douglas, based on stories by Maurice LeBlanc. Yet, William’s role as a jewel thief turned detective in Columbia Pictures’s Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) began his most memorable characterization of all the literary detectives he portrayed.
The Lone Wolf (1939-43)
Based on the book series by Joseph Louis Vance, The Lone Wolf was the alias of Michael Lanyard, a notorious jewel thief turned detective to prove his innocence in crimes. The series was similar to the Boston Blackie franchise starring Chester Morris, which was filmed at Columbia concurrently. However, The Lone Wolf was well-off with a butler, Jameson (Eric Blore), a former criminal himself who assisted him. The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) had Michael Lanyard as a widower with a daughter (Virginia Weilder) before being depicted as a single man in his mid-thirties. As Michael Lanyard, his criminal past was dismissed when he told Jameson (Blore), “The Lone Wolf is tucked away in mothballs. I am a gentleman of leisure and an honest one, no matter how much it pains.” (Lone Wolf Meets a Lady, 1940).
Throughout the series, audiences saw the eccentricities of Michael Lanyard, including an interest in ichthyology (Lone Wolf Strikes, 1940) and collecting stamps (Lone Wolf Keeps a Date, 1940). His methodical investigation was highly effective. For example, after being kidnapped, he traced his steps by re-blindfolding himself to listen to his surroundings in order to discover the location he was taken to (Counter Espionage, 1942). Later in the series, he demonstrated his ability to determine how long a body had been dead (One Dangerous Night, 1943).
In between the movie series, William played vastly different roles, such as banker and merchant heir Jesse Lewisohn in the biopic Lillian Russell (1940), starring Alice Faye, and a lumberjack in the period drama Wild Geese Calling (1942), starring Henry Fonda and Joan Bennett. He was also the villainous cowboy in westerns, including Arizona (1940), starring Jean Arthur and William Holden.
The ninth and final Lone Wolf movie Warren William starred in was Passport to Suez (1943). Around this time, trade papers reported that William had an interest in entertaining troops, going back to his early performance days during WWI. In late 1943, he and actress Sigrid Gurie teamed up to perform for troops at Southern California’s Banning and Camp Young. William also appeared in parades to encourage war bond sales and was a volunteer of the Beverly Hills reserve company of the state guard. After a two-year break from movies, his final roles were in three independent movies: Strange Illusion (1945) opposite Sally Eilers; Fear (1946), co-starring Peter Cookson and Anne Gwynne; and The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947), starring George Sanders and Angela Lansbury.
Radio
Warren William also contributed his talents to radio dramas. Notable appearances include two starring roles in the dramatic anthology Lux Radio Theater: “The Curtain Rises” in 1936 with Ginger Rogers and “My Bill” in 1942 with Kay Francis. He also performed in the thriller anthology Suspense for the 1943 episode “Murder Goes for a Swim,” reprising his role of The Lone Wolf alongside Eric Blore as Jameson. William’s most famous radio work was starring in the 1946 psychological drama series, Strange Wills.
Sailing and Inventing
Off-screen Warren William lived a quiet life in Encino with his wife, Helen. In 1938, he participated in Movieland Tours arranged by Fawcett Publications, where he hosted cocktail parties for tour groups at his home. However, William preferring sailing and experimenting with inventing. He admitted, “I never had any burning desire to be an actor. The beginning of my career was more a matter of something to do when nothing better offered. Perhaps that is the reason I’ve never been able to behave like an actor out of office hours.”
He owned various boats, including a whaleboat, a schooner, and a catboat. In 1934, his schooner, the Pegasus, was reported missing off Catalina Island but returned hours later. That year, he said, “Oh, I’ll never be able to get away long enough for a real trip. It would be nice to sail along the Mexican coast and get some tuna, and to go to the South Seas—but an actor doesn't dare to take much time off. People forget so easily. It’s one job where a holiday is a drawback, a definite danger. But I like to think that my Pegasus could go anywhere—any minute.”
Meanwhile, William’s ideas on efficiency inspired him to invent. A report in 1935 mentioned that in his carpentry shop he designed a revolving rack for his shoes, socks, and garters. Other innovations over the years included a car chassis that became a movable table; a yacht for his dog; a device that would pump water out of the pool during a fire; a phone at the gate entrance of his home as well as a drawbridge; and a vacuum that picked up leaves.
In 1938, William discussed his hobbies, saying, “Yes, I am a gadgeteer. . . . I wake up by fits and starts to find one of the little gadgets parked on my chest begging to be born.” He explained that these hobbies, usually outdoors, helped him escape the stress of Hollywood: “In Hollywood, we live at high emotion tension. I believe that to save time for leisure is the one way to reduce pressure. . . . I spend all my spare time in the workshop, doing things around the place. I level the orchards. I doctor all the trees. I invent devices.”
When he wasn’t sailing or inventing, William read widely with interests including patent law, philosophy, modern farming, and Mark Twain, as well as Charles Dickens.
Legacy
Warren William died on September 24, 1948, at the age of 53, from multiple myeloma, a disease he battled for a few years, which he contracted during pneumonia. He was survived by his wife Helen, who died on December 31, 1948. In his 67 screen roles, Warren William played entertaining yet complex characters with sympathy that modern movie audiences treasure. Yet, he also demonstrated how to balance a demanding, public career with outside interests for a well-rounded life. His creed was revealed in 1938 when he said, “I believe in giving and giving generously, everything in you, to what is worthwhile.”
Rachel Martinez is an artist and writer whose passion at an early age for classic movies further inspired her in storytelling. She studied film production throughout high school and went on to earn a B.A. in cinematography and a minor in creative writing.
Further Reading
LaSalle, Mick. Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man, New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2002.
Luperi, Kim. Reid, Danny. Pre-Code Essentials: Must-See Cinema from Hollywood’s Untamed Era, 1930-1934 (Turner Classic Movies), New York: Running Press Adult, 2025.
Strangeland, John. Warren William: Magnificent Scoundrel of Pre-Code Hollywood, North Carolina: McFarland, 2019.
“The Production Code and the Hays Office.”, Encyclopedia. Accessed: June 7, 2026
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