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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
November 22, 1904
Died
October 22, 1989
Place of Birth
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Also Known As
- Roland Winternitz
Roland Winters
0.4 Popularity
Biography
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.
Known For
1.0
Judge Bland
You Can't Go Home Again
1979
6.2
Hubert Collinson
The Dain Curse
1978
6.8
Mr. Gimbel
Miracle on 34th Street
1973
5.0
Judge Ransom
Adam's Rib
1973
5.8
Plommie
Loving
1970
0.0
Watkins
Doc
1969
7.7
Various Characters
The Carol Burnett Show
1967
7.0
Dan Merrill
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
1964
8.0
Ralph J. Hulen
The Addams Family
1964
7.9
McMann
Bewitched
1964
Credits
You Can't Go Home Again
as Judge Bland
1979
1.0
The Dain Curse
as Hubert Collinson
1978
6.2
Miracle on 34th Street
as Mr. Gimbel
1973
6.8
Adam's Rib
as Judge Ransom
1973
5.0
Loving
as Plommie
1970
5.8
Doc
as Watkins
1969
0.0
The Carol Burnett Show
as Various Characters
1967
7.7
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
as Dan Merrill
1964
7.0
The Addams Family
as Ralph J. Hulen
1964
8.0
Bewitched
as McMann
1964
7.9
🎬
Big Deal in Laredo
as Henry Drummond
1962
0.0
The Lucy Show
as Dean Bennett
1962
7.0
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
as Ivar West
1962
7.8
Follow That Dream
as Judge
1962
6.1
Everything's Ducky
as Capt. Bollinger
1961
5.3
Blue Hawaii
as Fred Gates
1961
5.9
The Defenders
as Jeff Brubaker
1961
5.9
A String of Beads
1961
0.0
The Iceman Cometh
as The General (Piet Wetjoen)
1960
7.1
Cash McCall
as Gen. Andrew Danvers
1960
6.2
🎬
The Computer Comes to Marketing
as Ned
1960
0.0
Play of the Week
1959
0.0
Never Steal Anything Small
as Doctor
1959
8.0
Jet Pilot
as Col. Sokolov
1957
5.4
Perry Mason
as Archer Bryant
1957
7.7
Top Secret Affair
as Sen. Burdick
1957
4.3
Bigger Than Life
as Dr. Ruric
1956
7.2
🎬
Broken Arrow
as James Perry
1956
5.0
So Big
as Klaas Pool
1953
5.3
She's Working Her Way Through College
as Fred Copeland
1952
5.1
Follow the Sun
as Dr. Graham
1951
6.2
Raton Pass
as Sheriff Perigord
1951
4.6
Inside Straight
as Alexander Tomson
1951
4.2
Sierra Passage
as Sam Cooper
1950
6.0
The West Point Story
as Harry Eberhart
1950
5.5
To Please a Lady
as Dwight Barrington
1950
6.3
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as General Millet
1950
6.3
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Greenleaf
1950
6.3
Between Midnight and Dawn
as Leo Cusick
1950
5.6
Convicted
as Vernon Bradley, Attorney
1950
6.0
The Underworld Story
as Stanley Becker
1950
6.1
Killer Shark
as Jeffrey White
1950
6.0
Captain Carey, U.S.A.
as Manfredo Acuto
1950
5.5
Guilty of Treason
as Soviet Comissar Belov
1950
6.0
Malaya
as Bruno Gruber
1949
6.5
A Dangerous Profession
as Jerry 'Mac' McKay
1949
5.6
Once More, My Darling
as Col. Head
1949
5.7
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
as T. Hanley Brooks
1949
6.5
Sky Dragon
as Charlie Chan
1949
7.7
Tuna Clipper
as E.J. Ransom
1949
6.5
The Feathered Serpent
as Charlie Chan
1948
5.8
Kidnapped
as Capt. Hoseason
1948
5.5
The Return of October
as Colonel Wood
1948
5.8
Cry of the City
as Ledbetter
1948
6.7
The Golden Eye
as Charlie Chan
1948
5.4
The Shanghai Chest
as Charlie Chan
1948
6.1
Docks of New Orleans
as Charlie Chan
1948
5.9
The Chinese Ring
as Charlie Chan
1947
4.9
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
7.5
Citizen Kane
as Newspaperman at Trenton Town Hall (uncredited)
1941
8.0