Charlie Chan

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Charlie Chan was created by novelist Earl Derr Biggers and introduced in the novel The House Without a Key. The character was intended as an alternative to more negative portrayals of Asian characters such as Fu Manchu. There were only five Chan books published, the last the year before Biggers’ death.

However, the character really took off in film. After two silent films in which Chan was a supporting character, he became the leading character in a series of dozens of films that were released between 1931 and 1949, featuring Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, and Roland Winters. The character would also enjoy success in comic books and comic strips, and there was also a series of radio programs. There were two series starring Walter Connolly as Chan, one from 1932-1933, and a later syndicated serial in the mid-1940s. Ed Begley starred as Chan from 1944-45. From 1947-48, a new series starring Chan was broadcast over ABC, starring Santos Ortega as Chan. Chan’s popularity led to an Australian radio series starring Rodney Jacobs as Chan.

The character continued to recur every few years in the second half of the twentieth century, with a live-action TV series starring J. Carrol Naish as Chan, a TV movie starring Ross Martin as Chan, and a 1981 film featuring Peter Ustinov in the role. Keye Luke, who played Chan’s number 1 son in the film, became the first Asian actor to voice the character in the animated Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. In addition,Chan featured in several stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in the 1970s, and there have been two recent Chan novels published in the 2020s. Given that the earliest Chan novels entered the public domain in 2021, there could be more stories featuring this iconic detective.

About our stars:

Walter Connolly

 

Walter Connolly (1887-1940): Connolly was a well-regarded stage actor who found a home in pictures in the last seven years of his life. Connolly seemed born to play the role of frustrated authority figures and fathers. Throughout the mid-1930s, he was cast in many such roles, most notably in one of the most beloved films of all-time, It Happened One Night. In the film, he played the father of Claudette Colbert’s character. In addition to these sort of stock roles, Connolly also landed some lead roles, playing the titular role in Father Brown, Detective and also playing Nero Wolfe in The League of Frightened. He starred in two separate Charlie Chan radio series, a half-hour series in the early 1940s and a serialized series in the mid-to-late 1930s.

 

Ed Begley (1901-1970): Begley, a World War I US Navy veteran, began his career on Broadway as a teenager. He established himself as a character actor on radio and he was well-known as being key to six or seven crime series at the same time. He played police foils on radio series like The Fat Man and Richard Diamond and was cast as Charlie Chan in the 1944 summer replacement. Television and film would come calling. It was towards the tail end of his career that he’d give some of his most notable performances. He played Juror #10 in Twelve Angry Men. He won a Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actor in a Play for his work in Inherit the Wind in 1956, and in 1962 he was awarded a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in Sweet Bird of Youth. 

William Rees (1905-1961): Rees was a noted Australian stage actor, director, and producer who also worked in the United States in plays on the stage, as well as in Hollywood.

Episode Log:

Walter Connolly Episodes:

The Landini Murder Case (1935 or 1936):

The Willoughby Murder Case (1936):

Ed Begley Episodes:

Australian Episodes:

Ed Begley Episodes:

End of Log