ACTOR · BORN 1929
James Hong
- Born
- 22 February 1929
18 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (18)
- #001
James Hong says his breakthrough came from appearing on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life (1950), where he did impressions of Groucho, James Cagney and others; this led to a flood of fan mail and landed him a manager.
- #002
James Hong auditioned unsuccessfully for the role of Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek (1966), which went to George Takei. Twenty years later, his and Takei's characters faced off in The Wish Child (1986).
- #003
James Hong appeared in four films selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant": Flower Drum Song (1961), Chinatown (1974), Airplane! (1980) and Blade Runner (1982).
- #004
James Hong received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6931 Hollywood Blvd on 5/10/2022. Jamie Lee Curtis and Daniel Dae Kim were guest speakers at the ceremony, and his star sits in front of Madame Tussauds. As of 2022, the 93-year-old Hong was the oldest recipient of the honor and is in fact 31 years older than the Hollywood Walk of Fame itself.
- #005
James Hong appeared in five films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), The Sand Pebbles (1966), Chinatown (1974), Bound for Glory (1976) and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). The last of these won in the category.
- #006
A CNN online feature published about him in August 2020 declared that he has more than 600 acting credits, stating, "He's probably been in more movies than any actor in history."
- #007
James Hong was one of the first seven founding members of East West Players, an Asian American theater company founded in Los Angeles in 1965 and still active today. Alongside Hong, the founders included Mako (Artistic Director for the first 23 years), June Kyoto Lu (as June Kim), Guy Lee, Pat Li, Yet Lock and Beulah Quo.
- #008
James Hong arrived in Los Angeles, California in the summer of 1953 with his comedy partner Don Parker (Hong & Parker), but the pair could not get any gigs.
- #009
James Hong appeared in two unrelated films both titled "China Girl": China Girl (1974) and China Girl (1987).
- #010
James Hong is the father of three daughters, including Alice Hong and April Hong.
- #011
James Hong was called up to the United States Army in 1950, at the start of the Korean War. While in the Minnesota Army National Guard, he took part in training with Special Services at Fort McClellan and Camp Rucker (renamed Fort Novosel) in Alabama for 18 months between 1952 and 1953, after which he was to entertain the troops once his training was complete. He was not deployed overseas.
- #012
James Hong founded and served as president of the Asian Pacific American Actors Association to support Asian American actors.
- #013
His father, Frank Wu Hong, emigrated from Hong Kong to Chicago, Illinois via Canada and later moved to Minneapolis, where he owned a restaurant and became the leader of the local Hip Sing Tong.
- #014
James Hong earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California (USC) and worked as a road engineer in the Los Angeles area for 1½ years.
- #015
His father had an herbal medicine shop in Chinatown and his mother was a homemaker who looked after Hong, his brother and his five sisters; the family lived above the store. Young James became interested in the performing arts after watching Peking opera performers rehearse in his father's shop.
- #016
In The Case of the Weary Watchdog (1962) (original air date 11/29/62), James Hong played a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. Twenty-nine years later, in The Chinese Restaurant (1991) (original air date 23.05.91), he had risen to maître d' — presumably the owner — of a Chinese restaurant. Fifteen years after that, in an episode of The King of Queens (1998) (original air date 2/6/06), he had risen to owner of a Chinese restaurant in New York.
- #017
James Hong, his wife Susan and his daughter April join cyclists Mark Schulze and Patty Mooney, who ride mountain bikes to cycle around Hollywood, in "Full Cycle: A World Odyssey."
- #018
In 2016, James Hong was invited to join the Actors Branch of AMPAS.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work