Warner Oland
Born
October 3, 1879
Died
August 6, 1938 (58 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Nyby, Västerbottens län, Sweden
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

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
Charlie Chan (archive footage)
2019
In Search of Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan (archive footage)
2006

Complicated Women
Self (archive footage)
2003

Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'
Self (archive footage)
1999

The Horror Show
(archive footage)
1979

Days of Thrills and Laughter
Self (archive footage)
1961

Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
Self (archive footage)
1942

Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo
Charlie Chan
1937

Charlie Chan on Broadway
Charlie Chan
1937

Charlie Chan at the Olympics
Charlie Chan
1937

Charlie Chan at the Opera
Charlie Chan
1936

Charlie Chan at the Race Track
Charlie Chan
1936

Charlie Chan at the Circus
Charlie Chan
1936

Charlie Chan's Secret
Charlie Chan
1936

Charlie Chan in Shanghai
Charlie Chan
1935

Shanghai
Ambassador Lun Sing
1935

Charlie Chan in Egypt
Charlie Chan
1935

Werewolf of London
Dr. Yogami
1935

Charlie Chan in Paris
Charlie Chan
1935
Movies on Sundays
Charlie Chan (uncredited)
1935

The Painted Veil
General Yu
1934

Charlie Chan in London
Charlie Chan
1934

Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
Prince Achmed
1934

Charlie Chan's Courage
Charlie Chan
1934

Mandalay
Nick
1934

As Husbands Go
Hippolitus Lomi
1934

Charlie Chan's Greatest Case
Charlie Chan
1933

Before Dawn
Dr. Paul Cornelius
1933
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
Himself
1933

The Son-Daughter
Fen Sha
1932

A Passport to Hell
Baron von Sydow, Police Commandant
1932

Shanghai Express
Mr. Henry Chang
1932

Charlie Chan's Chance
Charlie Chan
1932

Daughter of the Dragon
Fu Manchu
1931

The Big Gamble
Andrew North
1931

The Black Camel
Charlie Chan
1931

Charlie Chan Carries On
Charlie Chan
1931

Dishonored
Colonel von Hindau
1931

The Drums of Jeopardy
Dr. Boris Karlov
1931

The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu
1930

Paramount on Parade
Fu Manchu (Murder Will Out)
1930

The Vagabond King
Thibault
1930

Dangerous Paradise
Schomberg
1930

The Mighty
Sterky
1929

The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu
1929

The Studio Murder Mystery
Rupert Borka
1929

Chinatown Nights
"Boston Charley" Wu
1929

The Faker
Hadrian
1929

Dream of Love
The Duke
1928

The Scarlet Lady
Zaneriff
1928

Wheel of Chance
Mosher Turkeltaub
1928

Stand and Deliver
Ghika - the Bandit Leader
1928

Good Time Charley
Good Time Charley Keene
1927

Sailor Izzy Murphy
Perfume Manufacturer
1927

The Jazz Singer
Cantor Rabinowitz
1927

Old San Francisco
Chris Buckwell
1927

When a Man Loves
André Lescaut
1927

What Happened To Father
W. Bradberry, Father
1927

A Million Bid
Geoffrey Marsh
1927

Man of the Forest
Clint Beasley
1926

Tell It to the Marines
Chinese Bandit Chief
1926

Twinkletoes
Roseleaf
1926

The Marriage Clause
Max Ravenal
1926

Don Juan
Cesare Borgia
1926

Infatuation
Osman Pasha
1925

The Winding Stair
Petras
1925
Flower of Night
Luke Rand
1925

Don Q Son of Zorro
The Archduke Paul
1925

Riders of the Purple Sage
Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer
1925

Curlytop
Shanghai Dan
1924

So This Is Marriage?
King David
1924

The Fighting American
Fu Shing
1924

His Children's Children
Dr. Dahl
1923

The Pride of Palomar
Okada
1922

East Is West
Charley Yong
1922

Hurricane Hutch
Clifton Marlow
1921

The Phantom Foe
Uncle Leo Sealkirk
1920

The Third Eye
Curtis Steele / Malcolm Graw
1920

The Witness for the Defense
Captain Ballantyne
1919

The Avalanche
Nick Delano
1919

The Twin Pawns
John Bent
1919

The Lightning Raider
Wu Fang
1919

The Yellow Ticket
Baron Andrey
1918

The Naulahka
Maharajah
1918

The Fatal Ring
Richard Carslake
1917

Patria
Baron Huroki
1917

The Rise of Susan
Sinclair La Salle
1916

Beatrice Fairfax
Detective
1916

The Eternal Question
Pierre Felix
1916

The Eternal Sapho
H. Coudal
1916

The Reapers
James Shaw
1916

Destruction
Mr. Deleveau
1915

Sin
Pietro
1915

The Romance of Elaine
1915

Pilgrim's Progress
John Bunyon
1912