His career lasted 55 years on the American stage, and he had memorable roles in The Shanghai Gesture, Elizabeth the Queen, Mary of Scotland, Pride and Prejudice, and Anne of the Thousand Days.

He starred in the Broadway production of The Late George Apley for a year, and then spent another 80 weeks with the show's national tour.

Waram originated the role of Horace Vandergelder in The Merchant of Yonkers, and appeared in an influential if not successful modern dress version of Hamlet.

[1] The Greet troupe specialized in presenting plays by William Shakespeare, and Waram appeared in As You Like It,[9] The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Julius Caesar,[10] Much Ado About Nothing,[11] A Midsummer Night's Dream,[12] Hamlet,[13] and The Taming of the Shrew.

[25] In October, the production moved to the Punch and Judy Theatre on Broadway,[26] The play was Waram's first hit, running for 331 performances.

He followed by playing the role of George Herbert in Norman Trevor's Little Theater Group production of The Married Woman at Broadway's Princess Theatre in December 1921.

[55] After a four month run in California, the play moved to Kansas City, where it broke box office records for attendance.

[56] The play then toured Cincinnati,[57] Detroit,[58] Montréal,[59] Pittsburgh,[60] Baltimore,[61] and Washington, D.C.,[62] before returning to Broadway's Majestic Theatre on January 30, 1928 for a final, limited run.

The play premiered in September 1929 at the Wilson Theatre in Detroit for tryouts[69] before moving to Indianapolis,[68] St. Louis,[70] Chicago,[71] and Pittsburgh.

[72] In October 1930, Waram originated the role of Sir Walter Raleigh in Maxwell Anderson's new play, Elizabeth the Queen.

[77][b] The operetta was not successful, and in April 1933 Waram originated the role of Howard Bartlett in Somerset Maugham's new play, For Services Rendered.

[81] With work on the stage scarce due to the Great Depression, Waram joined the summer stock repertory company at the Casino Theatre in Newport, Rhode Island.

[83] In October 1933, he appeared as Don Salluste de Bazan in an English-language adaptation of Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas.

[86][87][c] After Mary of Scotland closed in May 1934, Waram accepted the role of Uncle Robert in Picnic, a new comedy by Gretchen Damrosch staged at the National Theatre.

[88] The play quickly closed, and Waram returned to the Casino Theatre's summer stock company,[89] where he appeared in A Bill of Divorcement[90] and Benn Levy's Art and Mrs.

[91] Although Waram had no contract at the start of the 1934-1935 theater season, he appeared as Henry Pryor in the drama Living Dangerously at the Morosco Theatre in January 1935.

[94] After completing work in Hollywood, Waram returned to Broadway in the role of Mr. Bennett in Helen Jerome's stage adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

These included the role Sir Hudson Lowe in the American premiere of St Helena in October 1936 at the Lyceum Theatre,[98] Mr. Pinchwife in The Country Wife in December 1936 at Henry Miller's Theatre,[99] and Malvolio in Twelfth Night at the Mohawk Drama Festival in Schenectady, New York, in July 1937.

[100] He joined the repertory company at the County Theatre in Suffern, New York, in the summer of 1937,[101] appearing in A Bill of Divorcement[102] and Pride and Prejudice.

[103] After nearly a year's break, Waram returned to the stage in Ruy Blas at a drama festival in Central City, Colorado, in May 1938.

[113] The play ran for a record 66 weeks in Chicago, with attendance of more than 590,000 patrons and a box office gross of $850,000 ($18.2 million in 2024 dollars).

[7] After a two-month break, a touring company of Life With Father began, with Margalo Gillmore in the role of "Mother".

[117] Just as the tour of Life With Father came to an end, Waram was cast as Inspector Prentice in Paramount Pictures' noir crime film, Ministry of Fear.

[118] After a year away from the stage, Waram returned to acting in the role of Roger Newcombe[119] in an adaptation of the novel The Late George Apley.

[123] Just five months after finishing the Apley tour, Waram originated the role of Marcus Hubbard in Lillian Hellman's play Another Part of the Forest.

[127] In June 1946, during the national tour of The Late George Apley, Waram was cast as Roger Newcombe in the film version.

[129] In November 1948, a year after filming The Late George Apley, Waram originated the role of Cardinal Wolsey in the new Maxwell Anderson play Anne of the Thousand Days.

He returned to Broadway in October 1952 in the dual role of the Station Master and God in Ugo Betti's play The Gambler (adapted by Alfred Drake).

Waram returned to acting in October 1954, originating the role of Lucas Edgerton, a wealthy industrialist who goes on an art buying spree, in Reclining Figure.

[135] Waram's final hit stage role was that of the no-nonsense Judge in Enid Bagnold's new play The Chalk Garden.