Warda Howard

Warda Howard, born Eduarda Howard in San Francisco, California, in 1880, was an American actress who worked across stage and screen during the early twentieth century. The daughter of Charles and Louise Howard, she grew up in a household with academic ties — her father was a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley, which Howard herself attended. She performed under both the stage names Teddy Howard and Warda Howard throughout her career.

Howard's stage work extended well beyond the United States. She undertook an extended tour through Asia and the Pacific, performing with the company of New Zealand actor Reynolds Denniston. Her Broadway career spanned from 1911 to 1934, during which she appeared in four productions. She made her Broadway debut in Next in 1911, playing the role of Sage Brush Kate. She returned to Broadway in 1923 in Red Light Annie as Dorothy Martin, followed by The Desert Flower in 1924, in which she portrayed Flo Zella. Her final Broadway credit came in 1934 with Too Much Party, where she played Hagar.

In addition to her stage work, Howard appeared in films distributed by V-L-S-E, a distribution company formed through a partnership among Vitagraph Company of America, Lubin Manufacturing Company, Selig Polyscope Company, and Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. Her screen credits include The Longer Voyage in 1915, in which she had a leading role alongside Sydney Ainsworth, and The Raven, also from 1915. In 1916 she took on a starring role in That Sort, playing the character Diana Laska, and also appeared that year in The Little Girl Next Door.

Howard married actor Frank Fanning in 1907. She subsequently married actors John Lorenz and Leo Kennedy. She died on March 17, 1943.