Richard Loo

Known for ActingBorn 1903-10-01Died 1983-11-20Maui, Hawaii, USA

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 non-Asian 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 Co-Pilot (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 didn't 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 war-weary Japanese-American soldier in Samuel Fuller's 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 1972–1975 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]Read more

Movies & web series

Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Matter of Humanities

Hong Kong Affair

The Man Called X

The Beachcomber

Beyond Our Own

Delphi Bureau

Bewitched

I Dream of Jeannie

The Outer Limits

Kung Fu

North of Shanghai

China Venture

Perry Mason

The Wild Wild West

Bonanza

The Scavengers

5 Fingers

The Incredible Hulk

The Cobra Strikes

Kung Fu: The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon

McCloud

Panama Patrol

Hawaii Five-O

Honey West

The Sand Pebbles

The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Police Story

The Soldier and the Lady

Maverick

God Is My Co-Pilot

The Keys of the Kingdom

The Steel Helmet

Half Past Midnight

The Dick Cavett Show

Tokyo Rose

The Colgate Comedy Hour

Malaya

Roaming Lady

Family Affair

China

Four Star Playhouse

Road to Morocco

Lost Horizon

Crossroads

Rogues' Regiment

Battle Hymn

Around the World in 80 Days