Victor Wong (actor, born 1927)

Wong was born in San Francisco to Chinese parents and lived in Chinatown near the Stockton Street Tunnel. His father, Sare King Wong, was born and raised in Guangdong province, and later moved to Shanghai as a news journalist. His mother Alice was a devout Christian who took the family to the First Chinese Baptist Church every week. Wong was one of five children; his siblings were Sarah Wong Lum, Zeppelin Wong, and twins Shirley Wong Frentzel and Betty Wong Brown. Victor Wong was fluent with both English and Cantonese, which helped lead his acting career to Hong Kong. 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. ==Journalism==

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, where he won a Regional Emmy, 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". ''. == Acting career ==

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 (AATC) 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. In between film roles, Wong lived in Sacramento, California, where he supported the local performing arts. In 1986 he was the Old Man in the movie hit The Golden Child alongside Eddie Murphy. In 1992, he acted in the Hong Kong film, Cageman (笼民). He later starred as Grandpa Mori in the 3 Ninjas franchise, and the cult-classics, Big Trouble in Little China and Tremors. He worked closely with director Wayne Wang. The independent filmmaker and fellow San Franciscan first cast him in the lead role of his 1985 film Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, and went on to include him in Eat a Bowl of Tea and Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (both 1989), and The Joy Luck Club (1993). Wang later called Wong his role model for living life. 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 met Jack Kerouac in the early 1960s, who chronicled their meeting in his novel Big Sur (1962). In the novel, Wong is characterised as "Arthur Ma". ==Personal life==

Wong was married four times: to Olive Thurman Wong (daughter of civil rights activist Howard Thurman), 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, musician 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. At approximately the same time, Wong met and befriended Dawn Rose, who was an artist in Locke; they married in 1998 and together they purchased a former restaurant and store completed in 1913 in Walnut Grove, planning to open an art gallery and teahouse there in 2001. ==Death==

On September 11, 2001, Wong and his wife Dawn Rose spent the day trying to get news of their sons who were in New York City during the September 11 attacks (who were found to be unharmed). After Rose went to sleep, Wong stayed up to continue following the news of the September 11 attacks. He died of a heart attack at some point during the early hours of September 12, 2001. He was 74. ==Filmography==

Film Television ==References==