Sidney Toler
Encyclopedia
Sidney Hooper Toler was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, and theatre director. Of primarily Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 ancestry, he was the second non-Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...

 actor to play the role of Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...

.

Early life and career

Born in Warrensburg, Missouri
Warrensburg, Missouri
Warrensburg is a city in Johnson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 16,340 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Johnson County. The Warrensburg Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of Johnson County. It is home to the University of Central Missouri.-History:Warrensburg...

, Toler showed a very early interest in the theater, acting in an amateur production of Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer
Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Tom Sawyer Abroad , and Tom Sawyer, Detective .Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom...

at the age of seven. Following his graduation from college, he became a professional actor in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, and then worked for a touring company during the late 1890s. For three decades, he acted on the stage in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, working with such future stars as Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...

, John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...

, Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...

, and Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....

. In 1921, he co-wrote and directed Golden Days, a comedy starring Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...

. Throughout the 1920s, Toler had an active role in co-writing or directing several other plays including The Exile (1923), Bye, Bye, Barbara (1924), and Ritzy (1930, co-written with Viva Tattersall).

In 1929, Toler worked in his first Hollywood film, playing an Englishman in Madame X
Madame X (1929 film)
Madame X is a 1929 drama film directed by Lionel Barrymore, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Ruth Chatterton was nominated for Best Actress for her performance as a fallen woman.-Plot:...

. For nearly ten years, he worked in roles that supported well-known stars in films such as Blonde Venus
Blonde Venus
Blonde Venus is a 1932 is a Pre-Code drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant. The movie was produced and directed for Paramount Pictures by Josef von Sternberg with a screenplay by Jules Furthman and S. K. Lauren adapted from a story by Furthman and von Sternberg. The music score was by W...

(1932), starring Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

, The Phantom President
The Phantom President
The Phantom President is a 1932 film directed by Norman Taurog, and starring George M. Cohan, Claudette Colbert and Jimmy Durante.According to Richard Rodgers, George M. Cohan deeply resented having to work with Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart on the film...

(1932), with George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....

, and Trigger (1934), featuring Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

.

Charlie Chan series

Following the death of Warner Oland
Warner Oland
Warner Oland was a Swedish American actor most remembered for his screen role as the detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:He was born Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality,...

, Twentieth Century-Fox began the search for a new Charlie Chan. Thirty-four actors were tested before the studio decided on Sidney Toler. Twentieth Century-Fox announced its choice on October 18, 1938, and filming began less than a week later on Charlie Chan in Honolulu, which had been originally scripted for Warner Oland and Keye Luke. Toler's portrayal of the Chinese detective in Charlie Chan in Honolulu was very well received. Besides Toler, there was another change in the series. Sen Yung, as Number Two Son Jimmy, replaced Number One Son Lee, who had been played by Keye Luke
Keye Luke
Keye Luke was a Chinese-born American actor. He was the first Chinese-American contract player signed with RKO, Universal and, later, MGM and is generally acknowledged as the leading Asian-American actor of this era of American cinema.-Background:...

. Toler's Chan, rather than merely mimicking the character that Oland had portrayed, had a somewhat sharper edge that was well suited for the rapid changes of the times, both political and cultural. When needed, Charlie Chan now displayed overt sarcasm, usually toward his son Jimmy.

Through four years and eleven films, Toler played Charlie Chan for Twentieth Century-Fox. However, in 1942, following the completion of Castle in the Desert, Fox concluded the series. The wartime collapse of the international film market may have been a factor, but the main reason was that Fox was curtailing virtually all of its low-budget series; Fox's other "B" series (Jane Withers
Jane Withers
Jane Withers is an American actress best known for being one of the most popular child film stars of the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as for her portrayal of "Josephine the Plumber" in a series of TV commercials for Comet cleanser in the 1960s and early 1970s.-Biography:Withers began her career...

, Michael Shayne
Michael Shayne
Michael Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday. It was the title of a series of 12 films starring Lloyd Nolan, a radio series under a variety of names, between 1944 and 1953, and later in 1960-1961, a 32 episode NBC television series...

, The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid refers to a character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in the collection Heart of the West...

) also ended that year. (Only Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

 remained in Fox's "B" unit, until it shut down at the end of 1944.)

Sidney Toler immediately sought the screen rights to the Charlie Chan character from Eleanor Biggers Cole, the widow of Chan's creator, Earl Derr Biggers
Earl Derr Biggers
Earl Derr Biggers was an American novelist and playwright. He is remembered primarily for adaptations of his novels, especially those featuring the Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:...

. He had hoped that Fox would distribute new Charlie Chan films, starring himself, if he could find someone willing to finance the productions. Fox declined, but Toler sold the idea to Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...

, a lower-budget film studio. Phil Krasne, a Hollywood lawyer who invested in film productions, partnered with James Burkett to produce the Monogram Chans.

With the release of Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944), the effects of a more limited budget were somewhat apparent. Production values were no match for those of Fox; Monogram's budgets were typically about 40% of what Fox's had been. In fairness to Monogram, the films did gradually improve, with The Chinese Cat, The Shanghai Cobra, and Dark Alibi often cited as favorites by fans. Cast changes were again made: Sen Yung's Jimmy was replaced by Benson Fong
Benson Fong
Benson Fong was a Chinese American character actor.Born in Sacramento, California, Fong was from a mercantile family...

 as Number Three Son Tommy, and Mantan Moreland
Mantan Moreland
Mantan Moreland was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Moreland began acting by the time he was an adolescent, reportedly running away to join the circus...

 played the ever-present and popular Birmingham Brown, who brought comedy relief (and black audiences) to the series. Monogram's Charlie Chan films boasted tricky screenplays with many surprise culprits and murder devices, and were profitable and successful.

Personal life

Toler's first wife was Vivian Marston, an American actress of Spanish and Canadian ancestry, whom he married in 1907 and who occasionally used the surname Marston-Toler professionally. She died in 1943. The couple had no children.

In 1943, Toler married Viva Tattersall (née Vera Tattersall, 1898-1989), a British-born actress who also co-wrote several plays with Toler, including "Ritzy" (1930) and "Dress Parade" (1929). Their marriage lasted until Toler's death in 1947. The couple had no children.

Later years and death

By the end of 1946, age and illness were affecting Sidney Toler. Diagnosed with cancer, the 72-year-old Toler was so ill during the filming of Dangerous Money (1946) and Shadows over Chinatown (1946, released 1947) that he could hardly walk. Monogram hired Toler's original foil, "Number Two Son" Victor Sen Young, for Toler's last two films, quite probably to ease the burden on Toler. Toler mustered enough strength to complete his last film, The Trap, in August 1946. (Young and Moreland relieve Toler of much of the action in The Trap). Toler's Monogram output matched his Fox output: 11 films for each studio.

Sidney Toler died on February 12, 1947, in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 from intestinal cancer. Monogram continued the series with actor Roland Winters
Roland Winters
Roland Winters was an American actor who portrayed Charlie Chan in six films.-Biography: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...

.

Selected filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1929 Madame X
Madame X (1929 film)
Madame X is a 1929 drama film directed by Lionel Barrymore, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Ruth Chatterton was nominated for Best Actress for her performance as a fallen woman.-Plot:...

Dr. Merivel Alternative title: Absinthe
1930 The Devil's Parade Satan
1931 Strictly Dishonorable
Strictly Dishonorable (1931 film)
Strictly Dishonorable is a 1931 romantic comedy film directed by John M. Stahl, starring Paul Lukas, Sidney Fox and Lewis Stone, and featuring George Meeker and Sidney Toler. It was written by Gladys Lehman and based on Preston Sturges' 1929 hit Broadway play of the same name...

Patrolman Mulligan
1932 Blondie of the Follies
Blondie of the Follies
Blondie of the Follies is a 1932 comedy film directed by Edmund Goulding and written by Anita Loos and Frances Marion.-Cast :*Marion Davies as Blondie McClune*Robert Montgomery as Larry Belmont...

Pete
Blonde Venus
Blonde Venus
Blonde Venus is a 1932 is a Pre-Code drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant. The movie was produced and directed for Paramount Pictures by Josef von Sternberg with a screenplay by Jules Furthman and S. K. Lauren adapted from a story by Furthman and von Sternberg. The music score was by W...

Det. Wilson
The Phantom President
The Phantom President
The Phantom President is a 1932 film directed by Norman Taurog, and starring George M. Cohan, Claudette Colbert and Jimmy Durante.According to Richard Rodgers, George M. Cohan deeply resented having to work with Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart on the film...

Professor Aikenhead
1933 The Narrow Corner Ryan, the Go-Between
1934 Spitfire
Spitfire (1934 film)
Spitfire is a 1934 drama film based on the play Trigger by Lula Vollmer. It was directed by John Cromwell and starred Katharine Hepburn, Robert Young and Ralph Bellamy.-Plot summary:...

Mr. Jim Sawyer
The Trumpet Blows
The Trumpet Blows
The Trumpet Blows is a film directed by Stephen Roberts, featuring George Raft as a Mexican matador, Adolphe Menjou as a retired bandito clearly based on Pancho Villa, and Frances Drake as Chulita, the woman they both want to marry....

Pepi Sancho
Upper World
Upper World (film)
Upper World is a 1934 drama film starring Warren William as a married railroad tycoon whose friendship with a showgirl, played by Ginger Rogers, leads to blackmail and murder.-Cast:*Warren William as Alexander Stream*Mary Astor as Mrs. Hettie Stream...

Officer Moran
1935 Romance in Manhattan
Romance in Manhattan
Romance in Manhattan is an American comedy/romance film directed by Stephen Roberts, starring Francis Lederer and Ginger Rogers, and released by RKO Radio Pictures.- Plot :...

Police Sergeant
The Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild (1935 film)
The Call of the Wild is a 1935 American adventure film adaptation of Jack London's novel of the same name. A prospector heading for the Alaska gold rush rescues a sled dog from its cruel master. Stars Clark Gable and Loretta Young had an affair during the film's production, resulting in Young's...

Joe Groggins
1936 Three Godfathers
Three Godfathers (1936 film)
Three Godfathers is a 1936 western film, adapted from the novel of the same name by Peter B. Kyne. Three bank robbers find a newborn baby and his dying mother in the desert...

Prof. Amos Snape
The Gorgeous Hussy
The Gorgeous Hussy
The Gorgeous Hussy is a 1936 film directed by Clarence Brown, and starring Joan Crawford and Robert Taylor. The film's plot tells a fictionalized account of President of the United States Andrew Jackson and an innkeeper's daughter...

Daniel Webster
Our Relations
Our Relations
Our Relations is a 1936 feature film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, produced by Laurel for Hal Roach Studios.-Plot:Laurel and Hardy star as both their famous Stan and Ollie characters and as Stan and Ollie's twin brothers Bert and Alf...

Captain of SS Periwinkle
1937 That Certain Woman
That Certain Woman
That Certain Woman is a 1937 American drama film written and directed by Edmund Goulding. It is a remake of Goulding's 1929 film The Tresspasser, Gloria Swanson's first sound film.-Synopsis:...

Detective Lieutenant Neely
Double Wedding
Double Wedding
Double Wedding is a 1937 romantic comedy film. A bohemian free spirit helps meek Waldo win back his fiancée and falls in love with her over-controlling sister in the process....

Mr. Keough
1938 Gold Is Where You Find It
Gold Is Where You Find It
"Gold is Where You Find It" is a Technicolor feature film, released on February 12, 1938 by Warner Brothers. It has a running time of 91 minutes.-Cast & Credits:* Director: Michael Curtiz* Producers: Jack L. Warner, Hal B...

Harrison McCooey
The Mysterious Rider
The Mysterious Rider
The Mysterious Rider is a 1938 American film directed by Lesley Selander.The film is also known as Mark of the Avenger.- Cast :*Douglass Dumbrille as Pecos Bill / Ben Wade *Sidney Toler as Frosty Kilburn...

Frosty Kilburn
If I Were King
If I Were King
If I Were King is a 1938 American biographical historical drama film starring Ronald Colman as medieval poet François Villon, and featuring Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee...

Robin Turgis
Up the River
Up the River (1938 film)
Up the River is a 1938 prison comedy film starring Preston Foster and Arthur Treacher and featuring Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. The movie was directed by Alfred L. Werker and is a remake of a 1930 film with the same title directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart in the...

Jeffrey Mitchell
Charlie Chan in Honolulu
Charlie Chan in Honolulu
Charlie Chan in Honolulu is a 1938 American film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, starring Sidney Toler as the fictional Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan...

Charlie Chan
1939 Disbarred
Disbarred (1939 film)
Disbarred is a 1939 film about a crooked lawyer starring Gail Patrick and Robert Preston. The supporting cast includes Otto Kruger and Sidney Toler. The movie was directed by film noir specialist Robert Florey....

G.L. "Hardy" Mardsen
Charlie Chan in City in Darkness
Charlie Chan in City in Darkness
Charlie Chan in City in Darkness, also titled City in Darkness, is a 1939 mystery film starring Sidney Toler in his fourth performance as detective Charlie Chan.-Cast:*Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan*Lynn Bari as Marie Dubon...

Charlie Chan
1940 Charlie Chan in Panama
Charlie Chan in Panama
-Cast:*Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan*Jean Rogers as Kathi Lenesch*Lionel Atwill as Cliveden Compton*Mary Nash as Miss Jennie Finch*Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan *Kane Richmond as Richard Cabot*Chris-Pin Martin as Sergeant Montero...

Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise
Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise
Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise is a 1940 murder mystery film starring Sidney Toler in his fifth of many performances as Charlie Chan. It is a remake of the 1931 lost film Charlie Chan Carries On, which is also the title of the Earl Derr Biggers novel on which both movies are based.-Cast:*Sidney Toler...

Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum
Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum
Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum is a 1940 mystery film starring Sidney Toler as detective Charlie Chan.-Cast:*Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan*Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan *C. Henry Gordon as Dr. Cream*Marc Lawrence as Steve McBirney...

Charlie Chan
Murder Over New York Charlie Chan
1941 Charlie Chan in Rio
Charlie Chan in Rio
Charlie Chan in Rio is a 1941 film featuring the Asian detective Charlie Chan. It was the tenth film to feature Sidney Toler as the title character, who is called upon to investigate the death of a suspected murderer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.- Plot :...

Charlie Chan
1942 Castle in the Desert Charlie Chan
1943 A Night to Remember
A Night to Remember (1943 film)
A Night to Remember is a mystery comedy film starring Loretta Young and Brian Aherne. It was directed by Richard Wallace, and is based on the novel The Frightened Stiff by Kelley Roos...

Inspector Hankins
1944 Charlie Chan in the Secret Service Charlie Chan
The Chinese Cat Charlie Chan
Black Magic Charlie Chan
1945 It's in the Bag!
It's in the Bag!
It's in the Bag! is a 1945 comedy film featuring Fred Allen in his only starring film role. The film was released by United Artists at a time when Allen was at the peak of his fame as one of the most popular radio comedians.-Characters and story:...

Detective Sully Alternative title: The Fifth Chair
The Shanghai Cobra Charlie Chan
The Red Dragon
The Red Dragon
The Red Dragon is a 1946 mystery film starring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan, who has to sift through a host of suspects for three murders.-Cast:*Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan*Fortunio Bonanova as Insp...

Charlie Chan
The Scarlet Clue
The Scarlet Clue
The Scarlet Clue is a 1945 American film directed by Phil Rosen.The film is also known as Charlie Chan in the Scarlet Clue and Charlie Chan: The Scarlet Clue in Australia...

Charlie Chan
1946 Dark Alibi
Dark Alibi
Dark Alibi is a 1946 American film directed by Phil Karlson featuring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan.- Plot :Charlie Chan works with a public defender to clear a man wrongly convicted and scheduled for execution.- Cast :* Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan...

Charlie Chan
Shadows Over Chinatown Charlie Chan
The Trap
The Trap (1946 film)
Charlie Chan In the Trap is a 1946 crime film directed by Howard Bretherton. The main premise is two members of a show troupe are murdered, and Charlie Chan is called in to solve the case.This was Sidney Toler's final film and his final one as Charlie Chan...

Charlie Chan

External links

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