Warner Oland
Warner Oland | |
---|---|
Warner Oland in 1919 | |
Born |
Johan Verner Ölund October 3, 1879 Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality, Västerbotten County, Sweden |
Died |
August 6, 1938 58) Stockholm, Sweden | (aged
Cause of death | bronchial pneumonia |
Resting place | Southborough Rural Cemetery, Southborough, Massachusetts |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1906–1937 |
Known for | Charlie Chan |
Spouse(s) | Edith Gardener Shearn (m. 1907–38) |
Warner Oland (October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish-American actor most remembered for his screen role as the detective Charlie Chan. He moved to the United States when he was 13 and pursued a film career that would include time on Broadway and dozens of film appearances. He starred in a total of 16 Charlie Chan films.
Early years
He was born Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality, Västerbotten County, Sweden. He claimed that his vaguely Asian appearance was due to possessing some Mongolian ancestry,[1]:1[2] though his known ancestry contains no indication that this was so.[3] When he was thirteen, his family immigrated to the United States. Educated in Boston, he spoke English and his native Swedish, and eventually translated some of the plays of August Strindberg. As a young man he pursued a career in theater, at first working on set design while developing his skills as a dramatic actor. In 1906, he was signed to tour the country with the troupe led by actress Alla Nazimova. The following year he met and married the playwright and portrait painter Edith Gardener Shearn. The woman made an ideal partner for Oland. She mastered Swedish, helping him with the translation of Strindberg's works that they jointly published in book form in 1912.
Film career
Career beginnings
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. It would be another three years before he returned to film work with a role in The Romance of Elaine, an adventure film starring the extremely popular Pearl White. 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. He made several more films with Pearl White including his first portrayal of an oriental character in her film, The Lightning Raider (1919). 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.
Racebending physicality
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Oland's normal appearance fit the Hollywood expectation of caricatured Asianness of the time, despite his having no 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. This was not, strictly speaking, "yellowface", since Oland used no special makeup to change his ethnic appearance, according to frequent co-star Keye Luke. In one of his silent films, 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.)
Becoming a star
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. 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 Charlie Chan industry
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.[4]
Personal life
Despite his wealth and success, Oland suffered from alcoholism that severely affected his health and his thirty-year marriage. In January 1938, he started filming Charlie Chan at Ringside. However, a week into shooting his erratic behavior culminated in his walking off the set, causing the film to be abandoned. After a spell in the hospital, he signed a new three-picture deal with Fox to continue playing Chan. At the same time, he was involved in a bitter divorce from his wife which prevented him, by court order, from traveling overseas and moving his assets abroad. He was also soon involved in a public incident when, having ordered his chauffeur to drive him to Mexico, he was observed during a rest stop sitting on the running board of his car throwing his shoes at onlookers. The divorce settlement, favoring his wife, was announced to the media on April 2, 1938, and the same day he left the USA by ship, turning up in southern Europe, then proceeding to his native Sweden where he stayed with an architect friend.
Death
In Sweden, Oland contracted bronchial pneumonia, worsened by the apparent onset of emphysema from years of heavy cigarette smoking and he died in a hospital in Stockholm.[5] Oland's last film was the unfinished Charlie Chan at the Ringside. Fox reshot Oland's scenes with Peter Lorre and released the finished picture as Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938). Following cremation in Sweden, his ashes were brought back to the United States by his ex-wife for interment in the Southborough Rural Cemetery in Southborough, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, where the Olands had previously resided in an historic farmhouse.
Partial filmography
- Pilgrim's Progress (1912) as John Bunyon
- The Romance of Elaine (1915)
- Sin (1915) as Pietro
- The Unfaithful Wife (1915)
- Destruction (1915) as Mr. Deleveau
- The Fool's Revenge (1916) as Undetermined Secondary Role (uncredited)
- The Reapers (1916) as James Shaw
- The Eternal Sapho (1916) as H. Coudal
- The Eternal Question (1916) as Pierre Felix
- Beatrice Fairfax (1916) as Detective
- The Rise of Susan (1916) as Sinclair La Salle
- Beatrice Fairfax Episode 4: The Stone God (1916) as Detective in office
- Patria (1917, serial) as Baron Huroki
- The Fatal Ring (1917, serial) as Richard Carslake
- The Cigarette Girl (1917) as Mr. Wilson
- Convict 993 (1918) as Dan Mallory
- The Naulahka (1918) as Maharajah
- The Mysterious Client (1918) as Boris Norjunov
- The Yellow Ticket (1918) as Baron Andrey
- The Lightning Raider (1919, serial) as Wu Fang
- Mandarin's Gold (1919) as Li Hsun
- The Twin Pawns (1919) as John Bent
- The Avalanche (1919) as Nick Delano
- The Witness for the Defense (1919) as Captain Ballantyne
- The Third Eye (1920, serial) as Curtis Steele / Malcolm Graw
- The Phantom Foe (1920, serial) as Uncle Leo Sealkirk
- The Yellow Arm (1921) as Joel Bain
- Hurricane Hutch (1921, serial) as Clifton Marlow
- East Is West (1922) as Charley Yong
- The Pride of Palomar (1922) as Okada
- His Children's Children (1923) as Dr. Dahl
- The Fighting American (1924) as Fu Shing
- So This Is Marriage? (1924) as Mario Dorando
- One Night in Rome (1924) as King David
- Curlytop (1924) as Shanghai Dan
- Riders of the Purple Sage (1925) as Lew Walters aka Judge Dyer
- Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925) as The Archduke
- Flower of Night (1925) as Luke Rand
- The Winding Stair (1925) as Petras
- Infatuation (1925) as Osman Pasha
- Don Juan (1926) as Cesare Borgia
- The Mystery Club (1926) as Eli Sinsabaugh
- The Marriage Clause (1926) as Max Ravenal
- Twinkletoes (1926) as Roseleaf
- Tell It to the Marines (1926) as Chinese Bandit Chief
- Man of the Forest (1926) as Clint Beasley
- When a Man Loves (1927) as André Lescaut
- A Million Bid (1927) as Geoffrey Marsh
- Old San Francisco (1927) as Chris Buckwell
- What Happened to Father? (1927) as W. Bradberry, Father
- The Jazz Singer (1927) as The Cantor
- Sailor Izzy Murphy (1927) as The girl's father
- Good Time Charley (1927) as Good Time Charley Keene
- Stand and Deliver (1928) as Ghika - the Bandit Leader
- Wheel of Chance (1928) as Mosher Turkeltaub
- The Scarlet Lady (1928) as Zaneriff
- Dream of Love (1928) as The Duke, Current Dicator
- The Faker (1929) as Hadrian (the faker)
- Chinatown Nights (1929) as Boston Charley
- The Studio Murder Mystery (1932) as Rupert Borka
- The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929) as Dr. Fu Manchu
- The Mighty (1929) as Sterky
- Dangerous Paradise (1930) as Schomberg
- The Vagabond King (1930) as Thibault
- Paramount on Parade (1930) as Fu Manchu (Murder Will Out)
- The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930) as Dr. Fu Manchu
- The Drums of Jeopardy (1931) as Dr. Boris Karlov
- Dishonored (1931) as Colonel von Hindau
- Charlie Chan Carries On (1931) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- The Black Camel (1931) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- The Big Gamble (1931) as North
- Daughter of the Dragon (1931) as Fu Manchu
- Charlie Chan's Chance (1932) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Shanghai Express (1932) as Henry Chang
- A Passport to Hell (1932) as Baron von Sydow, Police Commandant
- The Son-Daughter (1932) as Fen Sha
- Before Dawn (1933) as Dr. Paul Cornelius
- Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- As Husbands Go (1934) as Hippolitus Lomi
- Mandalay (1934) as Nick
- Charlie Chan's Courage (1934) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934) as Prince Achmed
- Charlie Chan in London (1934) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- The Painted Veil (1934) as General Yu
- Charlie Chan in Paris (1935) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Werewolf of London (1935) as Dr. Yogami
- Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Shanghai (1935) as Ambassador Lun Sing
- Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Charlie Chan's Secret (1936) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937) as Inspector Charlie Chan
- Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937) as Inspector Charlie Chan (Last appearance)
Footnotes
- ↑ Hanke, Ken. Charlie Chan at the Movies: History, Filmography, and Criticism. McFarland & Company: Jefferson, North Carolina, 1989.
- ↑ LoBianco, Lorraine. "Daughter of the Dragon" Turner Classic Movies.
- ↑ Swedish genealogist Sven-Erik Johansson has traced Ölund's ancestry back 5 generations. Sikhallan Genealogy site
- ↑ Lepore, Jill. "CHAN, THE MAN" The New Yorker, 9 August 2010.
- ↑ Hans J. Wollstein (1994). Strangers in Hollywood: the history of Scandinavian actors in American films from 1910 to World War II. Scarecrow Press. p. 309. ISBN 978-0-8108-2938-1. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
Additional reading
- George A. Katchmer Eighty silent film stars, Biographies and filmographies of the obscure to the well known (Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, 1991)
- Hans J. Wollstein Strangers in Hollywood, The History of Scandinavian Actors in American Films from 1910 to World War II (Metuchen, N.J., & London, 1994)
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Warner Oland. |
- Photographs and literature
- Warner Oland at the Internet Movie Database
- Warner Oland at the Internet Broadway Database
- Warner Oland at AllMovie
- Works by Warner Oland at Project Gutenberg (as translator)
- Works by or about Warner Oland at Internet Archive
- Works by Warner Oland at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Warner Oland at Find a Grave