James Warren (February 24, 1913 – March 28, 2001) was an American film actor and artist. After a film career in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, mainly in Westerns, he moved to Hawaii and painted local subjects.
Early life Born James Pringle Wittlig in Marietta, Ohio, he was the son of Walter Wittlig, a watchmaker, and Florence Ione Pringle. He had two brothers, Laurence and David. The Wittligs had emigrated from Langenthal, Switzerland in the 1860s.
However, James did not follow in the family watchmaking tradition. His first love was art, which took him to the Pratt Art Institute of New York where he became a watercolorist and an illustrator for various magazines.
Film career Warren was seen by an MGM talent scout, who offered him a contract. Changing his name to James Warren, he, his wife Felice, and their six-week-old son moved to Hollywood, where over the course of several years he appeared in more than 30 movies. When his MGM contract expired, he moved to RKO Radio Pictures.
His first picture at RKO, filmed in the spring of 1945, was Ding Dong Williams, a backstage musical with a Hollywood theme. He played a slow-witted movie cowboy alongside a palomino horse, Star Dust. RKO had been making Zane Grey westerns with Robert Mitchum in the leading roles, and with Mitchum now advancing to dramatic features, RKO producer Herman Schlom (who had made Ding Dong Williams) remembered how well James Warren photographed in western gear. James Warren (and Star Dust) took over RKO's Zane Grey series, starring in three films: Wanderer of the Wasteland (1945), Sunset Pass (1946), and Code of the West (1947).
Warren's tenure as RKO's cowboy star was brief; the studio's resident star Tim Holt returned from military service and resumed his starring series. Warren returned to character roles. In 1952, he co-starred with Gloria Swanson in the comedy film Three for Bedroom "C". Swanson wrote in her autobiography that she chose him as the male lead in the play after seeing him in Los Angeles selling his paintings and ceramics.
Art career During all his time in Hollywood, Warren had never lost his passion for painting. He produced several one-man shows throughout the US and found a patron in Vincent Price. At one of these shows, Katharine Hepburn purchased seven of Warren's large watercolor paintings which she kept in her private collection.
In 1968, an art commission from Ford Motor Company took him to Hawaii. There, he quickly settled into island life and became a highly respected member of the art community. He maintained an art gallery in Honolulu, as well as Maui. Warren specialized in whimsical interpretations of the Hawaiian tutus (grandmothers) as well as paintings of Maui onions. Warren was a well-respected member of the Lahaina Art Society. He was usually a willing and gracious participant in all art shows. He continued his one-man shows well into his later life, only stopping in his seventies.
Warren died in 2001, aged 88, in Kihei, Hawaii, leaving four children and several grandchildren.
Filmography Year Title Role Notes1942 Ship Ahoy Ship's Officer Uncredited1942 Pacific Rendezvous FBI Agent Uncredited1942 Seven Sweethearts Theodore Vaney, Albert's Beau 1942 Tennessee Johnson James Patterson Uncredited1943 The Human Comedy Soldier Uncredited1943 Slightly Dangerous Young Dancer Uncredited1943 Three Hearts for Julia Program Vendor Uncredited1943 Swing Shift Maisie Young Pilot Uncredited1943 Thousands Cheer Soldier at Train Station Uncredited1943 Cry 'Havoc' Wounded Soldier Beside Truck Uncredited1943 Girl Crazy Radio Man Uncredited1943 A Guy Named Joe Irish Guard Uncredited1943 Whistling in Brooklyn Sound Man Uncredited1944 See Here, Private Hargrove Executive Officer Uncredited1944 Meet the People Marine Uncredited1944 Maisie Goes to Reno Dr. Hanley Fleeson Uncredited1944 Marriage Is a Private Affair Officer Uncredited1945 This Man's Navy Bomber Pilot Uncredited1945 Main Street After Dark Serviceman in Police Station Uncredited1945 Wanderer of the Wasteland Adam Laney 1945 Ding Dong Williams Steve Moore 1946 Badman's Territory John Rowley 1946 Sunset Pass Rocky 1947 Code of the West Bob Wade 1948 The Judge Steps Out John Struthers III 1951 Fourteen Hours Thomas Edward Fuller Uncredited1952 Diplomatic Courier Cafe Customer Uncredited1952 Three for Bedroom C Professor Ollie J. Thruman 1953 Port Sinister Tony Ferris
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