Victor Wong was a Chinese American character actor who appeared in supporting roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Education
Victor Wong studied political science and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley and Theology at the University of Chicago under Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Buber. When he returned to San Francisco, Wong resumed his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute under Mark Rothko.
Career
After his news career ended, Wong turned to acting, starting in the local Asian American theatre and later landing larger roles on the stages New York City. In October 1980, Wong made his Asian American Theater Company (AATC) debut in San Francisco by appearing in their production of Paper Angels by Genny Lim. He was on Social Security Disability Insurance at the time.
His stage work led to television work and eventually, into movies.
In between film roles, Wong lived in Sacramento, California, where he supported the local performing arts In 1992, he acted in the Hong Kong film, Cageman (笼民).
He later starred as the grandfather, Mori Shintaro, in the popular 3 Ninjas franchise, and the cult-classics, Big Trouble in Little China and Tremors. Film director Wayne Wang called Victor Wong his role model for living life.
He retired from acting in 1998 after suffering two strokes, which also contributed to his death on September 12, 2001 from heart failure.
Wong was 74 years old. In the 1950s, while studying art under Mark Rothko, Victor Wong had his first art exhibition at the City Lights Bookstore. During this time, Wong befriended Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
He illustrated Oranges, Dick McBride"s first collection of poetry, which was handset and printed at the Bread and Wine Mission in 1960.
He met Jack Kerouac in the early 1960s, who chronicled their meeting in his novel Big Sur (1962). In the novel, Wong is characterised as "Arthur Ma".
On the morning of September 11, 2001 Wong had turned on the television to watch the news when he learned of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, District of Columbia While Dawn Rose finally went to bed in the evening, Wong stayed up and continued to follow the news. The resulting exhaustion and the two strokes he had suffered years earlier eventually took their toll, however, and Wong died at some point during the night of September 12.