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