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person_profile-Roland Winters

Roland Winters Died at age: 84

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Roland Winters

Date of Birth:

Nov 22, 1904

Country of birth:

USA

Died:

Oct 22, 1989

Biography of

Roland Winters

    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.

Photos of

Roland Winters

Photos ( 2 Photos

Filmography of

Roland Winters

Found 42 Movies in total

You Can't Go Home Again

Judge Bland ( Actor )

... 1979

Miracle on 34th Street

Mr. Gimbel ( Actor )

... 1973

Loving

Plommie ( Actor )

... 1970

Follow That Dream

Judge ( Actor )

... 1962

Everything's Ducky

Capt. Bollinger ( Actor )

... 1961

Blue Hawaii

Fred Gates ( Actor )

... 1961

... 1961

The Iceman Cometh

The General (Piet Wetjoen) ( Actor )

... 1960

Cash McCall

Gen. Andrew Danvers ( Actor )

... 1960

... 1959

Jet Pilot

Col. Sokolov ( Actor )

... 1957

Top Secret Affair

Sen. Burdick ( Actor )

... 1957

Bigger Than Life

Dr. Ruric ( Actor )

... 1956

So Big

Klaas Pool ( Actor )

... 1953

... 1952

Follow the Sun

Dr. Graham ( Actor )

... 1951

Raton Pass

Sheriff Perigord ( Actor )

... 1951

Inside Straight

Alexander Tomson ( Actor )

... 1951

Sierra Passage

Sam Cooper ( Actor )

... 1950

The West Point Story

Harry Eberhart ( Actor )

... 1950

To Please a Lady

Dwight Barrington ( Actor )

... 1950

Between Midnight and Dawn

Leo Cusick ( Actor )

... 1950

Convicted

Vernon Bradley, Attorney ( Actor )

... 1950

The Underworld Story

Stanley Becker ( Actor )

... 1950

Killer Shark

Jeffrey White ( Actor )

... 1950

Captain Carey, U.S.A.

Manfredo Acuto ( Actor )

... 1950

Guilty of Treason

Soviet Comissar Belov ( Actor )

... 1950

Malaya

Bruno Gruber ( Actor )

... 1949

A Dangerous Profession

Jerry McKay ( Actor )

... 1949

Once More, My Darling

Col. Head ( Actor )

... 1949

... 1949

Sky Dragon

Charlie Chan ( Actor )

... 1949

Tuna Clipper

E.J. Ransom ( Actor )

... 1949

The Feathered Serpent

Charlie Chan ( Actor )

... 1948

Kidnapped

Capt. Hoseason ( Actor )

... 1948

The Return of October

Colonel Wood ( Actor )

... 1948

Cry of the City

Ledbetter ( Actor )

... 1948

The Golden Eye

Charlie Chan ( Actor )

... 1948

The Shanghai Chest

Charlie Chan ( Actor )

... 1948

Docks of New Orleans

Charlie Chan ( Actor )

... 1948

The Chinese Ring

Charlie Chan ( Actor )

... 1947

Citizen Kane

Newspaperman at Trenton Town Hall (uncredited) ( Actor )

... 1941