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James Hong
Hong at the 2007 Jules Verne Adventure Film Special Awards Presentation
Born	(1929-02-22) February 22, 1929 (age 83) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1955–present

James Hong (traditional Chinese: 吳漢章, Wú Hànzhāng; born February 22, 1929) is an American actor and former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists (AAPAA). A prolific acting veteran, Hong's career spans over 50 years and includes more than 350 roles in film, television, and video games.

Early life[link]

Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father, Frank W. Hong, immigrated from Hong Kong to Chicago via Canada, where he owned a restaurant. Hong's grandfather was from Taishan, China.^[1] For his early education, Hong moved to Hong Kong, and returned to the United States at age ten. 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 for Los Angeles County for 7½ 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[link]

James Hong has played in over 500 television and film roles.^[2] His career in show business began in the 1950s when he redubbed soundtracks of several Asian films, including the re-dubbing of characters Ogata (Akira Takarada) and Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata) in the 1956 Japanese film Godzilla, King of the Monsters! as well as the title character in The Human Vapor. He appeared as a prince on an episode of Disney's Zorro in 1959. Hong was one of the original founding members, in 1965, of the East West Players, one of the first Asian American theatre organizations.

James Hong speaks to fans at a convention appearance.

Hong had a small part on a 1972 episode of The Bob Newhart Show. He was a frequent guest star on the 1972–1975 television series Kung Fu, joined the cast on the final season of 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 is perhaps most widely known as the immortal ghost sorcerer Lo Pan in John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China (1986), as the eye manufacturer Chew in Blade Runner 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 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. He had a small role in the 1998 independent film Broken Vessels. Most recently, he played the role of Mr. Takato in the movie Chasing Zoey, and in the television series Zoey 101 his character taught Michael Barret how to operate a manual transmission. 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, 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."

Hong with Dan Fogler at the 2007 Comic-Con International.

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 father of Jack Black's Panda character. He was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance of this fatherly Goose. 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 will be the only members of the feature film series cast to appear in the television series adaptation, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.

He appeared in the 2012 film Safe. He also provides the voice for the jeweler NPC Covetous Shen in Diablo III. He also does the voice of Bucky(For one episode) from the TV series Archer (TV series).

Family[link]

Hong Family, Hollywood, 1994

James Hong and his family appeared in an around-the-world mountain biking travel adventure called Full Cycle: A World Odyssey. The Hong family rode their mountain bikes on a trail near the Hollywood sign.

Acting daughter[link]

James Hong also has a daughter, April, whom he coached and supported in her acting career since she began showing great interest in acting, singing, and dancing at the age of 4. Since then she has trained in various acting techniques originating from not only her father, but also Uta Hagen, Constantin Stanislavski, Yale School of Drama, and Viola Spolin.

As a child actor she has appeared in leading roles in Kidsongs videos, award winning documentarian and director Arthur Dong's film Lotus; television shows China Beach and General Hospital; animated TV shows The Real Ghostbusters, Slimer, Captain Planet, and more.

Her most recent credits include TV shows such as Desperate Housewives, 90210, ER, and Numb3rs. She's also voiced in interactive games The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, and appeared in national commercials for Microsoft and Chrysler.

References[link]

• Pilato, Herbie J. The Kung Fu Book of Caine: The Complete Guide to TV’s First Mystical Eastern Western. Boston: Charles A. Tuttle, 1993. ISBN 0-8048-1826-6

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: James Hong

• Official website
• Official website
• James Hong at the Internet Movie Database

Karen Rachel Witter (born December 13, 1961 in Long Beach, California) is an American model and actress. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its March 1982 issue, and her centerfold was photographed by Arny Freytag.^[1][2] Witter later appeared on the cover of the March 1983 issue with fellow Playmates Kimberly McArthur and Kelly Tough. She was also featured in the December 1991 issue. ^[3]

At the time she became a Playmate, Witter was attending the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.^{[citation needed]} She soon made the transition to acting, working mostly on television in guest spots on series as diverse as Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1984), Cheers (1988), The Vineyard (1989), The X-Files (1995), Sabrina the Teenage Witch 1998, NYPD Blue (2000) and Malcolm in the Middle (2001). From 1990 to 1994 had a contract role as the fourth Tina Lord on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live,^[4] for which she was nominated for a 1991 Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Female Newcomer in Daytime. Witter later appeared as Nemesis in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, in the seventh episode "Pride Comes Before a Brawl" (1995).

Witter was married to Chuck Lorre in May, 2001, but the couple divorced in 2010^[5][6].

See also[link]

• List of people in Playboy 1980-1989
• List of Playboy Playmates of 1982

References[link]

External links[link]

• Karen Witter at Playboy.com
• Karen Witter at the Internet Movie Database

Jason Statham
Jason Statham, 2011
Born	(1967-09-12) 12 September 1967 (age 44)[1] Shirebrook, Derbyshire, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1998–present

Jason Statham ( /ˈsteɪθəm/;^[2][3] born 12 September 1967)^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} is an English actor and former diver, known for his roles in the Guy Ritchie crime films Revolver, Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Statham appeared in supporting roles in several American films, such as The Italian Job, as well as playing the lead role in The Transporter, Death Race, Crank, The Bank Job and War (opposite martial arts star Jet Li). Statham also appeared alongside established action film actors Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren in The Expendables. He usually performs his own fight scenes and stunts.^[10]

Early life[link]

Statham was born in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, the son of Eileen (née Yates) and Barry Statham, a lounge singer.^{[7][11][12][13]} He moved to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where he chose not to follow his father's career working the local market stalls, and decided to pursue the arts. He grew up with football player Vinnie Jones, alongside whom he would later go on to act. Jones introduced him to football, and Statham went on to play for the local grammar school (1978–83), which he had attended since the age of eleven, but his real passion was diving.^{[citation needed]} He practised daily in perfecting his diving techniques – in particular, he finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992.^[14] He was also a member of Britain's National Diving Squad for twelve years.^[15][16]

Statham's life in the media began when he was spotted by a talent agent specialising in athletes while training at London's Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Afterwards, he became a model for the clothing brand French Connection.

Career[link]

Statham in 2007

While working as a model for French Connection (FCUK), he was introduced to fledgling British director Guy Ritchie^[17] who was developing a film project and needed to fill the role of a street-wise con artist. After learning about Statham's past as a black market salesman, Ritchie cast him to play the role of "Bacon" in his 1998 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.^[18] The movie was well received by both critics and audiences, and helped catapult Statham into the public eye. Statham's second collaboration with Ritchie came in the 2000 film Snatch, playing the role of "Turkish". Cast alongside popular actors Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina and Benicio del Toro, and with the movie earning more than $80 million in box-office revenue, Statham was able to break into Hollywood and appeared in two movies in 2001: Ghosts of Mars and The One.

Statham was offered more film roles and in 2002 was cast as the lead role of driver Frank Martin in the action movie The Transporter, in which his background in martial arts enabled him to do most of his own stunts.^{[citation needed]} He has studied Wing Chun kung fu, karate, and kickboxing.^[19] The film spawned two sequels, Transporter 2 (2005) and Transporter 3 (2008). He also played in supporting roles in Mean Machine (2002), The Italian Job (2003) (in which he played Handsome Rob), and Cellular (2004) in which he played the lead villain. In 2005, Statham was once again cast by Ritchie to star in his new project, Revolver, which was a critical and box office failure.^[20] He also played a dramatic role in the independent drama London in 2006. In 2006 he played the lead role in Crank. Statham compares his role in Crank to his real life in the September 2006 issue of Maxim. The success of Crank led to a sequel in 2009 titled Crank: High Voltage.

In 2008, Statham starred in the British crime thriller The Bank Job which was both a critical and box office success. In 2008, American film critic Armond White hailed Statham's ascension as the leading international action film star. On the occasion of Death Race, White championed Statham's "best track record of any contemporary movie star."^[21] Later in 2008, White praised Statham's Transporter 3 as a great example of kinetic pop art.

Statham in 2006

In 2009, Statham started to develop a new movie written by David Peoples and Janet Peoples (Twelve Monkeys). Statham stated "We've got a movie we're trying to do, written by David Peoples and Janet Peoples, in the vein of an old film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It’s not a remake or anything, but it's a little bit like that, about relationships and how greed contaminates the relationships these three people have. The working title is The Grabbers."^[22]

In 2010, Statham appeared alongside fellow action stars Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jet Li and Mickey Rourke, among others in The Expendables. Statham plays Lee Christmas, a former SAS soldier and expert at close quarters combat using knives. In 2011, Statham starred in the remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson film, The Mechanic, and returned to British film in the police drama Blitz.

He also starred in the action film Killer Elite. The film was based on real events, which were the subject of Sir Ranulph Fiennes' fictional novel The Feather Men. Statham played an assassin named Danny who comes out of retirement to save an old friend, who was played by Robert De Niro.^[23] In August 2011, he is to begin filming Parker, for director Taylor Hackford; Statham will star as Parker, the criminal antihero previously played by Mel Gibson in 1999's Payback and by Lee Marvin in 1967's Point Blank.^[24]

Personal life[link]

Statham was in a seven year relationship with model Kelly Brook, until 2004.^[25][26] Since April 2010, he has been dating Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.^[27]

Filmography[link]

Box office performance[link]

Since 1998, Statham has appeared in over twenty films. Several have been box office hits, such as Snatch and The Bank Job. He has starred in two film series, The Transporter and Crank. The films he has been in have grossed a total of more than $1 billion USD at the box office, with the highest individual film being The Expendables.

Video game voice-overs[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

	England portal
	Biography portal
	Films portal

• Jason Statham at the Internet Movie Database