James Hong is an American actor, producer and director.
52 Facts About James Hong
2.
James Hong has worked in numerous productions in US media since the 1950s, portraying a variety of roles.
3.
James Hong is known as one of the most prolific character actors of all time.
4.
James Hong guest starred in numerous sitcoms including his memorable role as Bruce in the Seinfeld episode "The Chinese Restaurant".
5.
James Hong has appeared in numerous films, in both comedic and dramatic roles.
6.
James Hong gained newfound prominence and acclaim for his role as the elderly grandfather, Gong Gong, in the Academy Award winning science fiction absurdist comedy film Everything Everywhere All at Once for which he earned a Screen Actors Guild Award.
7.
James Hong was born on February 22,1929, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Chinese emigrant parents Ng Fok James Hong and Lee Suey Far.
8.
James Hong's father emigrated from Hong Kong to Chicago, Illinois, via Canada, and later moved to Minneapolis where he owned a restaurant and was leader of the local Hip Sing Tong.
9.
James Hong first developed an interest in performing arts after watching Peking opera performers rehearse at his father's shop.
10.
James Hong studied civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he concentrated the majority of his free time on moving plates and fixing templates for the drill squad.
11.
However, his studies were soon interrupted as the Korean War began in early 1950s, and James Hong was drafted into the United States Army.
12.
James Hong soon began working full time as a road engineer for Los Angeles County during the day, while acting in the evenings, the weekends, and during his vacation and sick days.
13.
James Hong eventually quit engineering for good, after five and a half years, to devote himself to acting and voice work full-time.
14.
James Hong served in the United States Army at Fort McClellan and Camp Rucker in Alabama with the Special Services for 18 months from 1952 to 1953.
15.
In February 1954, James Hong appeared on the radio and television game show You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx.
16.
In 1956, James Hong was cast as Jimmy Ling in the episode "Red Tentacles" of the Western aviation adventure series Sky King, starring Kirby Grant.
17.
James Hong guest-starred in the NBC Western series The Californians.
18.
James Hong described Naish as a very prejudiced person and how Naish's actions were very hurtful to him.
19.
James Hong was thereafter cast as Chung Lind in the 1960 episode "East of Danger" in the David Janssen NBC crime drama series Richard Diamond, Private Detective.
20.
On September 23,1963, James Hong hit the prime time slot playing spy Wen Lee in, "The Hundred Days of the Dragon", the second episode of ABC's "The Outer Limits" first season.
21.
That year James Hong played Louis Kew in "The Case of the Floating Stones".
22.
James Hong appeared three times on the NBC military sitcom Ensign O'Toole.
23.
In 1965, James Hong was one of the original founding members of the East West Players, an early Asian American theatre organization.
24.
James Hong appeared in several episodes of the original Hawaii Five-O.
25.
James Hong had a small part on a 1972 episode of CBS's The Bob Newhart Show.
26.
James Hong then appeared as a host in a Chinese restaurant in the 1975 All In the Family episode "Edith Breaks Out".
27.
James Hong appeared as a doctor accused of performing an illegal abortion in the Blake Edwards movie The Carey Treatment in 1972.
28.
James Hong played immortal ghost sorcerer Lo Pan in John Carpenter's cult classic Big Trouble in Little China, eye manufacturer Chew in Blade Runner, Evelyn Mulwray's loyal and vigilant butler in Chinatown and The Two Jakes, and a low-rent private eye in Black Widow.
29.
James Hong portrayed Chow Ting, a dry cleaner with the power to wash sins and guilt from a person's conscience in the 1985 Tales from the Darkside episode "It All Comes Out in the Wash".
30.
James Hong then appeared in a memorable role as Bruce, the host in a Chinese restaurant in Seinfeld episode "The Chinese Restaurant".
31.
James Hong played Jeff Wong, Cassandra Wong's martial arts expert father, in the comedy sequel Wayne's World 2, and was featured as the head of the Scarred Foot society in the pilot for The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
32.
James Hong had a small role in the independent film Broken Vessels.
33.
James Hong played the role of Mr Takato in the movie Chasing Zoey, the final episode of Zoey 101.
34.
James Hong's character taught Michael Barret how to operate a manual transmission, and it was revealed at the end of the episode that he did not exist.
35.
James Hong voiced the character Daolon Wong, an evil wizard in the Jackie Chan Adventures television series, and was the voice of Chi-Fu in Disney's Mulan.
36.
James Hong played a similar role in several episodes of The Big Bang Theory during its first season, as well as in the "Color Blind" episode during the first season of Alias.
37.
James Hong appeared as a villain in a season three episode of The X-Files.
38.
James Hong played Mr Soo on The King of Queens, an Asian restaurant owner again who rents Doug Heffernan and his friends a loft apartment above his store, in the episode "Apartment Complex".
39.
Additionally, James Hong had guest-starred on Friends, playing Hoshi, the former paid assassin and boxing coach for Monica's boyfriend Pete in the episode "The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion".
40.
James Hong made a cameo appearance on the television series Las Vegas as a presumed cheating monk.
41.
James Hong lent his voice to the Cartoon Network animation Chowder as Mung Daal's mentor in the "Won-Ton Bombs" episode.
42.
In 2006, James Hong voiced the character Mayor Tong in Avatar: The Last Airbender in the second season's episode titled "Avatar Day" in addition to his previous role as Monk Tashi in the first-season episode "The Storm" in 2005.
43.
James Hong's voice appeared as Colonel Zhou Peng in the video game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Dr Chang in Def Jam Icon, Ancient Wu in True Crime: Streets of LA, and reprising his role as Chew in the Blade Runner video game.
44.
In 2015, James Hong voiced Azmorigan on Star Wars Rebels as well as the Sugi arms dealer Endente in an unfinished four-part story arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars; the rough animatics of which were posted on the Star Wars website.
45.
James Hong provides the voices for the jeweler NPC Covetous Shen in Diablo III, Master Bruised Paw in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Bucky from the television series Archer, and Uncle Po in Sleeping Dogs.
46.
James Hong appears in the A24 film Everything Everywhere All at Once, which was released on March 25,2022.
47.
James Hong won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture with the film's ensemble.
48.
James Hong attended the 2023 Academy Awards ceremony, where the film garnered 7 Oscars from 11 nominations, wearing a bow tie with googly eyes.
49.
James Hong is set to voice Grandpa Wing in the streaming television series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, currently in pre-production.
50.
James Hong is a Presbyterian; he attended the Westminster Presbyterian Church with his family as a child in Minneapolis.
51.
James Hong received a star as a member of the 2022 class of honorees.
52.
At 93 years of age, James Hong became the oldest person to accept the honor.