From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWarner 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 Pilgrims 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. Olands 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, Olands 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 Sternbergs 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.
Mr. Henry Chang
Film 1932
Cantor Rabinowitz
Film 1927
Film 1915
Petras
Film 1925
Charlie Chan
Film 1937
Charlie Chan
Film 1936
Charlie Chan
Film 1936
Charlie Chan
Film 1936
Charlie Chan
Film 1935
Charlie Chan
Film 1935
Dr. Yogami
Film 1935
Clint Beasley
Film 1926
Charlie Chan
Film 1936
Maharajah
Film 1918
Andrew North
Film 1931
Charlie Chan
Film 1931
Charlie Chan
Film 1937
Charlie Chan
Film 1937
Hippolitus Lomi
Film 1934
General Yu
Film 1934
Colonel von Hindau
Film 1931
Perfume Manufacturer
Film 1927
Fu Manchu
Film 1931
Cesare Borgia
Film 1926
André Lescaut
Film 1927
The Archduke Paul
Film 1925
Dr. Fu Manchu
Film 1929
Dr. Boris Karlov
Film 1931
Dr. Paul Cornelius
Film 1933
Ambassador Lun Sing
Film 1935
Ghika - the Bandit Leader
Film 1928
Rupert Borka
Film 1929
Charlie Chan (archive footage)
Film 2019
Dr. Fu Manchu
Film 1930
Fen Sha
Film 1932
Nick Delano
Film 1919
James Shaw
Film 1916
Self (archive footage)
Film 1942
Schomberg
Film 1930
John Bunyon
Film 1912
Mosher Turkeltaub
Film 1928
Nick
Film 1934
Charlie Chan
Film 1932
Richard Carslake
Film 1917
Wu Fang
Film 1919
Charlie Chan (archive footage)
Film 2006
Baron von Sydow, Police Commandant
Film 1932
Chinese Bandit Chief
Film 1926
Hadrian
Film 1929
Chris Buckwell
Film 1927
Charlie Chan (uncredited)
Film 1935
The Duke
Film 1928
Good Time Charley Keene
Film 1927
Max Ravenal
Film 1926
"Boston Charley" Wu
Film 1929
Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer
Film 1925
Shanghai Dan
Film 1924
Thibault
Film 1930
Baron Huroki
Film 1917
Sinclair La Salle
Film 1916
H. Coudal
Film 1916
Zaneriff
Film 1928
Self (archive footage)
Film 1961
Luke Rand
Film 1925
Roseleaf
Film 1926
Geoffrey Marsh
Film 1927
Sterky
Film 1929
Fu Manchu (Murder Will Out)
Film 1930
Himself
Film 1933
Detective
Film 1916
John Bent
Film 1919
Self (archive footage)
Film 2003
W. Bradberry, Father
Film 1927
Charley Yong
Film 1922
Clifton Marlow
Film 1921
Dr. Dahl
Film 1923
Okada
Film 1922
Pierre Felix
Film 1916
Osman Pasha
Film 1925
Mr. Deleveau
Film 1915
Fu Shing
Film 1924
Curtis Steele / Malcolm Graw
Film 1920
Captain Ballantyne
Film 1919
Pietro
Film 1915
Baron Andrey
Film 1918
Uncle Leo Sealkirk
Film 1920
King David
Film 1924
Self (archive footage)
Film 1999