- Warner Oland, Charlie Chan Carries On, 1930. After three 20s’ films during when the character was minimalised and played by two Japanese and a Korean, there was much interest as who would – could – play the titular sleuth. Legends insist 34 actors were tested. The few actually named were Noah Beery (who would die in the arms of his brother, Wallace), the Romanian-born J Edward Bromberg (dead at 48 due to his blacklisting), Leo Carillo (The Cosco Kid’s future sidekick, Pancho), Walter Connolly, Cy Kendall (his 1942 film debut was as a detective !) and Moscow-born Michael Visaroff – Dr Otto Von Brom in the 25th of 47 Chan tales, Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum, 1940). None of these guys were as small as Earl Derr Biggers’ creation. Neither, as you have readily noticed, were any of them Chinese-American! Nor was the winning Warner Oland an Austrian, as seen that year opposite Marlene Dietrich in Dishonoured, 1930. Oland, in fact, was… Swedish. He Channed on for 13 chapters, followed by a more mirthful Missourian Sidney Toler in 11 and finally, in six late-40s’ outings, by Bostonian Roland Winters. Since when, nada. So no more philosophical nuggets like… “Only a very brave mouse will make its nest in a cat’s ear.”
- Torben Meyer, The Purple Heart, 1943. One veteran character stalwart for another as Swiss Consul Karl Kappel in writer-producer Daryl F Zanuck’s bitter anti-Japanese propaganda. Within eight years, the actor, born in the part of Austro-Hungary that is now Romania, died from the stress caused by being on the infamous Hollywood Blacklist.
Birth year: 1903Death year: 1951Other name: Casting Calls: 2