Roland Winters

Infobox Person
name= Roland Winters


birth_date= birth date|1904|12|22|df=y
birth_place= Boston, Massachusetts, USA
dead=dead
death_date= death date and age|1989|10|22|1904|12|22|df=y
death_place=Englewood, New Jersey USA
occupation= Actor
spouse= Ada Howe

Roland Winters (1904-1989) was an American actor who portrayed Charlie Chan in six films.

Born Roland Winternitz in Boston, Massachusetts on 22 December 1904, Winters was the son of Felix Winternitz, a violinist and composer who was teaching at New England Conservatory of Music. In his teens he began appearing in productions from local theater groups around Boston and made his Broadway debut in 1924 in "The Firebrand." In 1931 he became the sports announcer for the Braves and Red Sox games on the radio station WNAC. He had a few uncredited film roles in the 1940s (including a brief appearance in Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" in 1941), but continued to work in radio until 1947.

Sidney Toler, who took over the Charlie Chan role from Warner Oland, bought the screen rights to the Chan character and brought the series to Monogram Pictures. Toler died in 1947, practically in harness; despite terminal illness, he kept going in the series as long as he could. Monogram decided on Roland Winters as Toler's replacement. At the age of 44 he was the youngest actor to tackle the role, and was actually several months "younger" than Keye Luke, who portrayed his "Number One Son" and assistant in the last two Chans. Winters made six Chan films, starting with "The Chinese Ring" in 1947 and ending with "Charlie Chan and the Sky Dragon" (also known as "Sky Dragon") in 1949. During this period, in addition to his work as Chan, Winters also appeared as a character actor in three other feature films.

Viewers are divided about Roland Winters as Charlie Chan. Some consider him an ineffective successor to Oland and Toler; others defend him for his unique approach to the character. Oland's Chan was shrewd and placid, Toler's was observant and crabby, and Winters's was generally sarcastic and impatient. In 1949 Monogram had funds tied up in England, and decided to send Winters and Keye Luke there to make more Chan films, but when the British government suddenly devalued the currency, the Chan series was abandoned.

After the series finished, Winters continued to work in film and television until 1982, including roles in "Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff", as Elvis' father in "Blue Hawaii", and an appearance in the "Bewitched" TV series as the normally elusive McMann of McMann and Tate.

Winters died as the result of a stroke at the Actor's Fund Nursing Home in Englewood, New Jersey on 22 October 1989.

References

*cite web|url=http://www.charliechan.net/winters.html|title=Roland Winters|publisher=CharlieChan.net|accessdate=12 December|accessyear=2006
*cite web|url=http://charliechanfamily.tripod.com/id11.html|title=Roland Winters: Charlie Chan's Final Cases |publisher=Charlie Chan Family Home|accessdate=12 December|accessyear=2006
*cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0935996/|title=Roland Winters|publisher=IMDB|accessdate=12 December|accessyear=2006

Persondata
NAME= Roland Winters
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Roland Winternitz
SHORT DESCRIPTION=United States of America actor
DATE OF BIRTH=22 December 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH=Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
DATE OF DEATH= 22 October 1989
PLACE OF DEATH=Englewood, New Jersey United States of America
SPOUSE=Ada Howe