Name
Warner Oland
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1879-10-03
Deathday
1938-08-06 (59 years old)
Place of Birth
Nyby, Västerbottens län, Sweden
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Warner Oland (born Johan Verner Ölund, October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish-American actor most remembered for playing several Chinese and Chinese-American characters: the Honolulu Police detective, Lieutenant Charlie Chan; Dr. Fu Manchu; and Henry Chang in Shanghai Express. His family emigrated to the United States when he was 13. He pursued a film career that would include time on Broadway and dozens of film appearances, including 16 Charlie Chan films. After several years in theater, including appearances on Broadway as Warner Oland, in 1912 he made his silent film debut in Pilgrim's Progress, a film based on the John Bunyan novel. As a result of his training as a Shakespearean actor and his easy adoption of a sinister look, he was much in demand as a villain and in ethnic roles. Over the next 15 years, he appeared in more than 30 films, including a major role in The Jazz Singer (1927), one of the first talkies produced. Oland's normal appearance fit the Hollywood expectation of caricatured Asianness of the time, despite his having no definitively proven Asian cultural background. Oland portrayed a variety of Asian characters in several movies before being offered the leading role in the 1929 film, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu. It was the first onscreen portrayal of the Fu Manchu character in film. Oland continued to appear onscreen as an Asian, probably more often than any other white actor in the history of cinema. In Old San Francisco, Oland played an Asian unsuccessfully impersonating a white man.
Oland was the first actor to play a werewolf in a major Hollywood film, biting the protagonist, played by Henry Hull, in Werewolf of London (1935). Once again, Oland's character was Asian.
A box office success, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu made Oland a star, and during the next two years he portrayed the evil Dr. Fu Manchu in three more films (although the second one was purely a cameo appearance). Firmly locked into such roles, he was cast as Charlie Chan in the international detective mystery film Charlie Chan Carries On (1931) and then in director Josef von Sternberg's 1932 classic film Shanghai Express opposite Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong.
The enormous worldwide box office success of his Charlie Chan film led to more, with Oland starring in 16 Chan films in total. The series, Jill Lepore later wrote, "kept Fox afloat" during the 1930s, while earning Oland $40,000 per movie. Oland took his role seriously, studying the Chinese language and calligraphy.
Known For
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Allen Colby, heir to a huge fortune, is presumed drowned after an ocean liner sinks off th...
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Starting with "The Wolf Man" (in 1941), Universal Studios made five movies featuring The W...
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When a prominent official is murdered at a banquet honoring Charle Chan, the detective and...
- 1932 Shanghai Express as Mr. Henry Chang
- 1927 The Jazz Singer as Cantor Rabinowitz
- 1915 The Romance of Elaine
- 1925 The Winding Stair as Petras
- 1937 Charlie Chan at the Olympics as Charlie Chan
- 1936 Charlie Chan at the Circus as Charlie Chan
- 1936 Charlie Chan's Secret as Charlie Chan
- 1936 Charlie Chan at the Race Track as Charlie Chan
- 1935 Charlie Chan in Egypt as Charlie Chan
- 1934 Charlie Chan in London as Charlie Chan
- 1935 Charlie Chan in Paris as Charlie Chan
- 1935 Charlie Chan in Shanghai as Charlie Chan
- 1979 The Horror Show as (archive footage)
- 1935 Werewolf of London as Dr. Yogami
- 1926 Man of the Forest as Clint Beasley
- 1936 Charlie Chan at the Opera as Charlie Chan
- 1918 The Naulahka as Maharajah
- 1931 The Big Gamble as Andrew North
- 1931 The Black Camel as Charlie Chan
- 1937 Charlie Chan on Broadway as Charlie Chan
- 1937 Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo as Charlie Chan
- 1934 As Husbands Go as Hippolitus Lomi
- 1934 The Painted Veil as General Yu
- 1931 Dishonored as Colonel von Hindau
- 1927 Sailor Izzy Murphy as Perfume Manufacturer
- 1931 Daughter of the Dragon as Fu Manchu
- 1926 Don Juan as Cesare Borgia
- 1927 When a Man Loves as André Lescaut
- 1925 Don Q Son of Zorro as The Archduke Paul
- 1929 The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu as Dr. Fu Manchu
- 1931 The Drums of Jeopardy as Dr. Boris Karlov
- 1933 Before Dawn as Dr. Paul Cornelius
- 1935 Shanghai as Ambassador Lun Sing
- 1928 Stand and Deliver as Ghika - the Bandit Leader
- 1929 The Studio Murder Mystery as Rupert Borka
- 1934 Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back as Prince Achmed
- 2019 Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood as Charlie Chan (archive footage)
- 1930 The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu as Dr. Fu Manchu
- 1932 The Son-Daughter as Fen Sha
- 1919 The Avalanche as Nick Delano
- 1916 The Reapers as James Shaw
- 1942 Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10) as Self (archive footage)
- 1930 Dangerous Paradise as Schomberg
- 1912 Pilgrim's Progress as John Bunyon
- 1928 Wheel of Chance as Mosher Turkeltaub
- 1934 Mandalay as Nick
- 1932 Charlie Chan's Chance as Charlie Chan
- 1934 Charlie Chan's Courage as Charlie Chan
- 1917 The Fatal Ring as Richard Carslake
- 1919 The Lightning Raider as Wu Fang
- 2006 In Search of Charlie Chan as Charlie Chan (archive footage)
- 1932 A Passport to Hell as Baron von Sydow, Police Commandant
- 1926 Tell It to the Marines as Chinese Bandit Chief
- 1929 The Faker as Hadrian
- 1927 Old San Francisco as Chris Buckwell
- 1935 Movies on Sundays as Charlie Chan (uncredited)
- 1928 Dream of Love as The Duke
- 1927 Good Time Charley as Good Time Charley Keene
- 1926 The Marriage Clause as Max Ravenal
- 1929 Chinatown Nights as "Boston Charley" Wu
- 1925 Riders of the Purple Sage as Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer
- 1924 Curlytop as Shanghai Dan
- 1930 The Vagabond King as Thibault
- 1917 Patria as Baron Huroki
- 1916 The Rise of Susan as Sinclair La Salle
- 1916 The Eternal Sapho as H. Coudal
- 1928 The Scarlet Lady as Ivan Zaneriff
- 1961 Days of Thrills and Laughter as Self (archive footage)
- 1925 Flower of Night as Luke Rand
- 1926 Twinkletoes as Roseleaf
- 1933 Charlie Chan's Greatest Case as Charlie Chan
- 1927 A Million Bid as Geoffrey Marsh
- 1929 The Mighty as Sterky
- 1930 Paramount on Parade as Fu Manchu (Murder Will Out)
- 1933 How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action as Himself
- 1916 Beatrice Fairfax as Detective
- 1919 The Twin Pawns as John Bent
- 1931 Charlie Chan Carries On as Charlie Chan
- 2003 Complicated Women as Self (archive footage)
- 1927 What Happened To Father as W. Bradberry, Father
- 1922 East Is West as Charley Yong
- 1921 Hurricane Hutch as Clifton Marlow
- 1923 His Children's Children as Dr. Dahl
- 1922 The Pride of Palomar as Okada
- 1916 The Eternal Question as Pierre Felix
- 1925 Infatuation as Osman Pasha
- 1915 Destruction as Mr. Deleveau
- 1924 The Fighting American as Fu Shing
- 1920 The Third Eye as Curtis Steele / Malcolm Graw
- 1919 The Witness for the Defense as Captain Ballantyne
- 1915 Sin as Pietro
- 1918 The Yellow Ticket as Baron Andrey
- 1920 The Phantom Foe as Uncle Leo Sealkirk
- 1924 So This Is Marriage? as King David
- 1999 Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man' as Self (archive footage)
- 1919 Mandarin's Gold as Li Hsun
- 1921 The Yellow Arm as Joel Bain
- 1917 The Cigarette Girl as Mr. Wilson
- 1926 The Mystery Club as Eli Sinsabaugh
