S. J. Warmington
Encyclopedia
Stanley J. Warmington or just S. J. Warmington, was an English
actor
who appeared on film
, stage
, radio
and television
in the early 20th century.
, England
on 16 December 1884. Warmington studied for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
and previously had worked as a journalist
. Beginning in the 1910s he appeared in numerous stage productions in West End theatre
in London
and Broadway theatre
in New York
.
In 1919 Warmington landed his first cinematic role in the silent film
Wisp o' the Woods and he went on to play supporting roles
, typically a detective or police officer, in some of Alfred Hitchcock
’s earliest films including Sabotage
, The 39 Steps
, The Man Who Knew Too Much
, and Murder!
. In the late 1930s Warmington gained national fame for playing the lead role in the BBC
radio drama
Inspector Hornleigh
. In 1939 Warmington also acted in some of the earliest made-for-tv films
. In 1934 Warmington married a Ms. Victoria Olga E. Slade.
when the German
Luftwaffe
intentionally bombed residential area
s in Great Britain
. On the evening of 10 May 1941 Warmington was in bed at his home in Kensington
, London
, when his neighbourhood was showered with incendiary bombs
. Warmington went out to help extinguish the resulting fires and was amongst those killed when a high-explosive bomb fell. The civilian casualties from the bombing campaign lasting more than a year were high, with tens of thousands killed and injured. Warmington’s death received a minor mention in The Times
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
who appeared on film
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
, stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
in the early 20th century.
Life and career
Warmington was born in HertfordshireHertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
on 16 December 1884. Warmington studied for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
and previously had worked as a journalist
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
. Beginning in the 1910s he appeared in numerous stage productions in West End theatre
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
In 1919 Warmington landed his first cinematic role in the silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
Wisp o' the Woods and he went on to play supporting roles
Supporting actor
A supporting actor is an actor who performs roles in a play or film other than that of the leads.These roles range from bit parts to secondary leads. They are sometimes but not necessarily character roles. A supporting actor must also use restraint not to upstage the main actor/actress in the...
, typically a detective or police officer, in some of Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
’s earliest films including Sabotage
Sabotage (film)
Sabotage, also released as The Woman Alone, is a 1936 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent...
, The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps (1935 film)
The 39 Steps is a British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. The film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll....
, The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 film)
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a British suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, featuring Peter Lorre, and released by Gaumont British. It was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of Hitchcock's British period....
, and Murder!
Murder!
Murder! is a 1930 British drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring and Edward Chapman. It is based on a novel and play called Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson...
. In the late 1930s Warmington gained national fame for playing the lead role in the BBC
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
Inspector Hornleigh
Inspector Hornleigh
Inspector Hornleigh is a fictional British detective, the chief protagonist of a popular radio show in the 1930s devised by Hans Priwin and played by actor S. J. Warmington. Between 1938 and 1940 a trilogy of films was produced with Gordon Harker in the title role...
. In 1939 Warmington also acted in some of the earliest made-for-tv films
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
. In 1934 Warmington married a Ms. Victoria Olga E. Slade.
Warmington’s death
S. J. Warmington was killed at the age of 56 during the Battle of BritainBattle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
when the German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
intentionally bombed residential area
Residential area
A residential area is a land use in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single family housing, multi-family residential, or mobile homes. Zoning for residential use may permit...
s in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. On the evening of 10 May 1941 Warmington was in bed at his home in Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, when his neighbourhood was showered with incendiary bombs
Incendiary device
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are bombs designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as napalm, thermite, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus....
. Warmington went out to help extinguish the resulting fires and was amongst those killed when a high-explosive bomb fell. The civilian casualties from the bombing campaign lasting more than a year were high, with tens of thousands killed and injured. Warmington’s death received a minor mention in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
.
Filmography
- 1939 – The Little Father of the Wilderness (Made for TV) as Captain Chevillon
- 1939 – Bees on the Boat-Deck (Made for TV)
- 1936 – SabotageSabotage (film)Sabotage, also released as The Woman Alone, is a 1936 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent...
as Hollingshead - 1935 – The 39 StepsThe 39 Steps (1935 film)The 39 Steps is a British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. The film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll....
as Scotland Yard Man - 1934 – The Man Who Knew Too MuchThe Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 film)The Man Who Knew Too Much is a British suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, featuring Peter Lorre, and released by Gaumont British. It was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of Hitchcock's British period....
as Rawlings - 1932 – The Crooked LadyThe Crooked LadyThe Crooked Lady is a 1932 British drama film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and starring George Graves, Isobel Elsom, Ursula Jeans and Austin Trevor. It was filmed at Twickenham Studios....
as Inspector Hilton - 1930 – EscapeEscape (1930 film)Escape is a 1930 British crime film directed by Basil Dean and starring Gerald du Maurier, Edna Best, Gordon Harker and Austin Trevor. A man escapes from Dartmoor Prison and is hunted across the moors by policemen to whom it is an unpleasant reminder of their experiences during the First World War....
as Warder - 1930 – Murder!Murder!Murder! is a 1930 British drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring and Edward Chapman. It is based on a novel and play called Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson...
as Bennett - 1928 – South Sea Bubble as Frank Sullivan
- 1919 – A Smart SetA Smart SetA Smart Set is a 1919 British silent crime film directed by A.V. Bramble and starring Concordia Merrill, Arthur M. Cullin and Judd Green.-Cast:* Concordia Merrill ... Pauline* Arthur M. Cullin ... Sir Philip Trevor* Neville Percy ... Neville Temple...
as Herbert Sterne - 1919 – Wisp o' the Woods as James Whitmore
Stage performances
- March 1920 – King Richard IIIRichard III (play)Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
as Sir William Catesby at Plymouth Theatre in New YorkNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. - February 1920 - Trimmed in Scarlet as Charles Knight at Maxine Elliott's Theatre in New YorkNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. - October 1914 - My Lady's Dress at The Playhouse Theatre in New York.