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(3 October 1879, Nyby, Västerbottens
län, Sweden - 6 August 1938, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden)
 Born
Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality,
Västerbotten County, Sweden, at age thirteen his family emigrated to
the United States.
As a young man he pursued a career in theater, at first working on
set design while developing his acting skills. Trained as a dramatic
actor, in 1906, he was signed to tour the country with the troupe
led by actress Alla Nazimova.
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 adaptation to 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
1919 film, The Lightning Raider. Over the next fifteen years he
appeared in more than thirty films, including a major role in 1927's
The Jazz Singer, one of the first talkies produced.
Oland's facial features, aided by makeup, allowed him to easily play
the part of Asian characters. He portrayed a variety of Asian
characters in "yellowface" in several movies before being offered
the leading role in the 1929 film, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu as
the first onscreen portrayal of the title character. A box office
success, the film 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 1931
international detective mystery film, Charlie Chan Carries On and
then in director Josef von Sternberg's 1932 classic film Shanghai
Express opposite Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong.
Although Oland did act in other films, the enormous worldwide box
office success of his Charlie Chan film led to a Charlie Chan
industry, with Oland starring in sixteen films in total. Oland was
also the first actor to play a werewolf in a movie, in Werewolf of
London (1935) as the werewolf who bites the protagonist, played by
Henry Hull. |
