Born Edwin Joel Finkelstein in suburban Austin, Texas, in 1925, Guy Warner's parents moved to Los Angeles when he was ten.

Teenage Edwin's handsome looks got him a job modelling for Montgomery Ward.  Sunning himself by the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel one day, he was spotted by famed Hollywood maneater Toni Mannix, who knew a good-looking man when she saw him.  (For the rest of his life, the mention of Toni or "ten-gallon hat" was guaranteed to bring a blush to The Guy's face.)

Webmistress:  My favorite fantasy. Ten-gallon hat!

It was Toni, apparently, who suggested he change his name.  (A lady who was born Camille Bernice Froomess knew the value of a name.)  She suggested Warner as a recognizable Hollywood name, and he wanted Guy because he liked Guy Mitchell's music.  This may not have been such a great idea, because critics constantly confused the two, usually to The Guy's detriment.

Guy Warner was married twice, an early marriage in 1946 to Ellie Jones that produced two sons, Robert and Adam, and ended when Ellie announced, "I don't care that he has affairs, I care that he doesn't have the good manners to hide it!"  In 1978, at 52, he married Alison Peterson, who survived him, and, it's said, left a rose on his grave every year until her death in 1996. Still, years after her death, the rose still appears.  (See the Photo Gallery.) Who is leaving it?

The Guy wasn't much of an intellectual.  His interests were more, shall we say, physical. Let's face it, he was a ladies' man.  He apparently "knew" most of the female stars and starlets of his time.

Webmistress: Hey, have you seen his photo?  I'd have been in line too, right behind Bette Davis.  (Did I say that out loud?)  I heard that an entire chapter on The Guy was removed by her autobiographer at the last minute.  Hard to imagine something being too scandalous for Bette, but there you go!

Jessica has a bit of a crush on The Guy, I'm afraid.  Moving on...

His great passion, aside from women, was sailing.  He raced his sloop regularly, and frequently won. It's said that he desperately wanted Gardner McKay's role in Adventures in Paradise (1959), but he lost out, possibly because he had had an affair with the wrong woman. He always claimed it was because Gardner McKay had the right initials - GM - the same as Guy Mitchell.

If you have photos of him on his sailboat, "Sea-mistress," Jessica our Webmistress would love to hear from you.

Webmistress:  We got one!  (See our new photo gallery.)  More, please!

He was athletic, though not brilliantly so.   He suffered from congenital arrhythmia, which limited his participation in athletic activities, at least those without a female partner.

He collapsed and died, apparently of heart failure, on the set of Fantasy Island. 

Webmistress:  Heart attack.  Yeah, right.