Warner Oland
1879-10-03 ( 145 years old ) in 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.

Movies

Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood 2019-10-13
In Search of Charlie Chan 2006-06-20
Complicated Women 2003-05-06
Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man' 1999-01-01
The Horror Show 1979-02-06
Days of Thrills and Laughter 1961-03-21
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10) 1942-01-01
Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo 1937-12-17
Charlie Chan on Broadway 1937-09-22
Charlie Chan at the Olympics 1937-05-21
Charlie Chan at the Opera 1936-12-04
Charlie Chan at the Race Track 1936-08-07
Charlie Chan at the Circus 1936-03-27
Charlie Chan's Secret 1936-01-10
Charlie Chan in Shanghai 1935-10-11
Shanghai 1935-07-19
Charlie Chan in Egypt 1935-06-04
Werewolf of London 1935-05-13
Charlie Chan in Paris 1935-01-21
Movies on Sundays 1935-01-01
The Painted Veil 1934-11-23
Charlie Chan in London 1934-09-12
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back 1934-08-15
Charlie Chan's Courage 1934-07-06
Mandalay 1934-02-10
As Husbands Go 1934-01-27
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case 1933-09-14
Before Dawn 1933-08-04
How to Break 90 #3: Hip Action 1933-06-23
The Son-Daughter 1932-12-23
A Passport to Hell 1932-08-25
Shanghai Express 1932-02-12
Charlie Chan's Chance 1932-01-24
Daughter of the Dragon 1931-09-24
The Big Gamble 1931-09-04
The Black Camel 1931-06-21
Charlie Chan Carries On 1931-04-11
Dishonored 1931-04-04
The Drums of Jeopardy 1931-03-01
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu 1930-05-02
Paramount on Parade 1930-04-22
The Vagabond King 1930-02-17
Dangerous Paradise 1930-02-13
The Mighty 1929-11-16
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu 1929-08-10
The Studio Murder Mystery 1929-06-01
Chinatown Nights 1929-03-29
The Faker 1929-01-02
Dream of Love 1928-12-01
The Scarlet Lady 1928-08-01
Wheel of Chance 1928-06-17
Stand and Deliver 1928-02-18
Good Time Charley 1927-11-05
Sailor Izzy Murphy 1927-10-08
The Jazz Singer 1927-10-06
Old San Francisco 1927-09-04
When a Man Loves 1927-08-21
What Happened To Father 1927-06-25
A Million Bid 1927-05-27
Man of the Forest 1926-12-27
Tell It to the Marines 1926-12-23
Twinkletoes 1926-11-28
The Marriage Clause 1926-09-12
Don Juan 1926-08-06
Infatuation 1925-12-27
The Winding Stair 1925-10-25
Flower of Night 1925-10-17
Don Q Son of Zorro 1925-06-15
Riders of the Purple Sage 1925-03-15
Curlytop 1924-12-28
So This Is Marriage? 1924-11-26
The Fighting American 1924-05-26
His Children's Children 1923-11-04
The Pride of Palomar 1922-11-26
East Is West 1922-10-15
Hurricane Hutch 1921-09-25
The Phantom Foe 1920-10-11
The Third Eye 1920-05-23
The Witness for the Defense 1919-09-14
The Avalanche 1919-06-29
The Twin Pawns 1919-03-18
The Lightning Raider 1919-01-02
The Yellow Ticket 1918-05-26
The Naulahka 1918-02-14
The Fatal Ring 1917-07-07
Patria 1917-01-14
The Rise of Susan 1916-12-18
Beatrice Fairfax 1916-08-07
The Eternal Question 1916-07-03
The Eternal Sapho 1916-05-06
The Reapers 1916-04-03
Destruction 1915-12-26
Sin 1915-10-03
The Romance of Elaine 1915-06-14
Pilgrim's Progress 1912-10-08

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