Roland Winters

Roland Winters

Born: November 22, 1904
Died: October 22, 1989
in Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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.

Movies for Roland Winters...

You Can't Go Home Again
Title: You Can't Go Home Again
Character: Judge Bland
Released: April 25, 1979
Type: Movie
An adaptation of Thomas Wolfe's literary classic, telling of the struggles of a young writer determined to be a success in New York's literary world of the 1920s, his married lover, and the brilliant editor who sees him as a blossoming genius. The story parallels the life of Wolfe himself and his affair with stage designer Aline Bernstein.
bee
Title: The Dain Curse
Character: Hubert Collinson
Released: May 22, 1978
Type: TV
Hard-boiled private dick Hamilton Nash is hired to investigate a case of stolen diamonds, which leads him to a lovely and odd young woman named Gabrielle, who believes she has been stricken with the ancient curse of the Dain family. The curse has historically caused its victims to die prematurely.
bee
Miracle on 34th Street
Title: Miracle on 34th Street
Character: Mr. Gimbel
Released: December 14, 1973
Type: Movie
A department store Santa tries to convince a little girl who doesn't believe in Santa Claus that he is Santa Claus, and winds up going on trial to prove who he is.
bee
Title: Adam's Rib
Character: Judge Ransom
Released: September 14, 1973
Type: TV
Adam's Rib is an American situation comedy broadcast on ABC-TV from September 14 to December 28, 1973. It was produced by MGM Television and had 13 episodes. The series was a TV adaptation of the 1949 motion picture of the same name.
bee
Loving
Title: Loving
Character: Plommie
Released: March 4, 1970
Type: Movie
Brooks Wilson is in crisis. He is torn between his wife Selma and two daughters and his mistress Grace, and also between his career as a successful illustrator and his feeling that he might still produce something worthwhile.
bee
Doc
Title: Doc
Character: Watkins
Released: July 28, 1969
Type: Movie
An aging doctor in a small town decides to pack up his little black bag, but when a young doctor assumes his practice, the older practitioner can't resist butting in with comic results.
bee
Title: The Carol Burnett Show
Character: Various Characters
Released: September 11, 1967
Type: TV
The Carol Burnett Show is an American variety/sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33. The series won 25 prime time Emmy Awards, was ranked No. 16 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time in 2002 and in 2007 was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All Time."
bee
Title: Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Released: September 25, 1964
Type: TV
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy Griffith Show on May 18, 1964. The show ran for five seasons and a total of 150 episodes. In 2006, CBS Home Entertainment began releasing the series on DVD. The final season was released in November 2008. The series was created by Aaron Ruben, who also produced the show with Sheldon Leonard and Ronald Jacobs. Filmed and set in California, it stars Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle, a naive but good-natured gas-station attendant from the town of Mayberry, North Carolina, who enlists in the United States Marine Corps. Frank Sutton plays Gomer's high-octane, short-fused Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter, and Ronnie Schell plays Gomer's friend Gilbert "Duke" Slater. Allan Melvin played in the recurring role of Gunnery Sergeant Carter's rival, Sergeant Charley Hacker. The series never discussed nor addressed the then-current Vietnam War, instead focusing on the relationship between Gomer and Sergeant Carter. The show retained high ratings throughout its run.
bee
Title: The Addams Family
Character: Ralph J. Hulen
Released: September 18, 1964
Type: TV
A satirical inversion of the ideal of the perfect American nuclear family, they are an eccentric wealthy family who delight in everything grotesque and macabre, and are never really aware that people find them bizarre or frightening. In fact, they themselves are often terrified by "normal" people.
bee
Title: Bewitched
Released: September 17, 1964
Type: TV
Samantha Stephens is a seemingly normal suburban housewife who also happens to be a genuine witch, with all the requisite magical powers. Her husband Darrin insists that Samantha keep her witchcraft under wraps, but situations invariably require her to indulge her powers while keeping her bothersome mother Endora at bay.
bee
Big Deal in Laredo
Title: Big Deal in Laredo
Character: Henry Drummond
Released: October 7, 1962
Type: Movie
A timid man with money problems gets into a big card game with some high-rollers.
bee
Title: The Lucy Show
Character: Dean Bennett
Released: October 1, 1962
Type: TV
The Lucy Show is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1962–68. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965–66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program for its second season, remained. For the first three seasons, Vivian Vance was the co-star. The earliest scripts were entitled The Lucille Ball Show, but when this title was declined, producers thought of calling the show This Is Lucy or The New Adventures of Lucy, before deciding on the title The Lucy Show. Ball won consecutive Emmy Awards as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the series' final two seasons, 1966–67 and 1967–68.
bee
Title: The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Character: Ivar West
Released: September 20, 1962
Type: TV
A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of suspense and featuring thrillers and mysteries.
bee
Follow That Dream
Title: Follow That Dream
Character: Judge
Released: April 11, 1962
Type: Movie
When the Kwimper family car runs out of fuel on a new Florida highway and an officious state supervisor tries to run them off, Pop Kwimper digs in his heels and decides to do a little homesteading. He and his son Toby and their 'adopted' children—Holly, Ariadne, and the twins—start their own little community along a strip of the roadside.
bee
Everything's Ducky
Title: Everything's Ducky
Character: Capt. Bollinger
Released: December 20, 1961
Type: Movie
Everything's Ducky is a 1961 film directed by Don Taylor and starring Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, and Jackie Cooper. Two sailors sneak a talking duck aboard their ship. Complications ensue. The duck waddles all over the ship until he escapes.
bee
Blue Hawaii
Title: Blue Hawaii
Character: Fred Gates
Released: November 22, 1961
Type: Movie
Chad Gates has just been discharged from the Army, and is happy to be back in Hawaii with his surf-board, his beach buddies and his girlfriend.
bee
Title: The Defenders
Character: Jeff Brubaker
Released: September 16, 1961
Type: TV
The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series . It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son defense attorneys who specialized in legally complex cases, with defendants such as neo-Nazis, conscientious objectors, civil rights demonstrators, a schoolteacher fired for being an atheist, an author accused of pornography, and a physician charged in a mercy killing.
bee
A String of Beads
Title: A String of Beads
Released: February 7, 1961
Type: Movie
An ordinary girl's life is radically changed by the mistaken receipt of a $60,000 strand of pearls.
bee
The Iceman Cometh
Title: The Iceman Cometh
Character: The General (Piet Wetjoen)
Released: November 14, 1960
Type: Movie
Theodore Hickman, a hardware salesman, makes by-yearly visits to Harry Hope's 1910-era waterfront bar for his periodical drinking binges. But on this visit he has decided to try to save the bar's patrons from their "lying pipe dreams."
bee
Cash McCall
Title: Cash McCall
Character: Gen. Andrew Danvers
Released: January 20, 1960
Type: Movie
Wealthy hotshot Cash McCall makes his money by purchasing unsuccessful businesses, whipping them into shape and then selling them for a huge profit. When Cash comes across Austen Plastics, a small manufacturing corporation on its last legs, he realizes it might be a gamble to buy the company. But when Cash finds out that the company's owner is the father of his old flame, Lory, he buys the business just to get a second chance at romance.
bee
Title: Play of the Week
Released: October 12, 1959
Type: TV
This syndicated anthology series staged a different play every week covering all genres, dramas, comedies, musicals, fantasies, mysteries, et al, utilizing some of the best talent appearing on Broadway.
bee
Never Steal Anything Small
Title: Never Steal Anything Small
Character: Doctor
Released: February 11, 1959
Type: Movie
Director Charles Lederer's 1959 musical stars James Cagney as an unscrupulous longshoreman who'll resort to every dirty trick in the book to win his union's presidency.
bee
Jet Pilot
Title: Jet Pilot
Character: Col. Sokolov
Released: October 11, 1957
Type: Movie
John Wayne stars as U.S. Air Force aviator Jim Shannon, who's tasked with escorting a Soviet pilot (Janet Leigh) claiming -- at the height of the Cold War -- that she wants to defect. After falling in love with and wedding the fetching flyer, Shannon learns from his superiors that she's a spy on a mission to extract military secrets. To save his new wife from prison and deportation, Shannon devises a risky plan in this 1957 drama.
bee
Title: Perry Mason
Character: Archer Bryant
Released: September 21, 1957
Type: TV
The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.
bee
Top Secret Affair
Title: Top Secret Affair
Character: Sen. Burdick
Released: January 30, 1957
Type: Movie
A publisher uses her magazine and charm to derail a general on the Washington fast track.
bee
Bigger Than Life
Title: Bigger Than Life
Character: Dr. Ruric
Released: August 2, 1956
Type: Movie
A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resulting in his transformation into a household despot.
bee
So Big
Title: So Big
Character: Klaas Pool
Released: October 31, 1953
Type: Movie
A girl of wealth comes to a Dutch community outside Chicago as a schoolteacher, and while there falls in love with a poor but big-hearted farmer.
bee
She's Working Her Way Through College
Title: She's Working Her Way Through College
Character: Fred Copeland
Released: July 9, 1952
Type: Movie
Shapely burlesque dancer Hot Garters Gertie aka Angela Gardner meets her future drama professor. Her new landlady proves to be the professor's wife. Angela helps breath life into the annual school stage show...but someone has discovered her secret past.
bee
Follow the Sun
Title: Follow the Sun
Character: Dr. Graham
Released: May 22, 1951
Type: Movie
A biographical film of Ben Hogan, from his start as a golf caddy to being considered one of golf's greatest players.
bee
Raton Pass
Title: Raton Pass
Character: Sheriff Perigord
Released: April 7, 1951
Type: Movie
Raton Pass is a curious western based on the rules of Community Property. Dennis Morgan and Patricia Neal portray a recently married husband and wife, each of whom owns half of a huge cattle ranch. Neal is a tad more ambitious than her husband, and with the help of a little legal chicanery she tries to obtain Morgan's half of the spread. He balks, so she hires a few gunslingers to press the issue. In a 1951 western, the greedy party usually came to a sorry end; Raton Pass adheres strictly to tradition.
bee
Inside Straight
Title: Inside Straight
Character: Alexander Tomson
Released: March 1, 1951
Type: Movie
A tycoon rises to the top in 19th-century San Francisco through greed and corruption.
bee
Sierra Passage
Title: Sierra Passage
Character: Sam Cooper
Released: December 31, 1950
Type: Movie
When young Johnny York witnesses the murder of his father, he joins a travelling variety troupe and trains up as a sharpshooter so he might one day get his revenge.
bee
The West Point Story
Title: The West Point Story
Character: Harry Eberhart
Released: November 25, 1950
Type: Movie
A Broadway director helps the West Point cadets put on a show, aided by two lovely ladies and assorted complications.
bee
To Please a Lady
Title: To Please a Lady
Character: Dwight Barrington
Released: October 13, 1950
Type: Movie
Mike Brannon is a former war hero turned midget car racer. His ruthless racing tactics have made him successful but the fans consider him a villain and boo him mercilessly. Independent, beautiful reporter Regina Forbes tries to interview him but is put off by his gruff chauvinism, and when Brannon's daredevil tactics cause the death of a fellow driver, he finds himself a pariah in the sport thanks to her articles. When she finds him earning money as a barnstorming daredevil driver hoping for a comeback, they begin to become mutually attracted.
bee
Between Midnight and Dawn
Title: Between Midnight and Dawn
Character: Leo Cusick
Released: October 1, 1950
Type: Movie
Rocky and Dan, war buddies, are prowl car cops on night duty. Dan is a cynic who views all lawbreakers as scum; Rocky feels more lenient. Both are attracted to the radio voice of communicator Kate Mallory; but in person, Kate proves reluctant to get involved with men who just might stop a bullet. By lucky chance, Rocky and Dan cause big trouble for murderous racketeer Ritchie Garris; but when he swears vengeance, Kate's fears may prove justified.
bee
Convicted
Title: Convicted
Character: Vernon Bradley, Attorney
Released: August 1, 1950
Type: Movie
A prison warden fights to prove one of his inmates was wrongly convicted.
bee
The Underworld Story
Title: The Underworld Story
Character: Stanley Becker
Released: July 26, 1950
Type: Movie
A blacklisted reporter brings his shady ways to a small-town newspaper after being fired from a big city daily.
bee
Killer Shark
Title: Killer Shark
Character: Jeffrey White
Released: March 19, 1950
Type: Movie
A college student takes a break and goes out to sea with his father, the captain of a shark-hunting boat. When his inexperience results in an accident in which his father and a crewman are badly injured, he tries to make up for it by rounding up another crew and going back out on the hunt. However, things don't turn out quite the way he planned.
bee
Captain Carey, U.S.A.
Title: Captain Carey, U.S.A.
Character: Manfredo Acuto
Released: February 21, 1950
Type: Movie
Near the end of World War II, a secret American raid on an enemy transportation hub goes very wrong when a turncoat warns the enemy. Led by Capt. Webster Carey, the mission causes the deaths of many bystanders -- among them, Carey believes, his Italian girlfriend, Giulia de Graffi. Back home, Carey stumbles across evidence that might uncover the identity of the informant. But, when he returns to Italy to get even, Carey is stunned by what he finds.
bee
Guilty of Treason
Title: Guilty of Treason
Character: Soviet Comissar Belov
Released: February 20, 1950
Type: Movie
The story of Cardinal Josef Mindzhenty, a Roman Catholic cardinal from Hungary who spoke out against both the Nazi occupation of his country during World War II and the Communist regime that replaced it after the war.
bee
Malaya
Title: Malaya
Character: Bruno Gruber
Released: December 27, 1949
Type: Movie
After living abroad for several years, journalist John Royer returns to the United States just after the U.S. enters World War II. His boast that he could easily smuggle rubber, a key wartime natural resource, out of Malaya has him tasked with doing just that. He manages to get someone from his past, Carnaghan, sprung from Alactraz and together they head off to South East Asia posing as Irishmen. Once there, Carnaghan lines up some of his old cronies and with Royer and a few plantation owners plans to smuggle the rubber out from under the Japanese army's watchful eye.
bee
A Dangerous Profession
Title: A Dangerous Profession
Character: Jerry McKay
Released: December 10, 1949
Type: Movie
A cop-turned-bail bondsman gets involved in a murder investigation.
bee
Once More, My Darling
Title: Once More, My Darling
Character: Col. Head
Released: September 10, 1949
Type: Movie
An actor is recalled to active duty with the Army's C.I.D. to find the thief who stole historical jewels in occupied Germany and the trail leads to the boyfriend of a young debutante from Bel Air.
bee
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
Title: Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
Character: T. Hanley Brooks
Released: August 22, 1949
Type: Movie
Lost Caverns Hotel bellhop Freddie Phillips is suspected of murder. Swami Talpur tries to hypnotize Freddie into confessing, but Freddie is too stupid for the plot to work. Inspector Wellman uses Freddie to get the killer (and it isn't the Swami).
bee
Sky Dragon
Title: Sky Dragon
Character: Charlie Chan
Released: April 27, 1949
Type: Movie
All the passengers on an airplane headed for San Francisco are drugged, and when they wake up, it is discovered that a quarter-million dollars is missing. Charlie Chan--and, of course, his #1 son--must discover the identity of the person who doped the passengers and stole the money.
bee
Tuna Clipper
Title: Tuna Clipper
Character: E.J. Ransom
Released: April 11, 1949
Type: Movie
Hoping to become a lawyer, Alec (Roddy McDowall) becomes a tuna fisherman in order to pay a debt. This turn of events puts Alec on the outs with his taciturn family. Eventually, the lad proves himself on all fronts, and is welcomed back into the family fold.
bee
The Feathered Serpent
Title: The Feathered Serpent
Character: Charlie Chan
Released: December 19, 1948
Type: Movie
In order to learn the location of a fabled Aztec treasure, a professor kidnaps his colleague, the only man able to read the ancient Aztec script that is supposed to reveal the location of the treasure. Charlie Chan and his #1 and #2 sons journey to the jungles of Mexico to find the victim and bring the kidnapper and his gang to justice.
bee
Kidnapped
Title: Kidnapped
Character: Capt. Hoseason
Released: November 28, 1948
Type: Movie
In Scotland in 1752, seventeen-year-old David Balfour is cheated out of his birthright by his evil uncle Ebenezer.
bee
The Return of October
Title: The Return of October
Character: Colonel Wood
Released: October 26, 1948
Type: Movie
A wholesome girl believes her new racehorse, October, is the reincarnation of her favorite uncle, Willie.
bee
Cry of the City
Title: Cry of the City
Character: Ledbetter
Released: September 29, 1948
Type: Movie
Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check Niles' allegation; a friend of the Rome family, he walks a tightrope between sentiment and cynicism. When Martin fears Candella will implicate his girlfriend Teena, he'll do anything to protect her. How many others will he drag down to disaster with him?
bee
The Golden Eye
Title: The Golden Eye
Character: Charlie Chan
Released: August 29, 1948
Type: Movie
A gold mine in Arizona, that was formerly losing a lot of money, suddenly turns into a veritable money-making machine. However, the owner, instead of being happy about his now profitable business, insists to Charlie that something is fishy and that someone is out to murder him. Charlie and his "crew" travel to the mine, pretending to be tourists staying at a nearby dude ranch so as not to arouse suspicion, and discover that the owner may well be right--it looks like the mine is being used as a cover for criminal activities, and that someone is indeed out to murder him.
bee
Shanghai Chest
Title: Shanghai Chest
Character: Charlie Chan
Released: July 11, 1948
Type: Movie
Charlie attempts to solve a triple murder in which a dead man's finger prints show up at all three murder sites, and all three victims were connected with the conviction and execution of an evidently innocent man.
bee
Docks of New Orleans
Title: Docks of New Orleans
Character: Charlie Chan
Released: March 21, 1948
Type: Movie
Detective Charlie Chan springs into action when top officials of a New Orleans chemical company begin dropping like flies.
bee
The Chinese Ring
Title: The Chinese Ring
Character: Charlie Chan
Released: December 6, 1947
Type: Movie
Soon after a Chinese princess comes to the US to buy planes for her people, she is murdered by a poison dart fired by an air rifle.
bee
Citizen Kane
Title: Citizen Kane
Character: Newspaperman at Trenton Town Hall (uncredited)
Released: April 17, 1941
Type: Movie
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.