Warner Anderson

Warner Anderson (March 10, 1911 – August 26, 1976) was an American actor born in Brooklyn, New York, into a theatrical family. He is best known for his starring roles in the television dramas The Lineup and Peyton Place. Anderson's career spanned stage, film, radio, and television across several decades.

Anderson began appearing on screen as a child, taking a small part in a film in 1915. A 1917 newspaper account of the film Sunbeam described him as one of the cleverest children in motion pictures. His Broadway career ran from 1917 to 1951 and included appearances in Maytime and Happiness during the 1917–1918 season, followed by Medea in 1920 and Within Four Walls in 1923. He returned to Broadway with Broken Journey in 1942 and Remains to Be Seen in 1951–1952.

Anderson made his adult film debut in This Is the Army in 1943 and went on to appear in supporting roles in a number of notable productions, including Destination Tokyo, Operation Burma with Errol Flynn, Blackboard Jungle, and The Caine Mutiny. During the 1940s he also worked in radio as the announcer for The Bell Telephone Hour.

On television, Anderson starred as Lieutenant Ben Guthrie in The Lineup, which aired from 1954 to 1960 alongside costar Tom Tully. Reruns of the series were later broadcast in syndication under the title San Francisco Beat. Anderson reprised the role of Lieutenant Guthrie in the 1958 theatrical film adaptation of The Lineup. He subsequently joined the cast of Peyton Place, playing newspaper publisher Matthew Swain, and also served as the series narrator at the start of each episode. He continued in the narrator role even after his character was written out of the show.

Anderson died on August 26, 1976, in a hospital in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 65. He was survived by his wife and a son.