
Roland Winters
Acting
🎂 1904-11-22
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.
Cast credits(59)

Various Characters
1967

Ivar West
1962

Jeff Brubaker
1961

Archer Bryant
1957

Dean Bennett
1962
James Perry
1956

Ralph J. Hulen
1964

Dan Merrill
1964

1964

1959

Hubert Collinson
1978
General Millet
1950
Greenleaf
1950

Newspaperman at Trenton Town Hall (uncredited)
1941

Judge Ransom
1973

Dr. Ruric
1956

Fred Gates
1961

Ledbetter
1948

Charlie Chan
1948

Vernon Bradley, Attorney
1950

Sen. Burdick
1957

Manfredo Acuto
1950

Charlie Chan
1948

T. Hanley Brooks
1949

Gen. Andrew Danvers
1960

Col. Sokolov
1957

Judge
1962

Bruno Gruber
1949

Jerry 'Mac' McKay
1949

Mr. Gimbel
1973

Colonel Wood
1948

Klaas Pool
1953

Stanley Becker
1950

Charlie Chan
1947

Dwight Barrington
1950

Alexander Tomson
1951

Harry Eberhart
1950

Leo Cusick
1950

Fred Copeland
1952

Charlie Chan
1949

Sheriff Perigord
1951

Charlie Chan
1948

Sam Cooper
1950

Plommie
1970

Capt. Hoseason
1948

Col. Head
1949

Judge Bland
1979

Doctor
1959

The General (Piet Wetjoen)
1960

Charlie Chan
1948

E.J. Ransom
1949

Capt. Bollinger
1961

Jeffrey White
1950

Dr. Graham
1951

Watkins
1969

1961

Soviet Comissar Belov
1950
Henry Drummond
1962
Ned
1960