Warner Oland

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: Acting

Born: Nyby, Västerbottens län, Sweden, 1879-10-03

Died: 1938-08-06

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1912	Pilgrim's Progress	John Bunyon	0
2	1915	The Romance of Elaine		0
3	1915	Sin	Pietro	0
4	1915	Destruction	Mr. Deleveau	10
5	1916	The Reapers	James Shaw	0
6	1916	The Eternal Sapho	H. Coudal	0
7	1916	The Eternal Question	Pierre Felix	0
8	1916	Beatrice Fairfax	Detective	50
9	1916	The Rise of Susan	Sinclair La Salle	0
10	1917	Patria	Baron Huroki	65
11	1917	The Fatal Ring	Richard Carslake	0
12	1918	The Naulahka	Maharajah	0
13	1918	The Yellow Ticket	Baron Andrey	0
14	1919	The Lightning Raider	Wu Fang	0
15	1919	The Twin Pawns	John Bent	57
16	1919	The Avalanche	Nick Delano	0
17	1919	The Witness for the Defense	Captain Ballantyne	63
18	1920	The Third Eye	Curtis Steele / Malcolm Graw	0
19	1920	The Phantom Foe	Uncle Leo Sealkirk	0
20	1921	Hurricane Hutch	Clifton Marlow	60
21	1922	East Is West	Charley Yong	0
22	1922	The Pride of Palomar	Okada	60
23	1923	His Children's Children	Dr. Dahl	0
24	1924	The Fighting American	Fu Shing	57
25	1924	So This Is Marriage?	King David	0
26	1924	Curlytop	Shanghai Dan	0
27	1925	Riders of the Purple Sage	Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer	57
28	1925	Don Q Son of Zorro	The Archduke Paul	66
29	1925	Flower of Night	Luke Rand	0
30	1925	The Winding Stair	Petras	0
31	1925	Infatuation	Osman Pasha	0
32	1926	Don Juan	Cesare Borgia	65
33	1926	The Marriage Clause	Max Ravenal	0
34	1926	Twinkletoes	Roseleaf	67
35	1926	Tell It to the Marines	Chinese Bandit Chief	64
36	1926	Man of the Forest	Clint Beasley	0
37	1927	A Million Bid	Geoffrey Marsh	0
38	1927	What Happened To Father	W. Bradberry, Father	0
39	1927	When a Man Loves	André Lescaut	64
40	1927	Old San Francisco	Chris Buckwell	57
41	1927	The Jazz Singer	Cantor Rabinowitz	61
42	1927	Sailor Izzy Murphy	Perfume Manufacturer	0
43	1927	Good Time Charley	Good Time Charley Keene	0
44	1928	Stand and Deliver	Ghika - the Bandit Leader	58
45	1928	Wheel of Chance	Mosher Turkeltaub	0
46	1928	The Scarlet Lady	Zaneriff	60
47	1928	Dream of Love	The Duke	70
48	1929	The Faker	Hadrian	0
49	1929	Chinatown Nights	"Boston Charley" Wu	42
50	1929	The Studio Murder Mystery	Rupert Borka	41
51	1929	The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu	Dr. Fu Manchu	53
52	1929	The Mighty	Sterky	50
53	1930	Dangerous Paradise	Schomberg	36
54	1930	The Vagabond King	Thibault	54
55	1930	Paramount on Parade	Fu Manchu (Murder Will Out)	61
56	1930	The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu	Dr. Fu Manchu	50
57	1931	The Drums of Jeopardy	Dr. Boris Karlov	53
58	1931	Dishonored	Colonel von Hindau	68
59	1931	Charlie Chan Carries On	Charlie Chan	65
60	1931	The Black Camel	Charlie Chan	60
61	1931	The Big Gamble	Andrew North	60
62	1931	Daughter of the Dragon	Fu Manchu	51
63	1932	Charlie Chan's Chance	Charlie Chan	65
64	1932	Shanghai Express	Mr. Henry Chang	70
65	1932	A Passport to Hell	Baron von Sydow, Police Commandant	53
66	1932	The Son-Daughter	Fen Sha	70
67	1933	How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action	Himself	0
68	1933	Before Dawn	Dr. Paul Cornelius	56
69	1933	Charlie Chan's Greatest Case	Charlie Chan	60
70	1934	As Husbands Go	Hippolitus Lomi	0
71	1934	Mandalay	Nick	59
72	1934	Charlie Chan's Courage	Charlie Chan	80
73	1934	Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back	Prince Achmed	53
74	1934	Charlie Chan in London	Charlie Chan	68
75	1934	The Painted Veil	General Yu	64
76	1935	Movies on Sundays	Charlie Chan (uncredited)	0
77	1935	Charlie Chan in Paris	Charlie Chan	65
78	1935	Werewolf of London	Dr. Yogami	60
79	1935	Charlie Chan in Egypt	Charlie Chan	69
80	1935	Shanghai	Ambassador Lun Sing	70
81	1935	Charlie Chan in Shanghai	Charlie Chan	66
82	1936	Charlie Chan's Secret	Charlie Chan	68
83	1936	Charlie Chan at the Circus	Charlie Chan	62
84	1936	Charlie Chan at the Race Track	Charlie Chan	71
85	1936	Charlie Chan at the Opera	Charlie Chan	68
86	1937	Charlie Chan at the Olympics	Charlie Chan	67
87	1937	Charlie Chan on Broadway	Charlie Chan	70
88	1937	Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo	Charlie Chan	65
89	1942	Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)	Self (archive footage)	0
90	1961	Days of Thrills and Laughter	Self (archive footage)	55
91	1979	The Horror Show	(archive footage)	38
92	1999	Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'	Self (archive footage)	69
93	2003	Complicated Women	Self (archive footage)	67
94	2006	In Search of Charlie Chan	Charlie Chan (archive footage)	70
95	2019	Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood	Charlie Chan (archive footage)	57

Warner Oland

Film

Television