Kim Chan, Who Had Roles in TV and ‘King of Comedy,’ Is Dead
William Brownstein
Kim Chan: The Zen of Comedy (Video - see link above)
The New York Times
October 10, 2008
Kim Chan, Who Had Roles in TV and ‘King of Comedy,’ Is Dead
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Kim Chan, an actor who became a familiar face in a variety of Asian
roles, notably as Jerry Lewis’s butler in the Martin Scorsese film
“The King of Comedy,” a character who did furious battle with an
obsessed fan played by Robert De Niro, died on Sunday in Brooklyn.
His niece Judy Gee, who confirmed his death, said that he was probably
93 or 94.
From bit parts as a houseboy or a Japanese soldier, Mr. Chan worked
his way up to playing dignified old men with access to the wisdom of
the East, as he did in “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues,” a spinoff of
the 1970s television series “Kung Fu” that ran from 1993 to 1997.
He actually played two roles in that series: the apothecary and
martial arts expert Lo Si, “the Ancient,” and the evil monk Ping Hai.
Mr. Chan, who emigrated to the United States from the province of
Canton, China, as a boy, discovered show business while working in his
family’s restaurant, the House of Chan, which was in the theater
district of Manhattan.
The outgoing Mr. Chan began picking up walk-on parts on the stage. He
made his film debut in “A Face in the Crowd” (1957), playing a radio
announcer, Ms. Gee said. He went on to play a theater cashier in “The
Owl and the Pussycat,” a Korean flower vendor in “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,”
a dim sum cook in “Cadillac Man,” the Thai fast-food vendor Mr. Kim in
“The Fifth Element,” Uncle Benny Chan in “Lethal Weapon 4” and Jackie
Chan’s father in “Shanghai Knights.”
He was a producer of one of his final films, “Zen Noir” (2004), a
murder mystery in which he played a character described on the film’s
Web site (zenmovie.com) as “an infuriatingly obscure Zen teacher, who
does a lot of strange things with oranges.”
His survivors include a son, Michael Chandler, of Queens.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Related:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/nyregion/19ink.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
The New York Times
June 19, 2007
Ink
A Tough Act I, but the Second Has Some Funny Bits
By THOMAS LIN
KIM CHAN, like many character actors, has a face that is more familiar
than his name. His high cheekbones, the mischief in his eyes and his
knack for both serious and comedic performances seemed to be what
Hollywood always looked for when casting roles for Asians.
So Mr. Chan is the ancient wise man from “Kung Fu: The Legend
Continues,” and the mob boss Uncle Benny in “Lethal Weapon 4.”
He was the 76-year-old butler in “The King of Comedy,” directed by
Martin Scorsese.
Mr. Chan, now in his 90s, realized long ago that even small film and
television roles beat washing and ironing shirts for 10 cents apiece
in real life.
As an actor, he said: “You’ll be the king, you’ll be a millionaire,
you’ll be a great merchant, a great lover. You’re not yourself, so I
enjoyed it.”
Fifty roles later, he is finally letting up, having traded in his
modest Bronx apartment for the Prospect Park Residence, an assisted-
living home in Brooklyn. “It was a big struggle,” said Mr. Chan’s
niece, Judy Gee, who visits him daily.
Mr. Chan’s career path was an unlikely one. His father, Lem Chan, a
philosopher, fled China in 1928, bringing young Kim and his two older
sisters first to Rhode Island, then to New York, where the family got
into the restaurant and laundry businesses.
One day, the father caught the son lying to cover up an afternoon
whiled away at the movies. Presented with an ultimatum, Kim Chan chose
to leave his family, only to end up homeless in Central Park before
moving on to other laundries. He never fully reconciled with his
father, who died in 1952. Both his sisters have also died.
As he recalled family memories, Mr. Chan fell silent at times,
stroking his long, wispy beard.
It took nearly four decades in inconsequential television, film and
stage productions for Mr. Chan to shake free of the day labor grind.
He spent those years adrift, working at restaurants and laundries. He
made movie contacts by day, and hustled cards and slept at night on
ironing boards crawling with bedbugs.
His big break came in 1983 in “The King of Comedy.” He played Jonno,
Jerry Lewis’s butler, and tangled with Robert De Niro, a frustrated
comedian and obsessed fan who forces his way into Mr. Lewis’s home.
Mr. Chan’s frantic efforts in the scene to warn Mr. Lewis provide
comic relief.
“I always like comedy,” Mr. Chan said. “I enjoy making somebody
laugh.”
He sometimes chafed in an industry rife with derogatory stereotypes.
In the 1940s, he was usually cast as a Japanese soldier.
As an extra for a long-forgotten “King Kong” movie, Mr. Chan said, he
led an insurrection of actors, egging the contingent of “natives” to
protest their barefoot condition by shouting, “Ouch, ouch,” each time
the director called, “Action.”
“Finally,” Mr. Chan recalled with an impish smile, “they gave us
shoes.”
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company