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James Hong (born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. Known as one of the most prolific character actors of all time, [1] [2] he has worked in numerous productions in U.S. media since the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1950s.
- James Hong Filmography
James Hong is an American character actor, producer and...
- James Hong (Disambiguation)
James Hong (born 1929) is an American actor. James Hong may...
- Big Trouble in Little China
Big Trouble in Little China (also known as John Carpenter's...
- Fort McClellan
Located in the Choccolocco Foothills of the Appalachian...
- Balls of Fury
Balls of Fury is a 2007 American sports comedy film directed...
- East West Players
Established in 1965 by Mako, Rae Creevey, Beulah Quo,...
- Flower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song is a 1961 American musical film directed by...
- James Hong Filmography
James Hong is an American character actor, producer and director who has appeared in more than 600 films, TV shows and video games. [1] His career began in the 1950s when he redubbed soundtracks of several Asian films.
YearTitleRoleNotes2023Elderly Parallel ParkerVoice, "Old World Harm"2023Elder BelshazzarVoice, Recurring role, 4 episodes2023Grandpa WingVoice, Recurring role, 5 episodes [8]2023Episode: "Make a Splash"Mar 8, 2024 · James Hong’s career spans 7 decades and he has acquired credits of nearly 700 roles in feature films & television, probably the most of any actor. His credits include Big Trouble in Little China, Blade Runner , Chinatown, Wayne’s World 2, and Seinfield.
Aug 17, 2018 · EXCLUSIVE: James Hong who has been acting since the 1950s has been fighting for parity for Asian actors for decades. With the success of Warner Bros.’ Crazy Rich Asians this weekend employing...
- Overview
- Early life and education
- Career
James Hong (born February 22, 1929, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.) is an American actor and director who is one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history, known for his many iconic film and television roles. Throughout a career that has spanned seven decades, Hong has appeared in more than 600 films and TV shows, including Blade Run...
Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Frank Wu Hong and Lee Shui Fa, who were originally from Hong Kong. The family lived in Hong Kong from the time James Hong was 5 years old until he was 10 and then returned to the United States. His father managed the family business, an herb shop in the Chinatown area of downtown Minneapolis, and his mother looked after him and his six siblings. Hong took an interest in acting after watching Peking opera performers rehearse at his father’s shop, and he began performing in junior high- and high-school plays. He faced discrimination from his earliest acting days, often being passed over in favor of white students for major roles. In a 2020 interview with CNN, Hong recalled that his parents did not consider acting to be a viable career choice:
Chinese parents want you to…[pursue] professional jobs rather than be an actor. Being an actor is like the last rung in the ladder of professions. They don’t even call it a profession because it’s shameful to demonstrate your feelings in front of an audience. You were taught to be kind of quiet and to keep to yourself.
Hong’s big break came in 1954 when he delighted the audience of Groucho Marx’s game show You Bet Your Life with impressions of actors James Cagney, Jimmy Stewart, Peter Lorre, and Marx himself. Hong’s first film role came that same year with an uncredited part in the war drama Dragonfly Squadron. He dealt with racism and typecasting throughout much of his career, especially in the earlier years. In 1957 he began appearing in the crime drama TV series The New Adventures of Charlie Chan (1957–58) as Barry Chan, the titular character’s son. The role of Charlie Chan was played by a white actor, J. Carrol Naish, who taped his eyelids in a crude imitation of a Chinese man. As Hong later recalled, Naish, who was openly prejudiced toward him on the set, had Hong fired from the show in 1958.
An outspoken advocate for Asian actors, Hong noted in a 2023 interview with The Guardian that among his hundreds of roles, “I can count on my two hands the roles that I got that were non-cliched. I played a doctor in a couple of series and pictures, and a scientist in the movie Colossus: The Forbin Project.” He took matters into his own hands in 1965, cofounding the East West Players, a theater troupe that gives actors of Asian descent a chance to play roles they are often denied and a platform to showcase their own stories.
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Hong played several bit parts in movies and TV shows set in Asian enclaves, such as the musical Flower Drum Song (1961), the war film The Sand Pebbles (1966), and the police procedural TV series Hawaii Five-O. Such roles constituted a majority of the work available to actors of Asian descent at the time. His career progressed as more roles became open to Asian actors, and he earned a reputation for his wide acting range. He appeared as a butler alongside Jack Nicholson in director Roman Polanski’s neo-noir mystery Chinatown (1974) and its sequel The Two Jakes (1990). He portrayed a designer of synthetic humanoid eyes in the dystopian science-fiction film Blade Runner (1982). One of his most memorable roles was his turn as the immortal sorcerer David Lo Pan in director John Carpenter’s cult classic action-comedy Big Trouble in Little China (1986). In a 2022 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Hong described how he added a touch of empathy and humanity to his portrayal of the villainous sorcerer:
I don’t know about your dreams, but in my dreams, I’m lost—I’m still looking for something. I put that feeling into David Lo Pan. Seeking. Looking. I think you could see in the old man’s eyes that he was lonely. He was looking for something he couldn’t find in the universe, so he came down to Earth.
- Alison Eldridge
James Hong (traditional Chinese: 吳漢章, Wú Hànzhāng; born February 22, 1929) is an American stand-up comedian, character actor, voice artist, and comedian. He is perhaps best known as the voice of Mr. Ping in the Kung Fu Panda franchise.
Nov 23, 2023 · James Hong is the consummate Hollywood character actor, one of the most determined and prolific in the history of film.
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