History Creator / KeyeLuke

By the latter part of his career, Luke had established himself as a character actor of choice with memorable parts, often as a wise Asian mentor like Master Po in the TV series ''Series/KungFu1972'' and feature films like Mr. Wing, the only man who can reliably contain the potentially dangerous Mogwai in ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''. He even got to indirectly work with the breakthrough Asian-American star, Creator/BruceLee, voicing the villainous Mr. Han in ''Film/EnterTheDragon''.

By the latter part of his career, Luke had established himself as a character actor of choice with memorable parts, often as a wise Asian mentor like Master Po in the 1970s TV series ''Series/KungFu'' and feature films like Mr. Wing, the only man who can reliably contain the potentially dangerous Mogwai in ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''. He even got to indirectly work with the breakthrough Asian-American star, Creator/BruceLee, voicing the villainous Mr. Han in ''Film/EnterTheDragon''.

'''Keye Luke''' (June 18, 1904 – January 12, 1991) was a Chinese-born American actor who was a mainstay in Hollywood as its representative Asian for decades. While he never reached the heights of Creator/SidneyPoitier in general or Creator/BruceLee for Asians, as a breakthrough star, Luke was doing his bit for minorities decades before Poitier entered the scene, including being a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.

With that start, Luke left to have his own career which included playing Kato in the ''Film/TheGreenHornetSerials'' and playing the title character as Detective Wong in what he hoped would have been his big role in ''Phantom of Chinatown'' in 1940, which sadly flopped. Regardless, Luke would work regularly with various studios for the rest of his career with appearances in series like ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and ''Series/TheFBI''.

This drew him the attention of filmmakers and he got his start in acting, most famously at Lee Chan, the Number One Son of detective Literature/CharlieChan. Although that film series would rightly be faulted for the lead character being played by a white man in {{Yellowface}} and Lincoln "Stepin Fetchit" Perry Lincoln's UncleTomfoolery, Luke and the other Asian actors playing Chan's family got to shine as all-American kids with Lee even getting to be an Olympic Gold Medalist in ''Charlie Chan at the Olympics''.

'''Keye Luke''' (June 18, 1904 – January 12, 1991) was a Chinese-born American actor who was a mainstay in Hollywood as its representative Asian for decades. While he never reached the heights of Creator/SidneyPoitier as a breakthrough star, Luke was doing his bit for minorities decades before Poitier entered the scene, including being a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.

This drew him the attention of filmmakers and he got his start in acting, most famously at Lee Chan, the Number One Son of detective Literature/CharlieChan. Although that film series would rightly be faulted for the lead character being played by a white man in {{Yellowface}} and Creator/Step Lincoln "Stepin Fetchit" Perry Lincoln's UncleTomfoolery, Luke and the other Asian actors playing Chan's family got to shine as all-American kids with Lee even getting to be an Olympic Gold Medalist in ''Charlie Chan at the Olympics''.

With that start, Luke left to have his own career which included playing the title character as Detective Wong in what he hoped would have been his big role in ''Phantom of Chinatown'' in 1940, which sadly flopped. Regardless, Luke would work regularly with various studios for the rest of his career with appearances in series like ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and ''Series/TheFBI''.

By the latter part of his career, Luke had established himself as a character actor of choice with memorable parts like Master Po in the series ''Series/KungFu'' and feature films like Mr. Wing, the only man who can reliably contain the potentially dangerous Mogwai in ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''. He even got to indirectly work with the breakthrough Asian-American star, Creator/BruceLee, voicing the villainous Mr. Han in ''Film/EnterTheDragon''.