Warren William (born Warren William Krech; Dec 2, 1894 – Sep 24, 1948), the Broadway and Hollywood actor, was immensely popular during the early 1930s; he was later nicknamed “King of Pre-Code.” He was the first actor to play Perry Mason.
Warren William Krech’s family originated in Bad Tennstedt, Thuringia, Germany. His grandfather, Ernst Wilhelm Krech (born 1819), fled Germany in 1848 during the Revolution, going to France and later emigrating to the US.
He wed Mathilde Grow in 1851, and had six children. Freeman E. Krech, Warren’s father, was born in 1856. Around the age of 25, Freeman moved to Aitkin, small town in Minnesota, where he bought a newspaper, The Aitkin Age, in 1885. He married Frances Potter, daughter of a merchant, 1890. Their son Warren was born December 2, 1894.
Warren William’s interest in acting began in 1903, when an opera house was built in Aitkin. He was avid and lifelong amateur inventor and was involved in working his farm, pursuits that may have contributed to his death by exposing him to dangerous contaminants, ranging from sawdust to DDT.
After high school, William auditioned for, and was enrolled in, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) in New York in October 1915.
At his senior year at AADA, the US had entered the First World War, and William enlisted in the Army. He was assigned from base to base, in charge of training new men at various locations, and in 1918 was assigned to Fort Dix, New Jersey.
During this period, he met his future wife, Helen Barbara Nelson, 17 years older than him; in 1923, they were married.
In October 1918, William’s unit was deployed to France, and the war ended one month later. William’s military service ended 1919, after which he began working on his acting career.
William, who appeared in first Broadway play in 1920, soon made name for himself in NY, appearing in more than 20 plays on Broadway between 1920 and 1931.
During this period he also appeared in two silent films, The Town That Forgot God (1922) and Plunder (1923).
He moved from NY to Hollywood in 1931. He began as a contract player at Warner and quickly became a star during the ‘Pre-Code’ period. He developed reputation for portraying ruthless, amoral businessmen (Under 18, Skyscraper Souls, The Match King, Employees’ Entrance), crafty lawyers (The Mouthpiece, Perry Mason), outright charlatans (The Mind Reader).
These roles were considered controversial, yet satisfying. This was the harshest period of the Great Depression, with massive business failures and oppressive unemployment. Movie audiences liked to jeer at businessmen, who were often portrayed as predators.
William played some sympathetic roles, Dave the Dude in Frank Capra’s Lady for a Day and a loving father and husband cuckolded by Ann Dvorak’s character in Three on a Match (1932).
He was a young songwriter’s comically pompous older brother in Gold Diggers of 1933. William was Julius Caesar in Cecil B. DeMille’s Cleopatra (1934; starring Claudette Colbert), and with Colbert again the same year as her love interest in Imitation of Life (1934). He played swashbuckling musketeer d’Artagnan in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), directed by James Whale.
The studios capitalized on William’s popularity by placing him in “series” films, as detectives and crime solvers.
William was the first to portray Erle Stanley Gardner’s fictional defense attorney Perry Mason on the big screen, starring in 4 Perry Mason mysteries.
He played Raffles-like reformed jewel thief The Lone Wolf in 9 films, beginning with The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939), and appeared as Detective Philo Vance in 2 of the series films, The Dragon Murder Case (1934) and the comedic The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939).
He also starred as Sam Spade (renamed Ted Shane) in Satan Met a Lady (1936), the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon.
Other roles included Mae West’s manager in Go West, Young Man (1936); a jealous district attorney in another James Whale film, Wives Under Suspicion (1938); copper magnate Jesse Lewisohn in 1940’s Lillian Russell; the evil Jefferson Carteret in Arizona (also 1940); and the sympathetic Dr. Lloyd in The Wolf Man (1941). In 1945, he played Brett Curtis in cult director Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 modern-day version of Hamlet, called Strange Illusion.
In what would be his last film, he played Laroche-Mathieu in The Private Affairs of Bel Ami in 1947.
On radio, William starred in the transcribed series “Strange Wills,” which featured “stories behind strange wills that run the gamut of human emotion.”
Although on-screen William was an actor audiences loved to hate, off-screen he was private man, he and his wife Helen kept out of the limelight. She and Warren remained a couple throughout his entire life. He was often described as shy in real life. Co-star Joan Blondell once said, “He … was an old man – even when he was a young man.”
William died on September 24, 1948, from multiple myeloma, at age 53. His wife died few months later.
He was recognized for his contribution to motion pictures with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 1960.
Filmography
The Town That Forgot God 1923 Eben, the carpenter as Warren Krech (silent)
Fox Film
Plunder 1923 Mr. Jones as Warren Krech
(15-episode Pearl White silent serial); George B. Seitz Productions
Honor of the Family 1931 Captain Boris Barony First National Pictures
Expensive Women 1931 Neil Hartley Warner Bros. Pictures [14]
Three on a Match 1932 Robert Kirkwood First National Pictures [15]
The Dark Horse 1932 Hal Samson Blake First National Pictures [16]
Skyscraper Souls 1932 David Dwight Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [17]
The Mouthpiece 1932 Vincent Day Warner Bros. Pictures [18]
The Match King 1932 Paul Kroll First National Pictures [19]
Beauty and the Boss 1932 Baron Josef von Ullrich Warner
Woman from Monte Carlo 1932 Lieutenant d’Ortelles First National Pics
Under Eighteen 1932 Raymond Harding Warner Bros. Pictures [22]
1933
Goodbye Again 1933 Kenneth Bixby First National Pictures [23]
Lady for a Day 1933 Dave the Dude Columbia Pictures [24]
The Mind Reader 1933 Chandra Chandler First National Pictures [25]
Gold Diggers of 1933 1933 J. Lawrence Bradford Warner Bros. Pictures [26]
Employees’ Entrance 1933 Kurt Anderson First National Pictures [27]
Just Around the Corner 1933 Mr. Sears General Electric promotional short [28]
1934
The Secret Bride 1934 Robert Sheldon Warner Bros. Pictures [29]
Cleopatra 1934 Julius Caesar Paramount Pictures [30]
Dr. Monica 1934 John Braden Warner Bros. Pictures [31]
Smarty 1934 Tony Wallace Warner Bros. Pictures [32]
Imitation of Life 1934 Stephen Archer Universal Pictures [33]
Case of the Howling Dog, The 1934 Perry Mason, First film about Perry Mason
Warner
The Dragon Murder Case 1934 Philo Vance First National Pictures [35]
Bedside 1934 Bob Brown First National Pictures [36]
Upper World 1934 Alex Stream Warner Bros. Pictures [37]
1935
Living on Velvet 1935 Walter “Gibraltar” Pritcham First National Pictures [38]
Don’t Bet on Blondes 1935 Odds Owen Warner Bros. Pictures [39]
The Case of the Curious Bride 1935 Perry Mason First National Pictures [40]
The Case of the Lucky Legs 1935 Perry Mason Warner Bros. Pictures [41]
1936
Satan Met a Lady 1936 Ted Shane Warner
Go West, Young Man 1936 Morgan Major Pictures Corp
The Widow from Monte Carlo 1936 Major Allan Chepstow Warner
The Case of the Velvet Claws 1936 Perry Mason First National Pictures [45]
Times Square Playboy 1936 Vic Arnold Warner Bros. Pictures
Stage Struck 1936 Fred Harris First National Pictures [47]
1937
Outcast, Dr. Wendell Phillips Jones Major Pictures Corp.
Midnight Madonna 1937 Blackie Denbo Major Pictures Corp. [49]
Madame X 1937 Bernard Fleuriot Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [50]
The Firefly 1937 Major de Rouchemont Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [51]
1938
Wives Under Suspicion 1938 District Attorney Jim Stowell Universal
The First Hundred Years 1938 Harry Borden Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [53]
Arsène Lupin Returns 1938 Steve Emerson Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [54]
1939
The Gracie Allen Murder Case 1939 Philo Vance Paramount Pictures [55]
The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt 1939 Michael Lanyard / “The Lone Wolf” Columbia
Day-Time Wife 1939 Bernard Dexter 20th Century Fox [57]
The Man in the Iron Mask 1939 d’Artagnan Edward Small Productions [58]
1940
Lillian Russell 1940 Jesse Lewisohn 20th Century Fox
Trail of the Vigilantes 1940 Mark Dawson Universal Pictures
The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady, Michael Lanyard / “The Lone Wolf” Columbia
The Lone Wolf Keeps Date, Michael Lanyard / “The Lone Wolf” Columbia
The Lone Wolf Strikes 1940 Michael Lanyard / “The Lone Wolf” Columbia
Arizona 1940 Jefferson Carteret Columbia Pictures
1941
The Wolf Man 1941 Dr. Lloyd Universal
The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance, Michael Lanyard / “The Lone Wolf” Columbia Pictures
Secrets of the Lone Wolf 1941 Michael Lanyard / “The Lone Wolf” Columbia Pictures
Wild Geese Calling 1941 Blackie Bedford 20th Century Fox [68]
1942
Counter-Espionage, Michael Lanyard / “The Lone Wolf” Columbia
Wild Bill Hickok Rides, Harry Farrel Warner
One Dangerous Night, Michael Lanyard / “The Lone Wolf” Columbia
1943
Passport to Suez, Michael Lanyard / “The Lone Wolf” Columbia
1945
Strange Illusion, Brett Curtis Producers Releasing Corporation
1946
Fear, Police Capt. Burke Monogram Pictures
1947
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, Laroche-Mathieu Loew-Lewin, Inc./United Artists
