James B. Leong
James B. Leong (born Leong But-jung and sometimes credited as Jimmy Leong) was a Chinese character actor and filmmaker who had a long career in Hollywood beginning during the silent era.
James B. Leong | |
---|---|
Born | Leong But-jung November 2, 1889 Shanghai, China |
Died | December 16, 1967 Los Angeles, California, USA |
Education | Indiana State University |
Occupation | Actor, director |
Spouse(s) | Agatha Tarwater (m. 1934) |
Biography
James was born in Shanghai, and he moved to the United States with his parents when he was young.[1] He graduated from college in Muncie, Indiana, in 1915[2] 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.[1][3][4]
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.[5] (He had grown tired of seeing Chinese people portrayed as kidnappers and assassins on the screen.)[6] Under this banner, he wrote and directed the 1921 film Lotus Blossom.[7] He said he planned to write and direct four films a year, but this doesn't seem to have come to fruition. (A planned follow-up, The Unbroken Promise, doesn't seem to have been filmed.)[8][9]
Instead, he appears to have taken on work as an actor: Over the ensuing decades, he'd play more dozens of smaller roles in Hollywood films, and also continue to work as a technical director and dialect coach.[10] He also appears to have earned a good deal of money as a grower of silk crops in the 1940s.[11][12]
He married Agatha Tarwater in 1934; the pair had a son together. Leong became a U.S. citizen in 1958.[1]
Selected filmography
As writer-director
- Lotus Blossom (1921)
As producer
- China Speaks (1937)
As actor
- The Purple Dawn (1923)
- The Devil Dancer (1927)
- China Slaver (1929)
- Shanghai Lady (1929)
- Lotus Lady (1930)
- Chinatown After Dark (1931)
- Shanghai Express (1932)
- The Hatchet Man (1932)
- The Heart Punch (1932)
- The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
- Son of Kong (1933)
- The Hell Cat (1934)
- The Cat's-Paw (1934)
- The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934)
- Chinatown Squad (1935)
- Shadows of the Orient (1935)
- Captured in Chinatown (1935)
- East of Java (1935)
- Shadow of Chinatown (1936)
- The Good Earth (1937)
- West of Shanghai (1937)
- Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937)
- Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938)
- North of Shanghai (1939)
- Daughter of the Tong (1939)
- Drums of Fu Manchu (1940)
- South of Pago Pago (1940)
- They Met in Bombay (1941)
- Lady from Chungking (1942)
- Behind the Rising Sun (1943)
- Headin' for God's Country (1943)
- Dragon Seed (1944)
- The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
- Shadows Over Chinatown (1946)
- Green Dolphin Street (1947)
- Her Husband's Affairs (1947)
- I Was an American Spy (1951)
- The Shanghai Story (1954)
- Rio Bravo (1959)
- The Mountain Road (1960)
References
- "Veteran Chinese Actor Becomes U.S. Citizen". The Los Angeles Times. 26 July 1958. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "Young Chinese, Former Student Here, in City to Exhibit Film Play". The Muncie Evening Press. 22 August 1921. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "Shadowgrams". The Wausau Daily Herald. 21 June 1920. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "Brief Notes of Movie Land". The Casper Star-Tribune. 10 December 1922. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "The Silent Drama". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 26 June 1921. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "Movie Notes". The Austin American-Statesman. 10 April 1921. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "The Real China on Celluloid". The Los Angeles Times. 13 June 1920. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "Secrets of the Movies Revealed". The Evening News. 13 January 1922. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "Camera Chatter". The Oakland Tribune. 10 December 1922. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "Behind the Scenes in Hollywood". The Ottawa Journal. 20 January 1934. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "United States, China Weaving a Silken Noose for Japan's Doomed Industry". The Moline Dispatch. 6 May 1943. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
- "Leong in "Blood Alley"". The El Paso Times. 16 October 1955. Retrieved 9 November 2019.