26 Facts About Tyrus Wong

Tyrus Wong was a painter, animator, calligrapher, muralist, ceramicist, lithographer and kite maker, as well as a set designer and storyboard artist.

One of the most-influential and celebrated Asian-American artists of the 20th century, Wong was a film production illustrator, who worked for Disney and Warner Brothers.

Tyrus Wong was a muralist for the Works Progress Administration, as well as a greeting card artist for Hallmark Cards.

Tyrus Wong served in the art department of many films, either as a set designer or storyboard artist, such as Rebel Without a Cause, Around the World in 80 Days, Rio Bravo, The Music Man, PT 109, The Great Race, The Green Berets, and The Wild Bunch, among others.

Tyrus Wong retired from the film industry in the late 1960s, but continued his work as an artist, spending most of his time designing kites.

Tyrus Wong continued to paint, sketch, and design ceramics well into his 90s.

Tyrus Wong was the subject of the 2015 documentary film, Tyrus, by filmmaker Pamela Tom.

On October 25,1910, Tyrus Wong was born as Tyrus Wong Gen Yeo, in Toisan, Kwangtung, China.

Tyrus Wong was initially held at the Angel Island Immigration Station, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Tyrus Wong did not gain American citizenship until 1946, after the repeal of the Exclusion Act.

Tyrus Wong's art was encouraged by his father who had him practice calligraphy every night, since they could not afford to give him an art education.

Tyrus Wong decided to leave junior high for a full-time scholarship at Otis.

Tyrus Wong's father survived on a more modest income, and Tyrus Wong worked as a janitor at Otis College.

Tyrus Wong graduated from Otis in 1930 and began working in Hollywood.

Tyrus Wong's career ranged from working as a Hallmark greeting card designer, to being a Warner Bros.

Shortly after finishing Bambi, Tyrus Wong was fired from Disney studios as a consequence of the Disney animators' strike.

Tyrus Wong spent his Saturdays flying his creations on the beach just north of the Santa Monica Pier.

Tyrus Wong told an interviewer that he was a "lucky artist".

In 2001, Tyrus Wong was given a History makers Award by the Chinese American Museum and was inducted as a Disney Legend.

In 2005, Tyrus Wong received the Winsor McCay Award at the 33rd Annual Annie Awards.

The first solo exhibition of Wong's artwork, "Mid-Century Mandarin: The Clay Canvasses of Tyrus Wong," curated by Bill Stern, was organized by the Museum of California Design.

Tyrus Wong is one of the founders of the otherwise all Black artists collective Eleven Associated Artists.

Tyrus Wong met Ruth Ng Kim, a second-generation Chinese American from a farming family in Bakersfield, California, at Dragon's Den Restaurant in Los Angeles Chinatown, CA, where she was a waitress.

Tyrus Wong is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

In 2015, filmmaker Pamela Tom wrote and directed a film about Tyrus Wong's life, entitled Tyrus.

On Feb 1,2017, Tyrus Wong was honored by Congressman Adam Schiff with a remembrance on the floor of the 115th United States Congress with Schiff's remarks read into the Congressional Record.