Warner Oland
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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
Credits
Dishonored (1931)
as Colonel von Hindau
Before Dawn (1933)
as Dr. Paul Cornelius
Shanghai Express (1932)
as Mr. Henry Chang
The Jazz Singer (1927)
as Cantor Rabinowitz
Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)
as Charlie Chan
Destruction (1915)
as Mr. Deleveau
Charlie Chan's Secret (1936)
as Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)
as Charlie Chan
Infatuation (1925)
as Osman Pasha
Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937)
as Charlie Chan
The Painted Veil (1934)
as General Yu
Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)
as Charlie Chan
Werewolf of London (1935)
as Dr. Yogami
Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)
as Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937)
as Charlie Chan
Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man' (1999)
as Self (archive footage)
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933)
as Charlie Chan
So This Is Marriage? (1924)
as King David
Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)
as Charlie Chan
The Fighting American (1924)
as Fu Shing
Good Time Charley (1927)
as Good Time Charley Keene
Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)
as Charlie Chan
The Horror Show (1979)
as (archive footage)
The Vagabond King (1930)
as Thibault
The Yellow Arm (1921)
as Joel Bain
The Big Gamble (1931)
as Andrew North
Daughter of the Dragon (1931)
as Fu Manchu
Don Q Son of Zorro (1925)
as The Archduke Paul
The Mystery Club (1926)
as Eli Sinsabaugh
Man of the Forest (1926)
as Clint Beasley
When a Man Loves (1927)
as André Lescaut
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929)
as Dr. Fu Manchu
The Phantom Foe (1920)
as Uncle Leo Sealkirk
Charlie Chan in London (1934)
as Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936)
as Charlie Chan
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934)
as Prince Achmed
The Pride of Palomar (1922)
as Okada
Hurricane Hutch (1921)
as Clifton Marlow
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood (2019)
as Charlie Chan (archive footage)
The Reapers (1916)
as James Shaw
The Son-Daughter (1932)
as Fen Sha
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930)
as Dr. Fu Manchu
Wheel of Chance (1928)
as Mosher Turkeltaub
Mandarin's Gold (1919)
as Li Hsun
Days of Thrills and Laughter (1961)
as Self (archive footage)
Riders of the Purple Sage (1925)
as Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer
Don Juan (1926)
as Cesare Borgia
Sin (1915)
as Pietro
Charlie Chan's Chance (1932)
as Charlie Chan
Stand and Deliver (1928)
as Ghika - the Bandit Leader
The Black Camel (1931)
as Charlie Chan
Sailor Izzy Murphy (1927)
as Perfume Manufacturer
The Rise of Susan (1916)
as Sinclair La Salle
Complicated Women (2003)
as Self (archive footage)
His Children's Children (1923)
as Dr. Dahl
A Passport to Hell (1932)
as Baron von Sydow, Police Commandant
The Third Eye (1920)
as Curtis Steele / Malcolm Graw
Mandalay (1934)
as Nick
The Twin Pawns (1919)
as John Bent
The Drums of Jeopardy (1931)
as Dr. Boris Karlov
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action (1933)
as Himself
Curlytop (1924)
as Shanghai Dan
The Faker (1929)
as Hadrian
Charlie Chan Carries On (1931)
as Charlie Chan
Paramount on Parade (1930)
as Fu Manchu (Murder Will Out)
What Happened To Father (1927)
as W. Bradberry, Father
Chinatown Nights (1929)
as "Boston Charley" Wu
As Husbands Go (1934)
as Hippolitus Lomi
Beatrice Fairfax (1916)
as Detective
The Romance of Elaine (1915)
Actor
The Cigarette Girl (1917)
as Mr. Wilson
East Is West (1922)
as Charley Yong
Dream of Love (1928)
as The Duke
Tell It to the Marines (1926)
as Chinese Bandit Chief
The Mighty (1929)
as Sterky
The Studio Murder Mystery (1929)
as Rupert Borka
The Witness for the Defense (1919)
as Captain Ballantyne
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10) (1942)
as Self (archive footage)
Flower of Night (1925)
as Luke Rand
Charlie Chan's Courage (1934)
as Charlie Chan
Old San Francisco (1927)
as Chris Buckwell
The Scarlet Lady (1928)
as Ivan Zaneriff
Pilgrim's Progress (1912)
as John Bunyon
Patria (1917)
as Baron Huroki
The Winding Stair (1925)
as Petras
A Million Bid (1927)
as Geoffrey Marsh
Twinkletoes (1926)
as Roseleaf
Shanghai (1935)
as Ambassador Lun Sing
Dangerous Paradise (1930)
as Schomberg
The Avalanche (1919)
as Nick Delano
Movies on Sundays (1935)
as Charlie Chan (uncredited)
The Lightning Raider (1919)
as Wu Fang
The Naulahka (1918)
as Maharajah
The Yellow Ticket (1918)
as Baron Andrey
The Eternal Question (1916)
as Pierre Felix
The Marriage Clause (1926)
as Max Ravenal
The Fatal Ring (1917)
as Richard Carslake
The Eternal Sapho (1916)
as H. Coudal
In Search of Charlie Chan (2006)
as Charlie Chan (archive footage)