Warner Oland
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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
The Jazz Singer (1927)
as Cantor Rabinowitz
Werewolf of London (1935)
as Dr. Yogami
Dishonored (1931)
as Colonel von Hindau
Shanghai Express (1932)
as Mr. Henry Chang
Before Dawn (1933)
as Dr. Paul Cornelius
The Painted Veil (1934)
as General Yu
The Fighting American (1924)
as Fu Shing
The Horror Show (1979)
as (archive footage)
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood (2019)
as Charlie Chan (archive footage)
Destruction (1915)
as Mr. Deleveau
Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937)
as Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)
as Charlie Chan
Paramount on Parade (1930)
as Fu Manchu (Murder Will Out)
The Yellow Arm (1921)
as Joel Bain
Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man' (1999)
as Self (archive footage)
Infatuation (1925)
as Osman Pasha
Complicated Women (2003)
as Self (archive footage)
Don Juan (1926)
as Cesare Borgia
Charlie Chan's Secret (1936)
as Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)
as Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)
as Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)
as Charlie Chan
The Vagabond King (1930)
as Thibault
Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)
as Charlie Chan
So This Is Marriage? (1924)
as King David
The Black Camel (1931)
as Charlie Chan
Hurricane Hutch (1921)
as Clifton Marlow
The Big Gamble (1931)
as Andrew North
The Reapers (1916)
as James Shaw
Mandalay (1934)
as Nick
Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937)
as Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan in London (1934)
as Charlie Chan
The Son-Daughter (1932)
as Fen Sha
Charlie Chan's Courage (1934)
as Charlie Chan
The Mighty (1929)
as Sterky
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930)
as Dr. Fu Manchu
Sin (1915)
as Pietro
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929)
as Dr. Fu Manchu
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10) (1942)
as Self (archive footage)
Don Q Son of Zorro (1925)
as The Archduke Paul
Mandarin's Gold (1919)
as Li Hsun
Daughter of the Dragon (1931)
as Fu Manchu
When a Man Loves (1927)
as André Lescaut
Shanghai (1935)
as Ambassador Lun Sing
What Happened To Father (1927)
as W. Bradberry, Father
Dangerous Paradise (1930)
as Schomberg
Days of Thrills and Laughter (1961)
as Self (archive footage)
The Romance of Elaine (1915)
Actor
The Cigarette Girl (1917)
as Mr. Wilson
Dream of Love (1928)
as The Duke
Good Time Charley (1927)
as Good Time Charley Keene
The Faker (1929)
as Hadrian
The Studio Murder Mystery (1929)
as Rupert Borka
The Phantom Foe (1920)
as Uncle Leo Sealkirk
Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)
as Charlie Chan
Sailor Izzy Murphy (1927)
as Perfume Manufacturer
Stand and Deliver (1928)
as Ghika - the Bandit Leader
The Twin Pawns (1919)
as John Bent
The Drums of Jeopardy (1931)
as Dr. Boris Karlov
Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936)
as Charlie Chan
The Scarlet Lady (1928)
as Ivan Zaneriff
The Third Eye (1920)
as Curtis Steele / Malcolm Graw
East Is West (1922)
as Charley Yong
Riders of the Purple Sage (1925)
as Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer
Tell It to the Marines (1926)
as Chinese Bandit Chief
Chinatown Nights (1929)
as "Boston Charley" Wu
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933)
as Charlie Chan
The Marriage Clause (1926)
as Max Ravenal
The Lightning Raider (1919)
as Wu Fang
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934)
as Prince Achmed
The Mystery Club (1926)
as Eli Sinsabaugh
Patria (1917)
as Baron Huroki
The Fatal Ring (1917)
as Richard Carslake
Charlie Chan's Chance (1932)
as Charlie Chan
Movies on Sundays (1935)
as Charlie Chan (uncredited)
As Husbands Go (1934)
as Hippolitus Lomi
Twinkletoes (1926)
as Roseleaf
Curlytop (1924)
as Shanghai Dan
The Naulahka (1918)
as Maharajah
Pilgrim's Progress (1912)
as John Bunyon
A Million Bid (1927)
as Geoffrey Marsh
Old San Francisco (1927)
as Chris Buckwell
Wheel of Chance (1928)
as Mosher Turkeltaub
Man of the Forest (1926)
as Clint Beasley
Flower of Night (1925)
as Luke Rand
Charlie Chan Carries On (1931)
as Charlie Chan
The Winding Stair (1925)
as Petras
A Passport to Hell (1932)
as Baron von Sydow, Police Commandant
His Children's Children (1923)
as Dr. Dahl
The Yellow Ticket (1918)
as Baron Andrey
The Witness for the Defense (1919)
as Captain Ballantyne
The Avalanche (1919)
as Nick Delano
The Pride of Palomar (1922)
as Okada
Beatrice Fairfax (1916)
as Detective
The Eternal Sapho (1916)
as H. Coudal
In Search of Charlie Chan (2006)
as Charlie Chan (archive footage)
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action (1933)
as Himself
The Rise of Susan (1916)
as Sinclair La Salle
The Eternal Question (1916)
as Pierre Felix