Warren was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, the son of Ellen and Grayson Warren. He attended Central High School, where as a senior he was class president. He was twice named to the Indiana all-state team. He graduated in 1964 as Bears' career, season, and single-game scoring leader. In 1992, he was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
College basketball career
Warren played college basketball at UCLA, where he was a three-year varsity letterman and starting guard from 1966 to 1968. Led by Lew Alcindor, the Bruins posted records of 30–0 in 1967 and 29–1 in 1968. Both teams, coached by legendary coach John Wooden, captured the NCAA national championship. Warren, the smallest Bruins starter at, averaged 12.4 points as a junior in 1967. He was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team and was an All-American in 1968, one of three on that UCLA team along with Alcindor and guard Lucius Allen. The team is considered one of the best in college basketball history. Warren also earned the award as the Bruins' best defender in 1966, and he won the award as the Bruins' best "team player" in 1967 and 1968. Alcindor and Warren later crossed paths when Warren was an extra in the hospital flashback scene in the 1980 feature filmAirplane! Warren was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame.
Acting career
Warren would go on to work as an actor in television. In addition to his starring role on Hill Street Blues, he had an earlier role on The White Shadow, a co-starring role on the CBS series City of Angels, a recurring role on the Showtime series Soul Food, and as a guest star as Jason on Marcus Welby, M.D.. Before Hill Street Blues, in 1974 he played the role of park ranger P. J. Lewis on the NBC adventure series Sierra, and went on to play a rookie officer for a possible backdoor pilot during the final 1975 season of Adam-12. In 1979, he starred as police officer Willie Miller on the CBS crime dramaParis, the first effort by Hill Street Bluesexecutive producerSteven Bochco. He guest starred in "In the House" opposite LL Cool J as Debbie Allen's ex-husband. He also guest starred on the Fox sitcom Living Single as Khadijah's father, and later portrayed Joan's father on the UPN/CW sitcom Girlfriends. Warren played Darrin Dewitt Henson's boss on the Showtime show, Soul Food, in which he played hustler-turned-entrepreneur, Baron Marks. He had a recurring role on the ABC Family series, Lincoln Heights, as Spencer Sutton, Eddie's father. Warren appeared as Virgil Tibbs' former longtime police partner, Matthew Pogue on the episode of In the Heat of the Night "The Hammer and the Glove" in 1988. In 1996, he was on the Early Edition episode Hoops. In 2002, he appeared in "Normal Again", an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as a psychiatrist trying to convince Buffy Summers she is delusional. His film work includes 1976's Norman... Is That You? with Redd Foxx and Pearl Bailey and as basketball player Easley in the 1971 film Drive, He Said directed by Jack Nicholson. In 1979 he was in Fast Break as Preacher with Gabe Kaplan. In 2001, he played Officer William Henderson in an episode of TV seriesThe District entitled "The Project." In 2010, Warren appeared in the independent film Anderson's Cross playing the father of the lead character Nick Anderson.
Personal life
Warren has married twice, first in 1974 to Sue Narramore, with whom he has a daughter, Kekoa Brianna "Koa" Warren, and a son, Cash Garner Warren. After Warren and Narramore were divorced, he married Jenny Palacios, with whom he also has a daughter, Makayla, and a son, Grayson Andres. Through Cash, Warren is the father-in-law of American actress Jessica Alba.
