Childhood According to the strip's creator
Harold Gray, Warbucks was born about 1894, near the fictional small town of Supine. (In
Thomas Meehan's 1980 novelisation of his 1977 musical, he was born and brought up in the
Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of
Manhattan, and is 52 years old as of 1933, thus giving him a birthdate of 1881. In the
1982 film, he says he was born in
Liverpool, England.) His father, a section boss on the railway, was killed when he was a month old. His mother was left with only "gumption" and a house in which she was able to keep
boarders. His early youth in Supine involved cornering all the
marbles in town at age nine, serving as a messenger for the telegraph company, having a girlfriend named Millie, fishing, swimming, and raiding melon patches with Spike Spangle and beating up the son of the banker who planned to
foreclose on his mother's house. Then, on June 7, 1905, when he was 11, his mother died at age 30 of
typhoid. He was put on the outbound Limited on the night of the funeral. Presumably, he later spent some time in the city, for he and Paddy Cairns were companions in the old 8th Ward. For a few semesters he attended college, studying
engineering, but found no time for football or girls because he had to work seven nights a week in the local
steel mill to pay a debt. His family background and lack of
prep school education kept him from entering a
fraternity in his youth. But as an adult, Warbucks joined the
Freemasons and went on to serve as
Worshipful Master of a
lodge.
Career, family, and pursuits He eventually became a foreman in the
rolling mill, married Mrs. Warbucks, and worked and planned for a family and house of their own. When "Daddy" began to make big money during World War I, the marital happiness was lost, but he retained his identity with the common people. After the war, Warbucks continued as an industrialist but became a philanthropist as well—his fortune had built to "ten
billion dollars". His wife instigated the taking in (no
adoption ever took place) of Annie while Warbucks was away on a business trip. On his return, he was smitten with Annie and, as her father figure, offered the girl support as needed. He often intervened in Annie's life during crisis, always returning in time to save the day. During World War II, Warbucks and his bodyguards Punjab and The Asp joined Allied forces. Warbucks became a
three-star general. He was knighted by the
Queen of the United Kingdom later in life. ==Views==