Victor Wong (actor, born 1927)


Yee Keung Victor Wong was an American actor, artist, and journalist. A fourth-generation Chinese-American, he appeared in numerous supporting roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He is widely known for his role as Chinese sorcerer Egg Shen in John Carpenter's 1986 cult film Big Trouble in Little China, and royal adviser Chen Bao Shen in the Best Picture-winning historical epic The Last Emperor.

Early life and education

Wong was born in San Francisco and lived in Chinatown near the Stockton Street Tunnel to Chinese parents. His father, Sare King Wong, was born and raised in Guangdong province, and later moved to Shanghai as a news journalist. His mother was a devout Christian who took the family to the First Chinese Baptist Church every week. Wong was the eldest of five; his siblings were Sara Wong Lum, Zeppelin Wong, Shirley Wong Frentzel, and Betty Wong Brown. He was fluent with both English and Cantonese, which helped lead his acting career to Hong Kong.
Wong and his family moved to Courtland, California when he was two years old after his father took a job as teacher and principal at a school for the children of local Chinese laborers. The family would move back to Chinatown within three years and his father would be active in local politics. He would live in Sacramento, California for much of his adult life.
Wong studied political science and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley and Theology at the University of Chicago under Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Buber. In Chicago, Wong joined The Second City comedy troupe and stayed with Langston Hughes. Wong returned to San Francisco for the summer, taking part in a theatre production and never returning to Chicago; he resumed his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute under Mark Rothko, earning a master's degree in 1962.

Acting career

Although he had acted in and staged productions with his first wife, Olive, who he had met after his return from Chicago, Wong was inspired by the assassination of John F. Kennedy to pursue a career in journalism, landing an on-air role for KQED's Newsroom from 1968 until 1974, when he was stricken with Bell's palsy. During his tenure on Newsroom, Wong is credited with inventing the photojournalistic essay, covering stories with his still camera and returning to narrate them in the studio. The palsy would give him his later distinctive appearance, but at the time, he felt his roles had diminished because he wasn't "pretty looking".
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After his news career ended, Wong turned to acting, starting in the local Asian American theatre and later landing larger roles on the stages of New York City. In October 1980, Wong made his Asian American Theater Company debut in San Francisco by appearing in their production of Paper Angels by Genny Lim. He was on Social Security Disability Insurance at the time due to his palsy. In New York, he acted in the plays Family Devotions and Sound and Beauty, written by David Henry Hwang.
His stage work led to television work and eventually, into movies; his film debut was in 1984's ', directed by Wayne Wang. In between film roles, Wong lived in Sacramento, California, where he supported the local performing arts. In 1992, he acted in the Hong Kong film, Cageman. He later starred as the grandfather, Mori Tanaka, in the popular 3 Ninjas franchise, and the cult-classics, Big Trouble in Little China and Tremors.
Film director Wayne Wang called Victor Wong his role model for living life.
Director Bernardo Bertolucci had trouble with Wong on the set of The Last Emperor amid arguments over historical authenticity and cut most of Wong's scenes in the film, which won the Best Picture Oscar for 1987.
He retired from acting in 1998 after suffering two strokes. Wong returned to art, and held a solo exhibition at the B. Sakata Garo gallery in Sacramento.

Association with the Beat Generation

In the 1950s, while studying art under Mark Rothko, Victor Wong had his first art exhibition at the City Lights Bookstore. During this time, Wong befriended Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He illustrated Oranges, Dick McBride's first collection of poetry, which was handset and printed at the Bread and Wine Mission in 1960. He met Jack Kerouac in the early 1960s, who chronicled their meeting in his novel Big Sur. In the novel, Wong is characterised as "Arthur Ma".

Personal life

Wong was married four times: to Olive Thurman Wong, Carol Freeland, Robin Goodfellow, and Dawn Rose. He had two daughters, Emily and Heather, and three sons, Anton, Lyon, and Duncan. His children Emily and Anton were from his first marriage to Olive Thurman. His son, Lyon Wong, died in 1986 after being attacked by a young man while walking home in Sacramento. Wong was asked to film the prologue scene for Big Trouble in Little China shortly after Lyon's wake; after shooting the scene, Wong suffered his first stroke.
Upon learning of the events of September 11, 2001, Wong and his wife Rose spent the day trying to get news of Wong's sons, who lived in New York City. After Rose went to sleep, Wong stayed up to continue following the news; he died of a heart attack at some point during the morning of September 12, at the age of 74.

Filmography