Early life

Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father, Frank W. Hong, emigrated from Hong Kong to Chicago, Illinois via Canada, where he owned a restaurant. Hong's grandfather was from Taishan. For his early education, Hong moved to Hong Kong, and returned to the United States at the age of ten. He graduated from Minneapolis Central High School. He studied civil engineering at the University of Southern California, but later became interested in acting and trained with Jeff Corey. Hong was a road engineer in Los Angeles County for seven and a half years, acting during his vacations and sick days. He finally quit engineering for good to devote himself to acting and voice work full-time.

Career

Hong has played over 500 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 Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, as well as the title character in The Human Vapor.

In 1956, he was cast as Jimmy Ling in the episode "Red Tentacles" of the western aviation adventure series, Sky King, starring Kirby Grant. He 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 TV show, 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 1965, Hong was one of the original founding members of the East West Players, an early Asian American theatre organization. In 1962 he appeared on CBS's Perry Mason as Dean Chang in "The Case of the Weary Watchdog," and in 1963 he played Louis Kew in "The Case of the Floating Stones." He also appeared three times on the NBC military sitcom, Ensign O'Toole. 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 also 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 1989 film The Vineyard.

Hong appeared as a host in a Chinese restaurant on All In the Family's 1975 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 US. He also played Mr. Soo on The King of Queens, an Asian restaurant owner again who rents Doug Heffernan and his friends a loft apartment above his store, in the episode "Apartment Complex" (2006). Additionally, Hong had guest-starred on Friends, playing Hoshi, the former paid assassin and boxing coach for Monica's boyfriend Pete (played by Jon Favreau) in the episode "The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion".

Hong played Jeff Wong, Cassandra Wong's father (who happens to be a martial arts expert), in the 1993 comedy sequel Wayne's World 2. In 1994, he, his wife Susan and daughter April appeared as a family riding mountain bikes beneath the Hollywood sign in the mountain-bike travel-adventure documentary, "Full Cycle: A World Odyssey." He had a small role in the 1998 independent film Broken Vessels. He played the role of Mr. Takato in the movie Chasing Zoey, the final episode of Zoey 101. His character taught Michael Barret how to operate a manual transmission, and it was revealed at the end of the episode that he did not exist. Hong also voiced the character Daolon Wong, an evil wizard in the Jackie Chan Adventures television series, and was the voice of Chi Fu in Disney’s Mulan, A.N.T. Farm, Mandarin in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, and Professor Chang in Teen Titans. He made a cameo appearance in the television series Las Vegas as a presumed cheating monk. James Hong also lent his voice to the Cartoon Network animation Chowder as Mung Daal's mentor in the "Won-Ton Bombs" episode. In 2006, Hong voiced the character Mayor Tong in Avatar: The Last Airbender in the second season's episode titled "Avatar Day" in addition to his previous role as Monk Tashi in the first season episode "The Storm" in 2005. In 2006 he also voiced the character of The High Lama in the film Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!

Hong's voice also appeared as Colonel Zhou Peng in the video game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Dr. Chang in 2007's Def Jam Icon, Ancient Wu in True Crime: Streets of LA, and reprising his role as Chew in the Blade Runner video game. His most recent appearances were in the films Balls of Fury and The Day the Earth Stood Still. In 2008, he voiced Mr. Ping in Kung Fu Panda, the adopted father of Po and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance, he later reprised this role on Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special and won an Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Television Production. Furthermore, he and Lucy Liu have been collaborated in the feature film series and in the television series adaptation, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. After the release of the third film he stated that he hoped to continue in the role, though due to his advanced age the filmmakers should start work on it quickly. In 2015, Hong voiced Azmorigan on Star Wars Rebels as well as the Sugi arms dealer, Endente in an unfinished four part story arc of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"; the rough animatics for the entire arc has been published on the official Star Wars website.

He appeared in the 2012 film Safe. He also provides the voices for the jeweler NPC Covetous Shen in Diablo III, Master Bruised Paw in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Bucky (for two episodes) from the TV series Archer, and Uncle Po in Sleeping Dogs. In 2013, he recently appeared as Ogisan, the gift shop keeper from the Incredible Crew sketch, "Magical Video Game Controller", alongside Jeremy Shada and Shauna Case. He also appeared in the 2013 film R.I.P.D.

Personal life

Hong lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife Susan (née Tong), whom he married in 1977.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1954	Dragonfly Squadron	South Korean Pilot Trainee
1955	Soldier of Fortune	Chinese Policeman
1955	Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing	Fifth Brother
1955	Blood Alley	Communist Soldier
1956	Godzilla, King of the Monsters!	Ogata/Serizawa (voice)
1957	Battle Hymn	ROK. Maj. Chong
1957	China Gate	Charlie
1957	The Seventh Sin	Chinese Officer
1959	Blood and Steel	Japanese Draftsman
1959	Never So Few	General Chao
1960	The Human Vapor	Narrator/Mizuno (English version, voice)
1961	Flower Drum Song	Headwaiter
1965	The Satan Bug	Dr. Yang
1966	One Spy Too Many	Prince Phanong
1966	Destination Inner Space	Ho Lee
1966	The Sand Pebbles	Victor Shu
1968	The Bamboo Saucer	Archibald
1970	Colossus: The Forbin Project	Dr. Chin
1970	The Hawaiians	Ti Chong
1971	Fearless Fighters	One Man Army (English version, voice)
1972	The Carey Treatment	David Tao
1973	Hot Connections	The Snooper
1974	Dynamite Brothers	Wei Chin
1974	Chinatown	Evelyn's Butler
1976	No Deposit, No Return	Ming Lo
1976	Bound for Glory	Chili Joint Owner
1977	The World's Greatest Lover	Yes Man #3
1978	Go Tell the Spartans	The Old Man
1979	The In-Laws	Bing Wong
1980	Airplane!	Japanese General
1981	True Confessions	Coroner Wong
1981	So Fine	Asian Man #1
1982	Blade Runner	Hannibal Chew
1982	Yes, Giorgio	Kwan
1983	Breathless	Grocer
1984	Ninja III: The Domination	Miyashima
1984	Missing in Action	Gen. Trau
1985	Night of the Dragons (Hunter)
1986	Big Trouble in Little China	David Lo Pan
1987	Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise	Snotty
1989	Tango & Cash	Quan
1989	The Vineyard	Dr. Elson Po
1990	Honorable Profession (Hunter)	Officer Chin's father
1991	Seinfeld	Bruce
1992	Talons of the Eagle	Mr. Li
1993	Wayne's World 2	Jeff Wong
1996	Infinity	Abacus operator
1996	Home Improvement	Dave
1998	Mulan	Chi-Fu (voice)
2007	Balls of Fury	Master Wong
2007	Chuck	Ben Lo Pan
2007	The Big Bang Theory	Chen
2008	The Day the Earth Stood Still	Mr. Wu
2008	Kung Fu Panda	Mr. Ping (voice)	Nominated - Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production
2008	Zoey 101	Mr. Takato	1 Episode: Chasing Zoey
2010-2011	I'm in the Band	Leon	2 episodes
2010	Kung Fu Panda Holiday	Mr. Ping (voice)
2011-2013	Pair of Kings	Timothy Kalooka-Khan	Recurring Role; (Seasons 2-3)
2011	Kung Fu Panda 2	Mr. Ping (voice)	Nominated - Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production
2011-2014	Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness	Mr. Ping (voice)
2012	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Ho Chan (voice; 1 episode)
2012	Safe	Han Jiao
2013	R.I.P.D.	Grandpa Jerry Chen
2014	Star Wars: The Clone Wars	Endente (voice; 2 unaired episodes)
2015	Star Wars Rebels	Azmorigan (voice)
2015	Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D	William May
2016	Kung Fu Panda 3	Mr. Ping (voice)
2016	Rush Hour	"Honorable Dragon"
2016	Mike Tyson Mysteries "llUnsolved Situations"	Professor Hong (voice; 1 episode)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]