"Little Orphan Annie" was a comic strip created by cartoonist Harold Gray in 1924 that ran in the Chicago Tribune. The title was motivated by James Whitcomb Riley's popular 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie," and was first titled "Little Orphan Otto," with the name later being changed to Annie. Annie was a spunky little girl with red curly hair, a red dress, undefined eyes and a dog named Sandy. Mrs. Warbucks took the little orphan in, but as more affection grew between Daddy Warbucks and Annie, the missus eventually disappeared from the strip. The light-hearted comic was aimed at children at first, but soon became quite political, drawing interest from adult readers. "Little Orphan Annie" ran from 1924 until Gray's death in 1968, and since then has continued on and off under other cartoonists.
Warbucks grew up a poor orphan and made his fortune during World War I as an industrialist. Known for his bald-head and oft-worn tuxedo, he was both hard-working and a capitalist, the latter of which infuriated many Americans during the war. He was a daunting man but always fair, and his servants were loyal to him. He joined Allied Forces in World War II and eventually became a three-star general. The political symbolism of his name---Oliver Warbucks---has been pointed out as "All Of Our War Bucks." He occasionally lost his entire fortune, borrowed from little Annie's piggy bank, and then paid her back when he regained his wealth.
Cartoonist and newspaper artist Harold Gray, born in 1894, earned an engineering degree but ultimately followed his love of art. After serving in World War I he went to work for the Chicago Tribune doing the lettering on Sidney Smith's "The Gumps" for three years. In 1924 he came up with the idea for the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" and under his direction it grew from a simple children's comic to a political, adult-oriented strip with novel-worthy plots.
The comic strip, and especially Warbucks' character, was a forum for Harold Gray's political opinions. Gray felt that the rich should work as hard as the poor and often portrayed capitalists as greedy villains. In the 1977 Broadway production and the 1982 movie version, Warbucks visited his pal Franklin D. Roosevelt, an idea that would have angered Gray. The chasm between the rich and poor was always an important subject matter for Gray.
Daddy Warbucks has been portrayed in the radio play version of "Little Orphan Annie" from 1930 to 1940 by Allan Baruck; in the 1977-83 Broadway musical by Reid Shelton; in two television productions, one in 1995 by George Hearn and one in 1999 by Victor Garber and in two film versions, one in 1932 by Edgar Kennedy and one, perhaps the most famous, in 1982 by Albert Finney. Mark Mullino also portrayed Daddy Warbucks in the unsuccessful 1993 off-Broadway sequel called "Annie Warbucks."