Bien studied music in Paris and trained for two years to be an opera singer, but acting proved to be his greater calling.

For the next twenty years Warwick appeared in such plays as Anna Karenina (1906), Two Women (1910), with Mrs. Leslie Carter; and The Kiss Waltz (1911) and Miss Prince (1912), in both of which he was able to display his singing voice.

[4] Warwick started making silent films in 1914, with his early work including The Mad Lover (1917) and Thou Art the Man (1920).

He was fifty when sound films arrived, and though middle aged and with his matinee idol looks fading, he found plenty of work in character roles, much enhanced by his rich, resonant voice, eloquent diction, and aristocratic manner.

Warwick's extensive filmography includes such classics as The Little Colonel (1935) with Shirley Temple and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn.

He was one of a number of actors favored by director Preston Sturges and appeared in many of his films, among them Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942) and Hail the Conquering Hero (1944).

[citation needed] By 1910, Warwick married actress Josephine Whittell (1883–1961), but the childless marriage also ended in divorce.