Richard Loo October 1 1903 November 20 1983 was an American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1982 Chinese by ancestry and Hawaiian by birth Loo spent his youth in Hawaii then moved to California as a teenager He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and began a career in business The stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent economic depression forced Loo to start over He became involved with amateur then professional theater companies and in 1931 made his first film Like most Asian actors in nonAsian countries he played primarily small stereotypical roles though he rose quickly to familiarity if not fame in a number of films His stern features led him to be a favorite movie villain and the outbreak of World War II gave him greater prominence in roles as vicious Japanese soldiers in such successful pictures as The Purple Heart 1944 and God Is My CoPilot 1945 Loo was most often typecast as the Japanese enemy pilot spy or interrogator during World War II In the film The Purple Heart he plays a Japanese Imperial Army general who commits suicide because he cannot break down the American prisoners According to his daughter Beverly Jane Loo he didnt mind being typecast as a villain in these movies as he felt very patriotic about playing those parts In 1944 he appeared as a Chinese army lieutenant opposite Gregory Peck in The Keys of the Kingdom He had a rare heroic role as a warweary JapaneseAmerican soldier in Samuel Fullers Korean War classic The Steel Helmet 1951 but he spent much of the latter part of his career performing stock roles in films and minor television roles In 1974 he appeared as the Thai billionaire tycoon Hai Fat in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun opposite Roger Moore and Christopher Lee Loo was also a teacher of Shaolin monks in three episodes of the 19721975 hit TV series Kung Fu and made a further three appearances as a different character His last acting appearance was in The Incredible Hulk TV series in 1981 but he continued to act in Toyota commercials into 1982 Loo died of a cerebral hemorrhage on November 20 1983 age 80 biography excerpted from Wikipedia
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