Orientals
by karljhickey14 | created - 01 Jul 2015 | updated - 09 May 2016 | PublicActors of Asian origin , who played Chinese / Japanese / Koreans etc etc indiscriminately from the 30s to 80s , on film and TV .
1. Anna May Wong
Actress | The Toll of the Sea
Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, was born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California, to laundryman Wong Sam Sing and his wife, Lee Gon Toy. A third-generation American, she managed to have a substantial acting career during a deeply racist time when the ...
2. Keye Luke
Actor | Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Keye Luke was born in Canton, China. He grew up in Seattle, Washington, and entered the film business as a commercial artist and a designer of movie posters. He was hired as a technical advisor on several Asian-themed films, and made his film debut in The Painted Veil (1934). It seemed that he ...
Number one son in Charlie Chan series
3. Victor Sen Yung
Actor | Across the Pacific
Achieving both film and TV notice during his lengthy career, this diminutive Asian-American character was born Victor Cheung Young on October 18, 1915 in San Francisco to Chinese emigrants. When his mother died during the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, his father placed Victor and his sister in a ...
Number two son
4. Benson Fong
Actor | The Keys of the Kingdom
Benson Fong was born on October 10, 1916 in Sacramento, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Shanghai Cobra (1945) and The Scarlet Clue (1945). He was married to Maylia. He died on August 1, 1987 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Number three son
5. Edwin Luke
Actor | The Jade Mask
Born in Seattle, Washington to a Chinese-American family, Edwin Luke grew up in Seattle and graduated with a B.A. in journalism from the University of Washington. He aspired to be a reporter and writer. He joined the Hollywood Reporter as a printer and linotyper in the 1940s - the first Chinese ...
6. Richard Loo
Actor | The Man with the Golden Gun
One of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s, Richard Loo was most often stereotyped as the Japanese enemy flier, spy or interrogator during the Second World War. Chinese by ancestry and Hawaiian by birth, Loo spent his youth in Hawaii, then moved to ...
7. James Shigeta
Actor | Die Hard
Hawaiian-born James Shigeta was, for a time, the biggest East Asian U.S. star the country had known for decades. His up-and-down career reflected the country's changing interest in films with East Asian themes, but, when called upon, he filled both A-movie starring roles and minor T.V. guest ...
8. Philip Ahn
Actor | Impact
Korean-American character actor Philip Ahn played hundreds of Chinese and Japanese characters during a long career. He was born in Los Angeles in 1905 (though 1911 is the year usually given, U.S. government records confirm that Ahn was born in 1905), the son of a Korean diplomat. He attended the ...
9. Ralph Ahn
Actor | Eyes of an Angel
Ralph Ahn was born on September 28, 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Eyes of an Angel (1991), New Girl (2011) and Suddenly Susan (1996). He died on February 26, 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
10. Willie Fung
Actor | The Gay Falcon
Willie Fung was born on March 3, 1896 in Canton, China. He was an actor, known for The Gay Falcon (1941), The Great Profile (1940) and Shanghai (1935). He died on April 16, 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
11. Paul Fung
Actor | Samurai
Paul Fung was born on November 18, 1903 in Canton, China. He was an actor, known for Samurai (1945), Shadow of Chinatown (1936) and Bombs Over Burma (1942). He died on April 22, 1985 in El Cerrito, California, USA.
12. Al Kikume
Actor | The Mad Doctor of Market Street
Al Kikume was born on October 9, 1894 in Kaimuki District, Honolulu, Hawaii [now Hawaii, USA]. He was an actor, known for The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942), Mandrake, the Magician (1939) and The Hurricane (1937). He was married to Virgil Smith. He died on March 27, 1972 in Los Angeles, ...
Hawaiian actor , played Japanese , Chinese , Maori , Sikh , Indian , American Indian , and even Hawaiian characters.
13. James Hong
Actor | Everything Everywhere All at Once
James Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He studied civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, but at some point along the way became interested in acting. He graduated from the University of Southern California and practiced for 1½ years as a road engineer with the County of Los ...
14. Tetsu Komai
Actor | Island of Lost Souls
Tetsu Komai was born on April 23, 1894 in Kumamoto, Japan. He was an actor, known for Island of Lost Souls (1932), Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) and The Secrets of Wu Sin (1932). He died on August 10, 1970 in Gardena, California, USA.
15. Sessue Hayakawa
Actor | The Bridge on the River Kwai
Sessue Hayakawa was born in Chiba, Japan. His father was the provincial governor and his mother a member of an aristocratic family of the "samurai" class. The young Hayakawa wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a career officer in the Japanese navy, but he was turned down due to ...
16. Miki Morita
Actor | North of Nome
Miki Morita was born on October 1, 1896 in Ueda City, Nagano, Japan. He was an actor, known for North of Nome (1936), The Walking Dead (1936) and Nagana (1933). He died on December 3, 1985 in Fresno, California, USA.
17. Pat Morita
Actor | The Karate Kid
Abundantly busy and much-loved Asian-American actor who became an on-screen hero to millions of adults and kids alike as the wise and wonderful Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid (1984), the sparkling Noriyuki Morita was back again dishing out Eastern philosophy and martial arts lessons for The Karate ...
18. Lotus Long
Actress | Tokyo Rose
Lotus Long's father was Japanese and her mother was an ethnic Hawaiian. The family came to California in the 1920s and, because of her exotic beauty, Lotus didn't find it difficult to get into the movies and portrayed a succession of various Asian women. She took the stage name "Lotus Long", and ...
19. Teru Shimada
Actor | You Only Live Twice
Teru Shimada was born on November 17, 1906 in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan. He was an actor, known for You Only Live Twice (1967), Tokyo Joe (1949) and Battle of the Coral Sea (1959). He died on June 19, 1988 in Encino, California, USA.
20. Wilfred Hari
Actor | Enter Madame!
Wilfred Hari was born on September 3, 1909 in Kauai, Hawaii, USA. He is an actor, known for Enter Madame! (1934).
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