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