Warner Oland
Acting
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.
Born: October 3, 1879
Place of Birth: Nyby, Västerbottens län, Sweden
Known For
Filmography
as Charlie Chan (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Charlie Chan
as Charlie Chan
as Charlie Chan
as Charlie Chan
as Charlie Chan
as Charlie Chan
as Charlie Chan
as Charlie Chan
as Ambassador Lun Sing
as Charlie Chan
as Dr. Yogami
as Charlie Chan
as General Yu
as Charlie Chan
as Prince Achmed
as Charlie Chan
as Nick
as Hippolitus Lomi
as Charlie Chan
as Dr. Paul Cornelius
as Fen Sha
as Baron von Sydow, Police Commandant
as Mr. Henry Chang
as Charlie Chan
as Fu Manchu
as Andrew North
as Charlie Chan
as Charlie Chan
as Colonel von Hindau
as Dr. Boris Karlov
as Dr. Fu Manchu
as Fu Manchu (Murder Will Out)
as Thibault
as Schomberg
as Sterky
as Dr. Fu Manchu
as Rupert Borka
as "Boston Charley" Wu
as Hadrian
as The Duke
as Ivan Zaneriff
as Mosher Turkeltaub
as Ghika - the Bandit Leader
as Good Time Charley Keene
as Perfume Manufacturer
as Cantor Rabinowitz
as Chris Buckwell
as André Lescaut
as W. Bradberry, Father
as Geoffrey Marsh
as Clint Beasley
as Chinese Bandit Chief
as Roseleaf
as Max Ravenal
as Cesare Borgia
as Osman Pasha
as Petras
as The Archduke Paul
as Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer
as Shanghai Dan
as King David
as Fu Shing
as Dr. Dahl
as Okada
as Charley Yong
as Clifton Marlow
as Uncle Leo Sealkirk
as Curtis Steele / Malcolm Graw
as Captain Ballantyne
as Nick Delano
as John Bent
as Wu Fang
as Baron Andrey
as Maharajah
as Richard Carslake
as Baron Huroki
as Sinclair La Salle
as Detective
as Pierre Felix
as H. Coudal
as James Shaw
as Mr. Deleveau
as Pietro
as John Bunyon