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."Showmen's Trade Review, April 3, 1948, p. 9. He died in 1948 in Los Angeles, California, the cause of death listed as a stomach ailment.Motion Picture Daily, "Warren Hymer Funeral on Coast," March 30, 1948, p. 6, His remains are interred at Chapel of the Pines Crematory.Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14000 Famous Persons by Scott Wilson
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
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