James B. Leong
James B. Leong was a Chinese-American character actor and filmmaker who had a long career in Hollywood beginning during the silent era.
Leong was born in Shanghai, and he moved to the United States with his parents when he was young. He graduated from Marion Normal College in Muncie, Indiana, in 1915 and briefly worked at a newspaper before moving to Hollywood, where he worked at first as a technical director for filmmakers like D. W. Griffith and Wesley Ruggles.
By 1919, he had started his own production company — James B. Leong Productions, later known as the Wah Ming Motion Picture Company — to show Chinese life as it really was. He had grown tired of seeing Chinese people portrayed as kidnappers and assassins on the screen. Under this banner, he wrote and directed the 1921 film Lotus Blossom. During that time, he had said he planned to write and direct four films a year, though it never came to fruition, with a planned follow-up, The Unbroken Promise, never filmed.
He took work as an actor, playing smaller roles in Hollywood films, as well as continuing to work as a technical director and dialect coach. He made money by growing silk crops in the 1940s.
He married Agatha Tarwater in 1934; the pair had a son together. Leong became a U.S. citizen in 1958.
Selected filmography
As writer-directorLotus BlossomAs producerChina Speaks
As actorThe Purple Dawn as Quan FooThe Remittance Woman as Chuen To YanDefying the Law as Dr. Chong FooThe Devil Dancer as The Grand LamaChina Slaver as Lee MandarinCome and Get It! as Singapore JoeWelcome Danger as Florist Henchman / High Priest Shanghai Lady as CounselorUppercut O'Brien as Chinese Doctor Lotus Lady as LiChinatown After Dark as Servant The Hatchet Man as Tong Member Shanghai Express as Rebel The Heart Punch as WongTangled Destinies as LingThe Mask of Fu Manchu as Guest Trick for Trick as Chinese Henchman Son of Kong as Chinese Trader The Hell Cat as Chinese Man Mandalay as Leong the Waiter The Cat's-Paw as Lee Chang / Chinese Villager The Mysterious Mr. Wong as Wong Henchman Chinatown Squad as Chinese Man Shadows of the Orient as Ching ChuCaptured in Chinatown as WongEast of Java as Crewman Charlie Chan in Shanghai Shanghai Police Operator Shadow of Chinatown as WongMr. Deeds Goes to Town as Chinese Chauffeur Midnight Blunders as Chinese Man Ace Drummond as Henry KeeThe Good Earth as Chinese Peasant West of Shanghai as Pao Thank You, Mr. Moto as Peiping Cop The Singing Marine as Shanghai Radio Announcer Mr. Moto Takes a Chance as Native International Settlement as Officer The Adventures of Marco Polo as Tartar Warrior Red Barry as Chinese Waiter North of Shanghai as Police SergeantDaughter of the Tong as Importer Drums of Fu Manchu as Chinese Si Fan Member South of Pago Pago as WaiterThey Met in Bombay as Third Mate Lady from Chungking as ChenA Yank on the Burma Road as Guerilla LeaderThe Tuttles of Tahiti as Candy Salesman Remember Pearl Harbor as Japanese MajorSubmarine Raider as Toramatsu Wake Island as Secretary to Japanese Envoy Across the Pacific as Nura Tarzan's New York Adventure as Sun Lee's Measuring Assistant Behind the Rising Sun as Japanese Swordsman Headin' for God's Country as Japanese OfficerDestination Tokyo as Japanese Rookies in Burma as Japanese Soldier in Tank Dragon Seed as City Man The Keys of the Kingdom as Taoist Priest at Boy's Healing The Fighting Seabees as Japanese Officer The Purple Heart as Army Aide Marine Raiders as Japanese Officer China Sky as Orderly Secret Agent X-9 as Japanese Pilot First Yank Into Tokyo as Japanese Soldier Prison Ship as Japanese Soldier Shadows Over Chinatown as Curio Shop Owner Deception as Wedding Guest Green Dolphin Street as Chinese Longshoreman The Beginning or the End as Japanese Army Officer Her Husband's Affairs as Acrobat To the Ends of the Earth as Chinese Driver Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture as Chinese Hatchet Man Squadron of Doom as Henry KeeI Was an American Spy as Ho Sang Peking Express as Train Conductor Smuggler's Island as Native in Sampan Macao as Hood The Cisco Kid as Chinese Worker The Shanghai Story as Policeman Autumn Leaves as Grocery Stocker Alfred Hitchcock Presents Buchanan Rides Alone as Gomez's Friend China Doll as Townsman Peter Gunn as CookRio Bravo as Burt Adventures in Paradise as Chinese MerchantThe Mountain Road Have Gun - Will Travel as 2nd Hatchet ManGidget Goes Hawaiian as Restaurant Patron