page_title: James Hong
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: James Hong / Career
caption_attribution_description: James Hong and Dan Fogler at a Balls of Fury panel at Comic-Con 2007.
context_page_description: James Hong is an American actor, voice actor, producer, and director of Chinese descent. He has worked in numerous productions in American media since the 1950s, playing a variety of East Asian roles.
  He became known to audiences through starring in the crime series The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, and through numerous appearances on the original Hawaii Five-O. Hong is known for his roles in various Hollywood films, such as Chinatown, Airplane!, Hannibal Chew in Blade Runner, David Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China, Jeff Wong in Wayne's World 2, Master Hong in Balls of Fury, and Jerry Chen in R.I.P.D. Hong also famously guest starred on the sitcom Seinfeld as a maître d'hôtel in the episode "The Chinese Restaurant". As a voice actor, Hong voiced Chi-Fu in Mulan, Daolon Wong on the television series Jackie Chan Adventures and Mr. Ping in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, in addition to several video game roles including Sleeping Dogs and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Hong also voiced several characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender. With over 600 film and television credits, he is one of the most prolific English-speaking actors of all time.
context_section_description: Hong has played over 600 television and film roles. His career in show business began in the 1950s when he redubbed soundtracks of several Asian films. He dubbed the voices of characters Ogata (Akira Takarada) and Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata) in the 1956 film Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, as well as the title character in The Human Vapor.
  In February 1954, Hong appeared on the radio and television game show You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx. In this appearance, he did a number of impersonations including one of Groucho himself. Hong and his partner won $140 in the quiz. They contested the major prize of $2000 but did not win. 
  In 1956, Hong was cast as Jimmy Ling in the episode "Red Tentacles" of the Western aviation adventure series Sky King, starring Kirby Grant. He also guest-starred in the NBC Western series The Californians.
  In 1957–1958, he was cast as the "Number One Son", Barry Chan, in the British-American series The New Adventures of Charlie Chan starring J. Carrol Naish as Charlie Chan. The role of the Number One Son was played by Keye Luke in the predecessor films. However, Keye Luke's character was known as Lee Chan.
  In 1959, he appeared as a prince on an episode of Walt Disney's ABC series, Zorro. He 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. From 1960 to 1962, he appeared four times on the ABC/Warner Brothers crime drama Hawaiian Eye, twice each on the ABC series Hong Kong and Adventures in Paradise, and once on ABC's related series, The Islanders.
  In 1962, he appeared on CBS's Perry Mason as Dean Chang in "The Case of the Weary Watchdog". On September 23, 1963, 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. That year Hong also played Louis Kew in "The Case of the Floating Stones". He also appeared three times on the NBC military sitcom, Ensign O'Toole. In 1965, Hong was one of the original founding members of the East West Players, an early Asian American theatre organization. Also in 1966, he played the bar owner Mr. Shu in The Sand Pebbles. Hong also appeared in several episodes of the original Hawaii Five-O.
  Hong had a small part on a 1972 episode of CBS's The Bob Newhart Show.  He was a frequent guest star on the 1972–1975 ABC television series Kung Fu, joined the cast on the final season of CBS's Switch, as Wang, and also played a flight attendant in the original 1979 film The In-Laws. He appeared as a doctor accused of performing an illegal abortion in the Blake Edwards movie The Carey Treatment in 1972. He starred as a uniformed man in the 1980 comedy cult film Airplane! He has also directed such films as Teen Lust.
  Hong is perhaps most widely known as the immortal ghost sorcerer Lo Pan in John Carpenter's cult classic Big Trouble in Little China (1986), as the eye manufacturer Chew in Blade Runner, as Evelyn Mulwray's loyal and vigilant butler in Chinatown and The Two Jakes, and as the low-rent private eye in Black Widow. He would then appear in the film The Vineyard (1989).
  Hong's first appearance as a host in a Chinese restaurant was in the movie Flower Drum Song. Hong then appeared as a host in a Chinese restaurant in the 1975 All In the Family episode "Edith Breaks Out" as well as on the well-known Seinfeld episode "The Chinese Restaurant". Hong also 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. 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". Hong appeared as a villain in a season three episode of The X-Files. He appeared in two episodes of The West Wing (Ep. 1.11; 3.15) as the Chinese Ambassador to the United States. He also played Mr. Soo on The King of Queens, an Asian restaurant owner again who rents Doug Heffernan and his friends a
caption: Hong and Dan Fogler at the 2007 Comic-Con International
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