Roland Winters (born Roland Winternitz) was an American actor who played many character parts in films and television but today is best remembered for portraying Charlie Chan in six films in the late 1940s.
Roland Winters (born Roland Winternitz) was an American actor who played many character parts in films and television but today is best remembered for portraying Charlie Chan in six films in the late 1940s.
Monogram Pictures eventually selected Winters to replace Sidney Toler in the Charlie Chan film series. Winters was 44 when he made the first of his six Chan films, The Chinese Ring in 1947 and ending with Charlie Chan and the Sky Dragon (also known as Sky Dragon) in 1949. His other Chan films were "Docks of New Orleans", "Shanghai Chest", "The Golden Eye" and "The Feathered Serpent". He also had character roles in three other feature films while he worked on the Chan series.
Yunte Huang, in Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, noted differences in the actors' appearances, especially that Winters' "tall nose simply could not be made to look Chinese." Huang also cited the actor's age, writing, "at the age of forty-four, he also looked too young to resemble a seasoned Chinese sage."
In contrast to Huang, Ken Hanke wrote in his book, Charlie Chan at the Movies: History, Filmography, and Criticism, "Roland Winters has never received his due ... Winters brought with him a badly needed breath of fresh air to the series." He cited "the richness of the approach and the verve with which the series was being tackled" during the Winters era." Similarly, Howard M. Berlin, in his book, Charlie Chan's Words of Wisdom, commented that "Winters brought a much needed breath of fresh air to the flagging film series with his self-mocking, semi-satirical interpretation of Charlie, which is very close to the Charlie Chan in Biggers' novels."
After the series finished, Winters continued to work in film and television until 1982. He was in the movies So Big and Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, played Elvis' father in Blue Hawaii and a judge in the Elvis film Follow That Dream. He made appearances as the boss on the early TV series Meet Millie as the boss and the courtroom drama Perry Mason. In one episode of the Bewitched TV series, he played the normally unseen McMann of McMann and Tate. He also portrayed Mr. Gimbel in Miracle on 34th Street in 1973.
External links
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/nm0935996
Wikipedia: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7360500
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Filmography (Movies)
You Can't Go Home Again
Character:Judge Bland
Release Date:25/04/1979
Miracle on 34th Street
Character:Mr. Gimbel
Release Date:14/12/1973
Loving
Character:Plommie
Release Date:04/03/1970
Doc
Character:Watkins
Release Date:28/07/1969
Big Deal in Laredo
Character:Henry Drummond
Release Date:07/10/1962
Follow That Dream
Character:Judge
Release Date:11/04/1962
Everything's Ducky
Character:Capt. Bollinger
Release Date:20/12/1961
Blue Hawaii
Character:Fred Gates
Release Date:22/11/1961
A String of Beads
Character:
Release Date:07/02/1961
The Iceman Cometh
Character:The General (Piet Wetjoen)
Release Date:14/11/1960
Cash McCall
Character:Gen. Andrew Danvers
Release Date:20/01/1960
The Computer Comes to Marketing
Character:Ned
Release Date:01/01/1960
Never Steal Anything Small
Character:Doctor
Release Date:11/02/1959
Jet Pilot
Character:Col. Sokolov
Release Date:11/10/1957
Top Secret Affair
Character:Sen. Burdick
Release Date:30/01/1957
Bigger Than Life
Character:Dr. Ruric
Release Date:20/11/1956
So Big
Character:Klaas Pool
Release Date:31/10/1953
She's Working Her Way Through College
Character:Fred Copeland
Release Date:09/07/1952
Follow the Sun
Character:Dr. Graham
Release Date:22/05/1951
Raton Pass
Character:Sheriff Perigord
Release Date:07/04/1951
Inside Straight
Character:Alexander Tomson
Release Date:01/03/1951
Sierra Passage
Character:Sam Cooper
Release Date:31/12/1950
The West Point Story
Character:Harry Eberhart
Release Date:25/11/1950
To Please a Lady
Character:Dwight Barrington
Release Date:13/10/1950
Between Midnight and Dawn
Character:Leo Cusick
Release Date:01/10/1950
Convicted
Character:Vernon Bradley, Attorney
Release Date:01/08/1950
The Underworld Story
Character:Stanley Becker
Release Date:26/07/1950
Killer Shark
Character:Jeffrey White
Release Date:19/03/1950
Captain Carey, U.S.A.
Character:Manfredo Acuto
Release Date:21/02/1950
Guilty of Treason
Character:Soviet Comissar Belov
Release Date:20/02/1950
Malaya
Character:Bruno Gruber
Release Date:27/12/1949
A Dangerous Profession
Character:Jerry 'Mac' McKay
Release Date:10/12/1949
Once More, My Darling
Character:Col. Head
Release Date:10/09/1949
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
Character:T. Hanley Brooks
Release Date:26/05/1949
Sky Dragon
Character:Charlie Chan
Release Date:27/04/1949
Tuna Clipper
Character:E.J. Ransom
Release Date:11/04/1949
The Feathered Serpent
Character:Charlie Chan
Release Date:19/12/1948
Kidnapped
Character:Capt. Hoseason
Release Date:28/11/1948
The Return of October
Character:Colonel Wood
Release Date:26/10/1948
Cry of the City
Character:Ledbetter
Release Date:29/09/1948
The Golden Eye
Character:Charlie Chan
Release Date:29/08/1948
The Shanghai Chest
Character:Charlie Chan
Release Date:11/07/1948
Docks of New Orleans
Character:Charlie Chan
Release Date:21/03/1948
The Chinese Ring
Character:Charlie Chan
Release Date:06/12/1947
Citizen Kane
Character:Newspaperman at Trenton Town Hall (uncredited)
Release Date:17/04/1941
Television Appearances
The Dain Curse
Character:Hubert Collinson
Adam's Rib
Character:Judge Ransom
The Carol Burnett Show
Character:Various Characters
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Character:Dan Merrill
The Addams Family
Character:Ralph J. Hulen
Bewitched
Character:McMann
The Lucy Show
Character:Dean Bennett
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Character:Ivar West
The Defenders
Character:Jeff Brubaker
Play of the Week
Character:
Perry Mason
Character:Archer Bryant
Broken Arrow
Character:James Perry
Lux Video Theatre
Character:General Millet
Lux Video Theatre
Character:Greenleaf
Kraft Television Theatre
Character:
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