Warner Oland

October 3, 1879 - August 6, 1938
Born Werner Ohlund in Nyby, Vasterbotten, Sweden

See Internet Movie Database Filmography

A Lot of Favorite Memories of Warner Oland

• Making a name for himself as the first really popular villain of the silent serials in chapterplays (mostly starring heroines), including:
  
  
  • Pearl White's The Romance of Elaine (1915), as an Oriental henchman of Lionel Barrymore's submarine pirate "Mr. X"
    
  • Irene Castle's Patria (1917), as the lead villain "Baron Huroki," a Chinese general
    
  • Pearl White's The Fatal Ring (1917), as the lead villain "Carslake"
    
  • Pearl White's The Lightning Raider (1919), as the Oriental lead villain "Wu Fang" — also featuring Boris Karloff!
    
  • Eileen Percy's The Third Eye (1920), as the lead villain
    
  • Charles Hutchison's Hurricane Hutch (1921), as the lead villain
  
  
• Broadening his reputation as a versatile character actor in silent feature films, with diverse roles including:
  
  
  • "Pietro" in Sin (1915) starring Theda Bara
    
  • "Pierre Felix" in The Eternal Question (1916) starring Olga Petrova
    
  • "Maharajah" in The Naulahka (1918) starring Antonio Moreno
    
  • "Boris Norjunov" in The Mysterious Client (1918) starring Irene Castle
    
  • "Baron Andrey" in The Yellow Ticket (1918) starring Fannie Ward
    
  • "Li Hsun" in Mandarin's Gold (1919) starring Kitty Gordon
    
  • "Okada" in a western, The Pride of Palomar (1922) starring Forrest Stanley
    
  • "Fu Shing" in The Fighting American (1924) starring Mary Astor
    
  • "Mario Dorando" in One Night in Rome (1924) starring Laurette Taylor
    
  • "Osman Pasha" in Infatuation (1925) starring Corinne Griffith
  
  
• Playing dual roles as the bad guy "Lew Walters," alias "Judge Dyer," in the classic Tom Mix silent western Riders of the Purple Sage (1925).
  
  
• As the scheming "Caesar Borgia" in John Barrymore's great romantic adventure Don Juan (1926).
  
  
• As the vicious "Chinese bandit leader" fighting Lon Chaney's leathernecks to the death in Tell It to the Marines (1926).
  
  
• As "Cantor Rabinowitz," Al Jolson's strictly orthodox father (who can't stand his son's kind of music) in the groundbreaking talking picture The Jazz Singer (1927).
  
  
• As the Oriental super-criminal "Dr. Fu Manchu" created by mystery writer Sax Rohmer, in four early sound films:
  
  
  • The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929), directed by Rowland V. Lee. With Neil Hamilton (as Dr. Jack Petrie), Jean Arthur (as Lia Eltham), O.P. Heggie (as Inspector Nayland Smith), and Noble Johnson (as Li Po).
    
    
  • The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930), directed by Rowland V. Lee. With O.P. Heggie), Jean Arthur, and Neil Hamilton again.
    
    
  • In the spoofy "Murder Will Out" segment of the all-star variety feature, Paramount on Parade (1930). Menacing Clive Brook as Sherlock Holmes and William Powell as Philo Vance, with Jack Oakie as his victim, and Mischa Auer as a thug.
    
    
  • Daughter of the Dragon (1931), directed by Lloyd Corrigan. With Anna May Wong (as Princess Ling Moy), Sessue Hayakawa, Bramwell Fletcher (as Ronald Petrie), Frances Dade, Holmes Herbert (as Sir John Petrie), and Lawrence Grant.
  
  
• As "Dr. Boris Karlov," a mad Bolshevick scientist killing off a family of aristocrats after one of them wrongs his daughter, in the "forgotten horror" Drums of Jeopardy (1931), directed by George B. Seitz. With June Collyer, Lloyd Hughes, Clara Blandick, Hale Hamilton, Wallace MacDonald, George Fawcett, Florence Lake, Mischa Auer and Murdock MacQuarrie.
  
  
• As "Colonel von Hindau" in the exotic World War I spy romance-adventure, Dishonored (1931), directed by Josef von Sternberg. With Marlene Dietrich (as Marie Kolverer, alias "X27"), Victor McLaglen. Gustav von Seyffertitz, Lew Cody and Barry Norton.
  
  
• Starring as the epigrammatic Chinese detective "Charlie Chan" in a series of sixteen films based on the novels and characters of mystery writer Earl Der Biggers:
  
  
  • Charlie Chan Carries On (1931), directed by Hamilton MacFadden. With John Garrick, Marguerite Churchill, Warren Hymer, Marjorie White, C. Henry Gordon, William Holden, George Brent, Jason Robards and Zeffie Tilsbury.
    
    
  • The Black Camel (1931), directed by Hamilton MacFadden. With Sally Eilers, Bela Lugosi, Dorothy Revier, Victor Varconi, Robert Young, J. M. Kerrigan, Mary Gordon, C. Henry Gordon and Dwight Frye.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan's Chance (1932), directed by John G. Blystone. With Alexander Kirkland, H. B. Warner, Marian Nixon, Ralph Morgan, James Kirkwood, Linda Watkins, James Todd, Charles McNaughton and Herbert Bunston.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933), directed by Hamilton MacFadden. With Heather Angel, Roger Imhof, John Warburton, Walter Byron, Ivan Simpson, Virginia Cherrill, Francis Ford, Robert Warwick, Frank McGlynn, Clara Blandick, Claude King, William Stack, Gloria Roy and Cornelius Keefe.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan's Courage (1934), directed by Eugene Forde and George Hadden. With Drue Leyton, Donald Woods, Murray Kinnell, Paul Harvey, Jerry Jerome, Harvey Clark, Si Jenks, Jack Carter, James Wang, Reginald Mason, Virginia Hammond, Dewitt C. Jennings, Francis Ford, Lucille Miller, Mary McLaren, Gail Kay, Sam McDaniels, Carl Stockdale, Lita Chevret, Susan Fleming, Caryl Lincoln, John David Horsley, George Magrill, Frank Mills, Sherry Hall, James P. Burtis, Paul McVey, Wade Boteler and Teru Shimada.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan in London (1934), directed by Eugene Forde. With Drue Leyton, Raymond Milland, Mona Barrie, Alan Mowbray, Murray Kinnell, Douglas Walton, Walter Johnson, E. E. Clive, George Bernard, Madge Bellamy, David Torrence, John Rogers, Paul England, Elsa Buchanan, Perry Ivins, Claude King, Reginald Sheffield, Helena Grant, Montague Shaw, Phyllis Coghlan and Margaret Mann.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan in Paris (1935), directed by Lewis Seiler. With Keye Luke (as Number One Son, Lee Chan), Mary Brian, Thomas Beck, Eric Rhodes, John Miljan, Murray Kinnell, Minor Watson, John Qualen, Henry Kolker, Dorothy Appleby, Ruth Peterson, Perry Ivans and Harry Cording.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935), directed by Louis King. With Pat Peterson, Thomas Beck, Rita Cansino (Hayworth), Stepin Fetchit, Jameson Thomas, Frank Conroy, Nigel de Brulier, Paul Porcasi, Arthur Store, James Eagles, Frank Reicher, George Irving and Anita Brown.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935), directed by James Tinling. With Keye Luke, Irene Hervey, Charles Locher (Jon Hall), Russell Hicks, Halliwell Hobbes, Frederick Vogeding, Neil Fitzgerald, Max Wagner, Harry Strang, Pat O'Malley, Sir Stanley Woodland-David Torrence.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan's Secret (1936), directed by Gordon Wiles. With Rosina Lawrence, Charles Quigley, Henrietta Crossmank, Edward Trevor, Astrid Allwyn, Herbert Mundin, Jonathan Hale, Egon Brecher, Gloria Ray, Ivan Miller, Arthur Edmunde Carewe, Jerry Miley, William N. Bailey, James T. Mack, Landers Stevens and Francis Ford.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936), directed by Harry Lachman. With Keye Luke, Olive and George Brasno, Francis Ford, Maxine Reiner, John McGuire, Shirley Deane, Paul Stanton, J. Carrol Naish, Boothe Hayward, Drue Leyton, Wade Boteler, Shia Jung and Francis Farnum.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936), directed by H. Bruce Humberstone. With Keye Luke, Helen Wood, Thomas Beck, Alan Dinehart, Gavin Muir, Gloria Roy, Jonathan Hale, G.P. Huntley Jr., George Irving, Frank Coghlan Jr., Frankie Darro, John Rogers, John H. Allen, Harry Jans, Robert Warwick, Jack Mulhall and Paul Fix.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936), directed by H. Bruce Humberstone. With Boris Karloff, Keye Luke, Charlotte Henry, Thomas Beck, Margaret Irving, Gregory Gaye, Nedda Harrigan, Frank Conroy, Guy Usher, William Demarest, Maurice Cass and Tom McGuire.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937), directed by H. Bruce Humberstone. With Keye Luke, Katherine DeMille, Pauline Moore, Allan Lane, C. Henry Gordon, John Eldredge, Layne Tom Jr., Jonathan Hale, Morgan Wallace, Frederick Vogeding, Andrew Tombes, Howard Hickman, Edward Keane, Selmer Jackson and Don Brodie.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937), directed by Eugene Forde. With Keye Luke, Joan Marshall, J. Edward Bromberg, Douglas Fowley, Harold Huber, Donald Woods, Louise Henry, Joan Woodbury, Leon Ames, Marc Lawrence, Tashia Mori, Charles Williams, Eugene Borden, Creighton Hale, Jack Dougherty and Lon Chaney Jr.
    
    
  • Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937), directed by Eugene Forde. With Keye Luke, Virginia Field, Sidney Blackmer, Harold Huber, Robert Kent, Edward Raquello, George Lynn, Louis Mercier, George Davis, John Bleifer, George Renavent and George Sorrell.
  
  Another film, Charlie Chan at Ringside, started filming but Warner Oland died of bronchial pneumonia before it could be completed. The story was rewritten for Peter Lorre's "Mr. Moto" series and released as Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938).
  
  
• As "Mr. Henry Chang," a Chinese warlord holding a trainload of passengers hostage in the ultra-exotic adventure-romance Shanghai Express (1932), directed by Josef von Sterberg. The director's protegée Marlene Dietrich stars as "Shanghai Lili," with fine support from Clive Brooks, Anna May Wong, Eugene Pallette, Lawrence Grant, Louise Closser Hale, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Emile Chautard, Leonard Carey, Willie Fung, Tom Gubbins, Forrester Harvey, Claude King, James B. Leong, Miki Morita, Minoru Nishida and Mrs. Sojin.
  
  
• As "Prince Achmed," one of the more likely murder suspects in Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934), directed by Roy Del Ruth. Starring Ronald Colman (Drummond), Loretta Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel, E.E. Clive, Mischa Auer, Douglas Gerrard, Ethel Griffies, Halliwell Hobbes, Arthur Hohl, George Regas, Lucille Ball, Billy Bevan, Kathleen Burke, Creighton Hale, Olaf Hytten and Bob Kortman.
  
  
• As "Dr. Yogami," the first cinema werewolf, inflicting the curse of lycanthropy on the film's hero during a botanical expedition in Tibet, in Universal's classic The Werewolf of London (1935). Starring Henry Hull as ill-fated Dr. Wilfred Glendon, Valerie Hobson, Lester Matthews, Lawrence Grant, Spring Byington. Clark Williams, J.M. Kerrigan, Charlotte Granville, Ethel Griffies, Zeffie Tilbury, Jeanne Bartlett, Reginald Barlow, Egon Brecher , and Tempe Pigott.

Last revised May 9 2021 by George "E-gor" Chastain.

Maintained by George "E-gor" Chastain (e-mail: egorschamber@gmail.com)