LIVING LEGENDS
James Hong Really Is Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
The 93-year-old vet has more than 450 credits under his belt—and, as of this week, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
BY DONALD LIEBENSON
MAY 9, 2022
AMANDA EDWARDS/GETTY IMAGES.
There’s an old Hollywood joke that encapsulates the supposed five stages of an actor’s career: Who is X? Get me X. Get me an X-type. Get me a young X. And finally, coming full circle: Who is X?
But after seven decades and more than 450 film and television credits, directors are still saying, “Get me James Hong.” Hong is the quintessential character actor; his name may be unfamiliar, but you’re likely to respond, “Oh, that guy!” if someone tells you he was the maître d’ in the classic Seinfeld episode “The Chinese Restaurant.” Evelyn Mulwray’s butler in Chinatown, or the unfortunate airline passenger seated next to oversharing, stuck-in-the-past Ted Striker in Airplane!
His most recent film, Everything Everywhere All at Once, is the year’s sleeper hit, a bonkers metaverse fantasia in which Hong portrays several variations on the same character, Michelle Yeoh’s disapproving dad. Even he can’t quite get a handle on the film. “I didn’t know whether I wanted to do it or not because the script is so crazy,” he says. “It’s like if you had a nightmare and you woke up and tried to write it down and make a movie out of it. I hope they do a sequel.”
On May 10, 93-year-old Hong will become the oldest actor yet to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—an honor with deep resonance for a once fledgling performer who came to Hollywood roughly seven decades ago, at a time when roles for Asian American actors were mostly limited to stereotypical characters. But he persevered to carve out his own cinematic universe.
The breadth and depth of his acting credits is staggering. Hong has been a voice artist for Disney (Mulan), Pixar (Turning Red) and DreamWorks Animation (the Kung Fu Panda series). His TV credits range from Hawaiian Eye to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He has shared the screen with Clark Gable, Lauren Bacall, and Jack Nicholson, and been directed by John Ford and Roman Polanski, to name just a few.
He has also served as a role model and inspiration for other actors. In 1965, he cofounded the East West Players to give opportunities and representation to other Asian American actors. It was this, in part, that inspired actor Daniel Dae Kim to launch the campaign to get Hong a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“I started the campaign simply because many of us in the Asian American community have known about James’s work for decades,” Kim said in an email to Vanity Fair. “I’d learned that he’d actually been rejected for a star in the past, so I thought a more grassroots campaign might help the decision-makers see how worthy he truly is. I posted the idea on social media and started a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the cost of the star. It ended up being fully funded in a matter of days, which to me was an affirmation that I wasn’t the only one who felt this way about his body of work. It was heartwarming to know how much love there was for him, and what was notable was that the support wasn’t just from the Asian American community. It spanned every demographic…. In fact, I hope that James’s recognition improves the prospects for actors from all underrepresented groups whose work may have been traditionally overlooked.”
In anticipation of his Walk of Fame ceremony, Hong spoke with Vanity Fair about how an engineering major decided to pursue acting—and, in the process, built one of Hollywood’s most enduring and admired careers.
Reply With Quote