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