Heavy-lidded Chinese-American character actor who brought his slightly puffy features and an assured, amiable playing style to a series of wizened film roles in the 1980s and 90s. Born in San Francisco's Chinatown to immigrant parents, Wong went to college originally intending to follow in his father's footsteps and enter politics, possibly back in China. When China became Communist, though, he moved back to San Francisco and fell in with the "Beat" movement of the early 60s. (He was one of Ken Kesey's "Merry Pranksters" and Jack Kerouac even wrote about Wong in "Big Sun".) Wong later became
Studied at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Chicago, planning to follow his father's lead and enter politics, possibly in his parents' native China, but gave up idea when the country became Communist
Moved back to San Francisco and became involved with the "Beat Generation" scene of the early 1960s; performed for a time with Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters
Became involved in San Francisco's little theater and Asian-American theater scenes
1968
Worked as a TV news reporter for the Public Broadcasting System; suffering from Bell's Palsy made him leave reporting; later took up acting
Acted for a time on the daytime drama series, "Search for Tomorrow"
