Warren Hymer

Warren Hymer
Edgar Warren Hymer (February 25, 1906 – March 25, 1948) was an American theatre and film actor.
Early life
He was born in New York City. His father, John Bard Hymer (1875/1876 – 1953) was a playwright (with nine Broadway plays to his credit, according to the Internet Broadway Database), vaudeville writer and actor, while his mother, Eleanor Kent, was an actress.
Career
He appeared in 129 films between 1929 and 1946, as well as the 1928 Broadway play The Grey Fox.
Despite his typical screen persona as an unsophisticated tough guy with a Brooklyn accent, he actually attended Yale University. With his burly frame and good-natured grin, he almost always played punch-drunk prizefighters, affable soldiers or sailors, or Runyonesque gangsters. He had only two leading roles: opposite Buster Keaton in Keaton's comeback short subject The Gold Ghost (1934), and as one of a trio of mobsters hired to assassinate Adolf Hitler in Hitler: Dead or Alive (1943).
In a famous Hollywood anecdote, Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn had Hymer removed from the studio after he showed up for work drunk. Hymer responded by breaking into Cohn's office and urinating on his desk. Cohn ordered the desk to be burned, then tried to blackball Hymer in the film industry. The incident probably happened in 1939, during the filming of Hymer's last Columbia assignment, The Lady and the Mob. Cohn's warning to other studios to avoid Hymer was effective in the short term -- Hymer had only two assignments in 1940. Cohn's ace director Frank Capra, who had angrily left Cohn's employ, broke the Cohn curse by hiring Hymer for his 1941 feature Meet John Doe. From then on, Warren Hymer was working steadily again. He made up for lost time by accepting more frequent work at smaller studios like Monogram and PRC, between more prestigious assignments at larger studios.
Perhaps Warren Hymer's most unusual role was in the 1941 Monogram feature Phantom Killer. Hymer, in his usual Brooklynesque dumb-bell character, played the slow-witted assistant to police lieutenant Kenneth Harlan. Harlan could not finish the picture due to a brief illness, and the quickie production couldn't wait, so Harlan's character was fatally wounded and Hymer took over as senior officer. Grimly resolving to avenge Harlan's death, and suddenly losing all vestiges of dumbness, Hymer played the rest of the movie straight, in his own, dialect-free voice.
Death
Hymer experienced severe health issues in his last years, slowing his work schedule. Illness forced him to retire from the screen in 1946, and he remained "seriously ill for over a year." He died in 1948 in Los Angeles, California, the cause of death listed as a stomach ailment. His remains are interred at Chapel of the Pines Crematory.
Filmography
The Far Call (1929) - Soup Brophy (silent)
Speakeasy (1929) - Cannon Delmont
Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (1929) - Martin
The Cock-Eyed World (1929) - Marine Corporal Scout (uncredited)
The Girl from Havana (1929) - Spike Howard
Frozen Justice (1929) - Bartender
The Lone Star Ranger (1930) - Bowery Kid
Men Without Women (1930) - Kaufman
Born Reckless (1930) - Big Shot
Up the River (1930) - Dannemora Dan
Sinners' Holiday (1930) - Mitch
Oh, For a Man! (1930) - "Pug" Morini
Men on Call (1930) - Joe Burke
The Seas Beneath (1931) - "Lug" Kaufman
Charlie Chan Carries On (1931) - Max Minchin
Goldie (1931) - Spike Moore
The Spider (1931) - Schmidt (uncredited)
The Unholy Garden (1931) - Smiley Corbin
Love is a Racket (1932) - Burney Olds
The Night Mayor (1932) - Riley
Hold 'Em Jail (1932) - Steele
One Way Passage (1932) - Steve Burke
Madison Square Garden (1932) - Brassie Randall
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) - Hype
The Billion Dollar Scandal (1932) - Kid McGurn
The Mysterious Rider (1933) - Jitney Smith
A Lady's Profession (1933) - Nutty Bolton
Midnight Mary (1933) - Angelo
I Love That Man (1933) - Mousey
Her First Mate (1933) - Percy
My Woman (1933) - Al, Butler (uncredited)
In the Money (1933) - Gunboat Bimms
King for a Night (1933) - Goofy
Roast Beef and Movies (1934, Short) - Man at Gunpoint in Fictitious Film Scene (uncredited)
The Crosby Case (1934) - Sam Collins
The Gold Ghost (1934, Short) - Bugs Kelly
George White's Scandals (1934) - Pete Pandos - Greek Wrestler
Woman Unafraid (1934) - John
One Is Guilty (1934) - "Knock-Out" Walters
Little Miss Marker (1934) - Canvas Back
The Cat's-Paw (1934) - 'Spike' Slattery
She Loves Me Not (1934) - Mugg Schnitzel
Young and Beautiful (1934) - The Champion
Belle of the Nineties (1934) - St. Louis Fighter
Kid Millions (1934) - Louie the Lug
The Gilded Lily (1935) - Taxi Driver
The Case of the Curious Bride (1935) - Oscar Pender
Hold 'Em Yale (1935) - Sam, The Gonoph
Silk Hat Kid (1935) - Misty
The Daring Young Man (1935) - Pete Hogan
Dante's Inferno (1935) - Bozo - a Stoker (uncredited)
She Gets Her Man (1935) - Spike
Navy Wife (1935) - Butch
Our Little Girl (1935)
Confidential (1935) - "Midget" Regan
Hong Kong Nights (1935) - Wally
Show Them No Mercy! (1935) - Gimp
The Widow from Monte Carlo (1935) - Dopey Mullins
Hitch Hike Lady (1935) - Cluck Regan
The Leavenworth Case (1936) - Detective O'Malley
Tango (1936) - Joe Sloan, Betty's Boyfriend
King of the Islands (1936, Short) - A Shipwrecked Sailor
Laughing Irish Eyes (1936) - Tiger O'Keefe
Everybody's Old Man (1936) - Mike Murphy
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) - Bodyguard (uncredited)
A Message to Garcia (1936) - Departing Sailor (uncredited)
Desert Justice (1936) - Hymie
Nobody's Fool (1936) - Sour Puss
San Francisco (1936) - Hazeltine
Rhythm on the Range (1936) - Big Brain
36 Hours to Kill (1936) - Hazy
Love Letters of a Star (1936) - Chuck
You Only Live Once (1937) - Buggsy
She's Dangerous (1937) - Herman Valentz
Join the Marines (1937) - Herman
Navy Blues (1937) - Gerald "Biff" Jones
We Have Our Moments (1937) - Smacksey
Married Before Breakfast (1937) - Harry
Meet the Boyfriend (1937) - Wilbur "Bugs" Corrigan
Wake Up and Live (1937) - First Gunman
Sea Racketeers (1937) - Mate 'Spud' Jones
Bad Guy (1937) - 'Shorty'
Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) - Tramp
Telephone Operator (1937) - Shorty
Lady Behave! (1937) - Butch
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) - Kid Mulligan
Arson Gang Busters (1938) - Tom Jones
Joy of Living (1938) - Mike
You and Me (1938) - Gimpy
Gateway (1938) - Guard-Waiter
Submarine Patrol (1938) - Seaman Rocky Haggerty
Thanks for Everything (1938) - Marine Sergeant
The Lady and the Mob (1939) - Frankie O'Fallon
Mr. Moto in Danger Island (1939) - Twister McGurk
Boy Friend (1939) - Greenberg
Coast Guard (1939) - Lancelot O'Hara
Calling All Marines (1939) - Snooker
Destry Rides Again (1939) - Bugs Watson
Charlie McCarthy, Detective (1939) - Dutch
I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby (1940) - Big Foot Louie
Love, Honor, and Oh Baby! (1940) - Bull
Meet John Doe (1941) - Angelface
Reaching for the Sun (1941) - Percy Shelley
Buy Me That Town (1941) - Crusher Howard
Birth of the Blues (1941) - Limpy
Skylark (1941) - Big Man in Subway Car
Torpedo Boat (1942) - Marine
Jail House Blues (1942) - Big Foot Louie
Mr. Wise Guy (1942) - Dratler
Girls' Town (1942) - Joe
So's Your Aunt Emma (1942) - Joe
Dr. Broadway (1942) - Maxie the Goat
She's in the Army (1942) - Cpl. Buck Shane
One Thrilling Night (1942) - Pat Callahan
Henry and Dizzy (1942) - Tramp at Picnic
Lure of the Islands (1942) - Albert, a gendarme
Baby Face Morgan (1942) - Wise Willie
Police Bullets (1942) - Gabby Walsh
Phantom Killer (1942) - Police Sgt. Pete Corrigan
Hitler – Dead or Alive (1942) - Hans '"Dutch" Havermann
Spy Train (1943) - Herman Krantz
Danger! Women at Work (1943) - Pete
Gangway for Tomorrow (1943) - Pete
Government Girl (1943) - Military Police Sergeant (uncredited)
Since You Went Away (1944) - Convalescent Wishing for Tutti Frutti (uncredited)
Three Is a Family (1944) - Coolie
The Affairs of Susan (1945) - Waiter (uncredited)
Joe Palooka, Champ (1946) - Ira Eyler
Gentleman Joe Palooka (1946) - Louie - Sparring Partner
References
External links
1906 births
1948 deaths
American male film actors
Male actors from New York City
20th-century American male actors
Yale University alumni
Burials at Chapel of the Pines Crematory