Alfred Romaine Callender was born on 17 February 1883 in Sheffield, England. He was the son of actor Edward Romaine Callender and Florence Callender (née Chapman). His father was known as Romaine Callender and E. Romaine Callendar on the stage. His uncle, the composer, conductor, and music educator William Romaine Callendar, was the director of the Metropolitan College of Music in Philadelphia and was also known publicly as Romaine Callendar. When his uncle died in 1930, it was initially incorrectly reported in the press that the actor Alfred Romaine Callender was the one who died because both men were known publicly as Romaine Callender. Other roles he portrayed with that company in the 1906–1907 season included Gratiano in
Othello,
Sir Robert Brackenbury in
Richard III, Salanio in
The Merchant of Venice, and
Tillius Cimber in
Julius Caesar. When Callender made his
Broadway debut at the
Empire Theatre in 1910 as Rideout in
Arthur Wing Pinero's
Mid-Channel he was now billed as A. Romaine Callender. Following this production he joined
William Gillette's theatre troupe; portraying the role of Gordon Hayne in a national tour of Gillette's five act war drama
Held by the Enemy. He returned to Broadway as Don Mackenzie in
Thompson Buchanan's
The Rack (1911,
Playhouse Theatre). Bonnaire in
Pierre Wolff's
Les Marionnettes (1911–1912,
Lyceum Theatre), Ibrahim in
J. B. Fagan's
Bella Donna (1912,
Empire Theatre; 1913,
Wallack's Theatre) and Achille in
Edward Sheldon's
The Song of Songs (1914–1915,
Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre). In 1918 Callendar enlisted in the
United States Navy and was in service during the latter part of
World War I. After the war he returned to Broadway in
Arnold Bennett's
Sacred and Profane Love (1920,
Morosco Theatre), as El Nacional in
Tom Cushing's
Blood and Sand (1921,
Empire Theatre), and as J. Sloane Henshaw in
George S. Kaufman and
Marc Connelly's
Merton of the Movies (1922–1923,
Cort Theatre). Callender continued to appear on the stage as A. Romaine Callender until after the death of his father in 1922. Not long after this he took his father's stage name of Romaine Callender; first appearing on Broadway under that name as Snake in the 1925 revival of
The School for Scandal at the
Knickerbocker Theatre. In 1927 he portrayed Asst. State's Attorney Welch in the original production of
Bartlett Cormack's
The Racket at the
Ambassador Theatre. His other later Broadway credits include the roles of Malacoda in
Mima (1928), Dr. Otternschlag in
Grand Hotel (1930), Fernand Demoncey in
The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1932), Dr. Frederick Swan in
Keeper of the Keys (1933), Cesar Poustiano in
Another Love (1934), General Michael Rakovski in
Judgment Day (1934), and Wesley Cartwright
Post Road (1934–1935). ==Film career==