- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJacob Frederik Vuerhard
- Height5′ 11½″ (1.82 m)
- Roland Varno's daughter is Jill Taggart. His sister, Anneke, was for many years the Dear Abby of Holland. Roland spent his younger years on the island of Java, moved back to Holland as a teenager, went to Berlin in the late 1920s where he was featured in Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) with Marlene Dietrich and came to the U.S. in 1930 to shoot "All Quiet on the Western Front." His ship was stalled in the Atlantic so the role went instead to Lew Ayers, who became both a major star and Roland's best friend. He joined the OSS and learned Japanese during WWII and, because he was also fluent in German he used his talents at home making propaganda war films. He played everything from a spy to a freedom-fighter.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jill Taggart, his daughter
- SpouseElizabeth Tyree(1932 - ?) (divorced, 2 children)
- Father of Martin Varno.
- Varno was the youngest member of the royal Dutch theater at that time. After he graduated from college in Leyden, he traveled and continued to study dramatics.
- Varno worked in vaudeville, performing and designing scenery.
- After his retirement, he moved to Mexico, where he directed in the English-language theater of Ajijic, among others.
- He briefly returned to the Netherlands from the United States for the shooting of the film Malle gevallen (1934) in which he plays a supporting role as a student, and Het meisje met den blauwen hoed (1934), in which he plays a leading role. Earlier, he had the lead role in the Dutch feature film De sensatie der toekomst (1931), which was shot at the Paramount studio in Paris.
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