Warner Oland
94 movies
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Oct 3, 1879
- Died
- Aug 6, 1938 (age 58)
- Place of birth
- Nyby, Västerbottens län, Sweden
- Also known as
- Johan Verner Ölund
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.
Read the full biography
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.
Profiles IMDb
Known for
Warner Oland: movies and TV shows
Acting (94)
- 2019 Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
as Charlie Chan (archive footage)
- 2006 In Search of Charlie Chan
as Charlie Chan (archive footage)
- 1979 The Horror Show
as (archive footage)
- 1937 Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo
as Charlie Chan
- 1937 Charlie Chan on Broadway
as Charlie Chan
- 1937 Charlie Chan at the Olympics
as Charlie Chan
- 1936 Charlie Chan at the Opera
as Charlie Chan
- 1936 Charlie Chan at the Race Track
as Charlie Chan
- 1936 Charlie Chan at the Circus
as Charlie Chan
- 1936 Charlie Chan's Secret
as Charlie Chan
- 1935 Charlie Chan in Shanghai
as Charlie Chan
- 1935 Shanghai
as Ambassador Lun Sing
- 1935 Charlie Chan in Egypt
as Charlie Chan
- 1935 Werewolf of London
as Dr. Yogami
- 1935 Charlie Chan in Paris
as Charlie Chan
- 1935 Movies on Sundays
as Charlie Chan (uncredited)
- 1934 The Painted Veil
as General Yu
- 1934 Charlie Chan in London
as Charlie Chan
- 1934 Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
as Prince Achmed
- 1934 Charlie Chan's Courage
as Charlie Chan
- 1934 Mandalay
as Nick
- 1934 As Husbands Go
as Hippolitus Lomi
- 1933 Charlie Chan's Greatest Case
as Charlie Chan
- 1933 Before Dawn
as Dr. Paul Cornelius
- 1932 The Son-Daughter
as Fen Sha
- 1932 A Passport to Hell
as Baron von Sydow, Police Commandant
- 1932 Shanghai Express
as Mr. Henry Chang
- 1932 Charlie Chan's Chance
as Charlie Chan
- 1931 Daughter of the Dragon
as Fu Manchu
- 1931 The Big Gamble
as Andrew North
- 1931 The Black Camel
as Charlie Chan
- 1931 Charlie Chan Carries On
as Charlie Chan
- 1931 Dishonored
as Colonel von Hindau
- 1931 The Drums of Jeopardy
as Dr. Boris Karlov
- 1930 The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
as Dr. Fu Manchu
- 1930 Paramount on Parade
as Fu Manchu (Murder Will Out)
- 1930 The Vagabond King
as Thibault
- 1930 Dangerous Paradise
as Schomberg
- 1929 The Mighty
as Sterky
- 1929 The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu
as Dr. Fu Manchu
- 1929 The Studio Murder Mystery
as Rupert Borka
- 1929 Chinatown Nights
as "Boston Charley" Wu
- 1929 The Faker
as Hadrian
- 1928 Dream of Love
as The Duke
- 1928 The Scarlet Lady
as Ivan Zaneriff
- 1928 Wheel of Chance
as Mosher Turkeltaub
- 1928 Stand and Deliver
as Ghika - the Bandit Leader
- 1927 Good Time Charley
as Good Time Charley Keene
- 1927 Sailor Izzy Murphy
as Perfume Manufacturer
- 1927 The Jazz Singer
as Cantor Rabinowitz
- 1927 Old San Francisco
as Chris Buckwell
- 1927 When a Man Loves
as André Lescaut
- 1927 What Happened To Father
as W. Bradberry, Father
- 1927 A Million Bid
as Geoffrey Marsh
- 1926 Man of the Forest
as Clint Beasley
- 1926 Tell It to the Marines
as Chinese Bandit Chief
- 1926 Twinkletoes
as Roseleaf
- 1926 The Marriage Clause
as Max Ravenal
- 1926 The Mystery Club
as Eli Sinsabaugh
- 1926 Don Juan
as Cesare Borgia
- 1925 Infatuation
as Osman Pasha
- 1925 The Winding Stair
as Petras
- 1925 Flower of Night
as Luke Rand
- 1925 Don Q Son of Zorro
as The Archduke Paul
- 1925 Riders of the Purple Sage
as Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer
- 1924 Curlytop
as Shanghai Dan
- 1924 So This Is Marriage?
as King David
- 1924 The Fighting American
as Fu Shing
- 1923 His Children's Children
as Dr. Dahl
- 1922 The Pride of Palomar
as Okada
- 1922 East Is West
as Charley Yong
- 1921 Hurricane Hutch
as Clifton Marlow
- 1921 The Yellow Arm
as Joel Bain
- 1920 The Phantom Foe
as Uncle Leo Sealkirk
- 1920 The Third Eye
as Curtis Steele / Malcolm Graw
- 1919 The Witness for the Defense
as Captain Ballantyne
- 1919 The Avalanche
as Nick Delano
- 1919 The Twin Pawns
as John Bent
- 1919 Mandarin's Gold
as Li Hsun
- 1919 The Lightning Raider
as Wu Fang
- 1918 The Yellow Ticket
as Baron Andrey
- 1918 The Naulahka
as Maharajah
- 1917 The Cigarette Girl
as Mr. Wilson
- 1917 The Fatal Ring
as Richard Carslake
- 1917 Patria
as Baron Huroki
- 1916 The Rise of Susan
as Sinclair La Salle
- 1916 Beatrice Fairfax
as Detective
- 1916 The Eternal Question
as Pierre Felix
- 1916 The Eternal Sapho
as H. Coudal
- 1916 The Reapers
as James Shaw
- 1915 Destruction
as Mr. Deleveau
- 1915 Sin
as Pietro
- 1915
- 1912 Pilgrim's Progress
as John Bunyon
Talk shows and appearances (5)
- 2003
- 1999
- 1961
- 1942
- 1933