Warner Richmond

Warner Richmond (born Werner Paul Otto Raetzmann; January 11, 1886 – June 19, 1948) was an American stage and film actor. He began his career as a stock theatre actor and appeared in films in both the silent film and sound eras. His career spanned four decades.
He is possibly best recalled for appearances in Westerns in his later career in sound films. Between 1912 and 1946, he appeared in more than 140 films.
Early life
Warner Richmond was born in Racine, Wisconsin, as Werner Paul Otto Raetzmann, one of seven children born to Wilhelm ("William") Raetzmann and Emilie ("Amelia") Licht. Richmond's father was a German immigrant from Hanover who worked as a printer in Reedsburg. His mother was Wisconsin-born and raised, and of German immigrant parents. Growing up in rural Wisconsin, he became an expert horseman, and this skill would later earn him roles in western movies. As a young man, he moved to Chicago and lived with his brother Ewald and worked as traveling salesman of musical merchandise while pursuing a career as a stage actor.
Career
By the early 1910s, Richmond was working steadily as a travelling stage actor in stock theater. Richmond's only known credited Broadway stage role was in a 1913 production of the Augustus Thomas play Indian Summer, alongside Creighton Hale.
Richmond's first credited film appearance was as the character Dick in the 1912 Ralph Ince directed dramatic short The Godmother for Vitagraph Studios in New York City. By 1917 he was a working consistently as an actor at Solax Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. His first appearance in a Western genre film was as the character Dr. Newberry in House Peters' 1915 The Great Divide. When the film industry later relocated to southern California, Richmond and his family also moved and settled in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Toluca Lake. Richmond, who was not a contracted actor, made films with nearly all major film studios and by the late 1910s and early 1920s played both leading and second lead roles in crime dramas, romantic dramas, serials and Westerns. His career as an actor spanned over four decades and he appeared in prominent roles in Westerns, often playing a villain, particularly later in his career during the sound era.
In 1940, while filming the Albert Herman directed Tex Ritter Western Rainbow Over the Range in Prescott, Arizona, Richmond fell from his horse and suffered a fractured skull which left the left side of his face paralyzed and diminished vision in his left eye. Richmond was hospitalized for eight months following the accident and spent the following two years resting at home and massaging and pinching his face until his reflexes were restored. In 1944, he returned to films.
Personal life and death
Richmond married actress Felice Striker Rose on October 31, 1918. They had a son, Warner Richmond Jr. in 1921.
In the late 1940s, Richmond retired to the Motion Picture Country Home where he died on June 19, 1948, of coronary thrombosis, aged 62. He was cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.
Selected filmography
The Godmother (1912) - Dick - The Second Boy
Springtime (1914) - Crawley
Lady Audley's Secret (1915) - Sir Michael Audley
The Great Divide (1915) - Dr. Newberry
Betty of Greystone (1916)
Her Maternal Right (1916)
Manhattan Madness (1916) - Jack Osborne
Fifty-Fifty (1916) - Dandy
The Sporting Life (1918) - Joe Lee
Woman (1918) - Civil War Officer
A Romance of the Air (1918) - Minor Role
Brown of Harvard (1918) - Claxton Madden
The Gray Towers Mystery (1919) - Jean Bautiste
My Lady's Garter (1919) - Meredith
A Woman's Business (1920) - Brookes
The Mountain Woman (1921) - Bud Sellers
The Heart of Maryland (1921) - Tom Boone
Tol'able David (1921) - Allen Kinemon
Jan of the Big Snows (1922) - Jan Allaire
Isle of Doubt (1922) - Gerry Patten
The Challenge (1922) - Ralph Westley
The Man from Glengarry (1922) - Ronald MacDonald
Luck (1923) - Pollard
Mark of the Beast (1923) - Donald Duncan
The Speed Spook (1924) - Jud Skerrit
Daughters of the Night (1924) - Lawyer Kilmaster
Fear-Bound (1925) - Ed Tumble
The Crowded Hour (1925) - Operator
The Making of O'Malley (1925) - Danny the Dude
The Pace That Thrills (1925) - Jack Van Loren
The Wives of the Prophet (1926) - Ben Blake
Good and Naughty (1926) - Bad News Smith
The Fire Brigade (1926) - Jim O'Neil
Finger Prints (1927) - Andy 'Annie Laurie' Norton
Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927) - Cliff Macklin
White Flannels (1927) - Ed
Irish Hearts (1927) - Emmett
The Heart of Maryland (1927) - Capt. Fulton Thorpe
Chicago (1927) - Asst. District Attorney
Hearts of Men (1928) - William Starke
The Crowd (1928) - Mr. Sims - John's Father (uncredited)
You Can't Beat the Law (1928) - Bowery Blackie
Stop That Man! (1928) - Jim O'Brien
Shadows of the Night (1928) - Feagan
The Apache (1928) - Gaston Laroux
The Voice of the Storm (1929) - Dobbs
Stark Mad (1929) - First Mate
The Redeeming Sin (1929) - Lupine
Strange Cargo (1929) - Neil Stoker
Little Mother (1929, Short) - Father
Big News (1929) - Phelps - District Attorney's Man
Men Without Women (1930) - Lt. Cmdr. Briddwell
Strictly Modern (1930) - Judge Bartlett
Billy the Kid (1930) - Bob Ballinger
Remote Control (1930) - Max
Quick Millions (1931) - 'Nails' Markey
Huckleberry Finn (1931) - Pap Finn
Stung (1931) - Racketeer
The Woman from Monte Carlo (1932) - Fourdylis
The Beast of the City (1932) - Tom
Scarface (1932) - Cesca's Dance Partner (uncredited)
Night Court (1932) - Ed - Frame-Up Man (uncredited)
Strangers of the Evening (1932) - Dr. Joseph Chandler
Hell's Highway (1932) - 'Pop-Eye' Jackson
Fast Workers (1933) - Feets Wilson
King of the Jungle (1933) - Gus (uncredited)
Corruption (1933) - Regan
The Man Who Dared (1933) - Neighborhood Hood (uncredited)
Life in the Raw (1933) - Harvey (H.B.) Lamson
Mama Loves Papa (1933) - The Radical
Police Call (1933) - Sammy
This Day and Age (1933) - Defense Attorney
The Lost Jungle (1934) - Sharkey
The Scarlet Empress (1934) - Castle Guard (uncredited)
Gift of Gab (1934) - Cop (uncredited)
Happy Landing (1934) - Powell
Fugitive Lady (1934) - Saunders (uncredited)
The Band Plays On (1934) - Lumberjack (uncredited)
Under Pressure (1935) - Weasel
The Phantom Empire (1935) - Rab
Mississippi (1935) - Man at Bar Who Pulls a Gun (uncredited)
Straight from the Heart (1935) - Cop (uncredited)
Smokey Smith (1935) - Kent
The Headline Woman (1935) - Henchman Bradley
So Red the Rose (1935) - Confederate Sergeant
Chinatown Squad (1935) - Detective (uncredited)
Rainbow's End (1935) - Thomas Stark
The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) - Captain of the Guard (uncredited)
The New Frontier (1935) - Ace Holmes
Remember Last Night? (1935) - Policeman (uncredited)
The Fighting Marines (1935, Serial) - Metcalf - Henchman
The Courageous Avenger (1935) - Gorman
The Singing Vagabond (1935) - Buck LaCrosse
Heart of the West (1936) - Johnson
Hearts in Bondage (1936) - Bucko (uncredited)
Wolves of the Sea (1936) - Snoden
Below the Deadline (1936) - Diamond Dutch
Missing Girls (1936) - Ray Hanson
In His Steps (1936) - Gavin
White Legion (1936) - Burke
Song of the Gringo (1936) - Henchman Cherokee
Headin' for the Rio Grande (1936) - Ike Travis
Trail of Vengeance (1937) - Link Carson
The Gold Racket (1937) - Doc Johnson
A Lawman Is Born (1937) - Kane Briscoe
The 13th Man (1937) - George Crandall
Doomed at Sundown (1937) - Jim Hatfield
Riders of the Dawn (1937) - Jim Danti
Stars Over Arizona (1937) - Ace Carter
Where Trails Divide (1937) - Mississippi Blackie Wilson
Federal Bullets (1937) - Henchman Burke
Wallaby Jim of the Islands (1937) - Karl Haage, Richter Henchman
Child Bride (1938) - Jake Bolby
The Secret of Treasure Island (1938, Serial) - Capt. Tom Stanton, alias Capt. Tom Faxton [Ch.1]
Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938, Serial) - Zandar
Six Shootin' Sheriff (1938) - Ace Kendal
The Singing Cowgirl (1938) - Henchman Garrick
Prairie Moon (1938) - Mullins
Wild Horse Canyon (1938) - Travers
Water Rustlers (1939) - Wiley
Trigger Smith (1939) - Gallop
The Oregon Trail (1939, Serial) - General Sherman [Ch.1] (uncredited)
Fighting Mad (1939) - Henchman Trigger
Rhythm of the Rio Grande (1940) - Buck
Pals of the Silver Sage (1940) - Sheriff
The Golden Trail (1940) - Henchman Chris
Rainbow Over the Range (1940) - Gene Griffin
Outlaw Trail (1944) - Judd Hansen
Colorado Serenade (1946) - Dad Dillon
Wild West (1946) - Judge Templeton
References
External links
1886 births
1948 deaths
American male film actors
American male stage actors
Male Western (genre) film actors
American male silent film actors
20th-century American male actors
Burials at Chapel of the Pines Crematory
American people of German descent
Male actors from Wisconsin