The 'brains' and 'action' heavies who had meaty roles and lots of dialog ... and the players who were fathers, ranch owners, lawman, mayors, judges, lawyers, storekeepers, newspaper editors, wardens, etc.

Warner Richmond Sometimes billed as: Warner P. Richmond Real name: Werner Paul Raetzmann 1886 - 1948

(Image courtesy of Les Adams) Closeup of Warner Richmond from the still below. This is how ye Old Corral webmaster remembers Richmond - wearing that trademarked, flat-brimmed cowboy hat.

Warner Richmond was a busy B-western villain in the 1930s, appearing in oaters starring Johnny Mack Brown, George O'Brien, Ken Maynard, James Newill (Renfrew series), Tex Ritter, Dorothy Page, Hoot Gibson, John Wayne, Gene Autry, Jack Randall, Tom Keene and Bob Steele. His career was cut short at about 54 years of age, due to a fall from his horse while filming a 1940 Tex Ritter adventure for Monogram. Les Adams has Richmond identified in about 85 sound films, and that number includes about three dozen westerns and a half dozen serials.

In their Best Of The Badmen book, Boyd Magers, Bob Nareau and Bobby Copeland have a lengthy writeup on Warner Richmond, including a lot of details on his parents and siblings ... and many fixes to published biographical info/studio hype. Some tidbits from their updated and corrected Richmond biography include:

• he was born in Reedsburg, Wisconsin (not the oft reported Racine, Wisconsin or Virginia birthplace).
• his real name was Werner Paul Raetzmann, and he had seven siblings.
• circa 1910, Richmond was splitting his time between stock company work in Chicago and as a traveling salesman, peddling musical instruments.
• he did not attend VMI, the Virginia Military Institute.
• he wound up in New York with Vitagaph and it was there that he met and married actress Felice Striker Rose (who as Felice Richmond worked in films including a batch of westerns and serials circa mid 1940s through early 1950s); Warner and Felice had a son named Warner Jr.
• he was a prolific silent performer, often playing leads and second leads; his most memorable silent film work was a support role in director Henry King's TOL'ABLE DAVID (First National, 1921) which starred Richard Barthelmess.
• Richmond suffered a head injury when he fell off his horse during the filming of the Tex Ritter RAINBOW OVER THE RANGE (Monogram, 1940); he was hospitalized for eight months and had facial paralysis for several years.
• after recovering from all his medical problems, Richmond made his final film appearances in three westerns in the mid 1940s: The Trail Blazers' OUTLAW TRAIL (Monogram, 1944) and singin' cowboy Eddie Dean's COLORADO SERENADE (PRC, 1946) and WILD WEST (PRC, 1946). Producer, director, and jack-of-all trades Robert Emmett "Bob" Tansey was involved in the production of all three. Soon after, Richmond retired to the Motion Picture Home and he passed away on June 19, 1948 due to heart/coronary problems.

You may want to go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral and then to the California Death Records database. There you will find a record for: Warner Richmond, born 1/11/1886 in Wisconsin, Mother's maiden name of Light, and he passed away on 6/19/1948. You will also find a record for Richmond's wife, Felice Striker Rose Richmond: Felice S. Richmond, born 1/25/1901 in New York, Mother's maiden name of Adell, and she passed away in the Los Angeles area on 10/13/1986.

Old Corral contributors Jim Sorensen and Dale Crawford mentioned that Richmond is interred at Chapel of the Pines, Los Angeles, California, but in vaultage which can't be viewed.

Years ago - before I started the Old Corral - I recall watching several of Eddie Dean's Cinecolor oaters, including COLORADO SERENADE (PRC, 1946). Took a while for me to recognize that Warner Richmond was portraying baddie "Dad Dillon". He was about 60 years old when that western was filmed. And he was thin, gaunt, without a moustache, grey haired ... and looked very old and warn. I re-looked at COLORADO SERENADE as I was preparing this writeup. There was an old Warner Richmond in the closing gun battle ... and he still had that characteristic facial grimace where he tightened his upper lip and flashed that remarkably even row of pearly upper teeth.

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Warner Richmond and his wife Felice:

The Internet Broadway Database lists one credit for Warner P. Richmond - the 1913 play "Indian Summer": http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=57758

(Image courtesy of Jack Tillmany) Above - Warner Richmond, circa 1926 and about forty years of age. (From Old Corral image collection) On the roof, Bob Steele is ready to spring into action, and below is an unbearded George Hayes. In front of Hayes wearing that flat brimmed hat is Warner Richmond and to the right is Tex Phelps. Duotone lobby card from SMOKEY SMITH (A. W. Hackel/Supreme, 1935). This oater showed Richmond at his nastiest - to get his hands on a ring, he shoots off the finger of Steele's father (kindly ol' Horace Carpenter). And Richmond also throws lye in George Hayes' face. (Image courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are an unidentified player (possibly Charles Kemper), Warner Richmond, Steve Clark, James Mason, Dave Sharpe, Archie Ricks and Bud Osborne in a scene from the Tom Keene oater, WHERE TRAILS DIVIDE (Monogram, 1937).