Warner Oland

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. 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.

Department: Acting

Place of Birth: Nyby, Västerbottens län, Sweden

Birthday: October 03, 1879

Deathday: August 06, 1938

Adult: No

Gender: Male

Popularity:

1.27%

Known For:

Shanghai Express
The Jazz Singer
The Romance of Elaine
The Winding Stair
Charlie Chan at the Olympics
Charlie Chan at the Circus
Charlie Chan's Secret
Charlie Chan at the Race Track
Charlie Chan in Egypt
Charlie Chan in London
Charlie Chan in Paris
Charlie Chan in Shanghai
The Horror Show
Werewolf of London
Man of the Forest
Charlie Chan at the Opera
The Naulahka
The Big Gamble
The Black Camel
Charlie Chan on Broadway
Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo
As Husbands Go
The Painted Veil
Dishonored
Sailor Izzy Murphy
Daughter of the Dragon
Don Juan
When a Man Loves
Don Q Son of Zorro
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu
The Drums of Jeopardy
Before Dawn
Shanghai
Stand and Deliver
The Studio Murder Mystery
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
The Son-Daughter
The Avalanche
The Reapers
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
Dangerous Paradise
Pilgrim's Progress
Wheel of Chance
Mandalay
Charlie Chan's Chance
Charlie Chan's Courage
The Fatal Ring
The Lightning Raider
In Search of Charlie Chan
A Passport to Hell
Tell It to the Marines
The Faker
Old San Francisco
Movies on Sundays
Dream of Love
Good Time Charley
The Marriage Clause
Chinatown Nights
Riders of the Purple Sage
Curlytop
The Vagabond King
Patria
The Rise of Susan
The Eternal Sapho
The Scarlet Lady
Days of Thrills and Laughter
Flower of Night
Twinkletoes
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case
A Million Bid
The Mighty
Paramount on Parade
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action
Beatrice Fairfax
The Twin Pawns
Charlie Chan Carries On
Complicated Women
What Happened To Father
East Is West
Hurricane Hutch
His Children's Children
The Pride of Palomar
The Eternal Question
Infatuation
Destruction
The Fighting American
The Third Eye
The Witness for the Defense
Sin
The Yellow Ticket
The Phantom Foe
So This Is Marriage?
Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'