Starting out as a child actor in silent films, Warner Anderson appeared in burlesque and vaudeville as a teenager, and enjoyed a career in Broadway plays before making his film debut in the early 1940s. His no-nonsense demeanor and commanding voice served him well in playing corporate executives, judges, army officers and other authority figures. His most famous role, however, was as the detective paired with Tom Tully in the early TV series The Lineup (1954), the pilot of which was directed by Don Siegel and was so well received it was released as a feature film. In contrast to his usual upstanding, if somewhat stern, roles, Anderson turned in a first-rate performance as a cowardly, treacherous and murderous soldier in the Gregory Peck western Fort invincible (1951).
