Roland Varno

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roland Varno (born March 15, 1908 in Utrecht as Jacob Frederik Vuerhard , † May 24, 1996 in Lancaster , California ) was a Dutch actor. During his film career, he appeared in his home country, Germany and the United States .

life and career

Roland Varno grew up in Java , part of what was then the Dutch colonial empire in Southeast Asia , before he returned to his homeland and gained his first professional experience as a draftsman for the newspaper Het Vaderland . At the age of 20 he left his homeland to try his luck as an actor in Germany. In the same year 1928 he made his cinema debut in the silent film The First Kiss at Anny Ondra's Side . Several films followed in Germany in which Varno mostly portrayed problematic young people. In 1930 he was seen in Der Blaue Engel as a cheeky high school student Lohmann at the side of Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich . He was also at the time for the lead role in Nothing New in the West , but Varno's ship to the United States stalled in the Atlantic so that the role went to Lew Ayres . Nevertheless, he was to shoot regularly in the United States from 1932. He had one of his early roles there with Greta Garbo in How You Wish Me . In the mid-1930s, Varno made a few films in the Netherlands before returning to Hollywood. Here, however, many of his film roles were of a rather minor nature, only in B-movies like Mystery Sea Raider or Three Faces West he played notable supporting roles.

During World War II , Varno, who was fluent in several languages, worked for the Office of Strategic Services . At the same time he played smaller and larger roles, often as a National Socialist, in propaganda films against the Nazis. His Hollywood career reached a small peak in the mid-1940s when he was entrusted with hero roles in films like My Name Is Julia Ross . In the Bela-Lugosi -Horrorfilmen The Return of the Vampire and Scared to Death Varno also assumed greater responsibilities. By the end of the 1940s, however, Varno's film roles were getting smaller again. From the 1950s onwards, he also shot for television, and he also worked frequently for radio plays. He had his last film role in 1957 alongside Errol Flynn in the Istanbul crime strip (1957), his last television role in 1959 in 77 Sunset Strip .

In later years he worked, among other things, at English-language theaters in Mexico . Roland Varno had two children from a divorced marriage, including the screenwriter Martin Varno (1936-2014). Roland Varno died in Lancaster, California in 1996 at the age of 88.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Varno on eyefilm.nl
  2. ↑ Roland Varno at Allmovie
  3. ↑ Roland Varno at Allmovie
  4. ↑ Martin Varno at the Internet Movie Database
personal data
SURNAME Varno, Roland
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vuerhard, Jacob Frederik (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Utrecht
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1996
Place of death Lancaster , California