Frederick Barkham Warde (February 23, 1851 – February 7, 1935) was an English Shakesperian actor who relocated to the United States in the late 19th century.In the late 1870s he partnered with actor Maurice Barrymore and the two agreed to tour plays around the United States. Warde would have one section of the country while Barrymore and his company toured the other. For a time the venture was very successful.Warde had two notable film achievements, one being the "discovery" of Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and persuading him to move from Denver to join Warde's New York City actors troupe. Fairbanks then made his Broadway debut in 1902.The second achievement was as the star of Richard III (1912), based on the play by William Shakespeare. This 55-minute film was re-discovered in 1996 by a private film collector who donated it to the American Film Institute archive. The film is thought to be the earliest surviving American feature film. In 1916 Warde filmed another Shakespearean tragedy, King Lear, for the Thanhouser company. This film also exists. In 1917 he appeared in a Pathe film Under False Colors with an up-and-coming beauty named Jeanne Eagels. Another of his films was A Lover's Oath (filmed in 1921 and premiered four years later), opposite Ramon Novarro, in which he portrayed Omar Khayyám. It is regarded as a lost film.Warde also recorded an early sound film Frederick Warde Reads Poem, A Sunset Reverie (1921) which was made in the short-lived sound-on-disc Phono-Kinema process.
Children: Ernest C. Warde (director), Arthur Frederick Warde (press agent), Mrs. May Schmitt of Brooklyn, and Mrs. John J. Hillgardner of West Hempstead.
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Son of Thomas and Anne (Barkham) Ward.
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
A Lover's Oath
1925
Omar Khayyam
The Unveiling Hand
1919
Judge Ellis
Rich Man, Poor Man
1918
John K. Beeston
The Heart of Ezra Greer
1917
Ezra Greer
Under False Colors
1917
John Colton
The Fires of Youth
1917
Iron Hearted Pemberton
Hinton's Double
1917
Joshua Stevens / John Evart Hinton
The Vicar of Wakefield
1917
Vicar of Wakefield
King Lear
1916
King Lear
Silas Marner
1916
Short
Silas Marner
Richard III
1912
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterward Richard III