Philip Ahn(1905-1978)
- Actor
Korean-American character actor Philip Ahn played hundreds of Chinese
and Japanese characters during a long career. He was born in Los
Angeles in 1905 (though 1911 is the year usually given, U.S. government
records confirm that Ahn was born in 1905), the son of a Korean
diplomat. He attended the University of Southern California at Los
Angeles. Ahn got his first film acting job in 1935 and quickly made a
place for himself playing Asians of many ethnicities. Although his
kindly demeanor made him perfect for sympathetic roles, he could excel
in the occasional villainous "Yellow Peril"-type role. Condemned, like
most Asian actors of the period, to stereotypical roles, Ahn
nevertheless brought a dignity to even the most subservient of
characters. In his later years he achieved his greatest fame as the
wise Master Kan on the television series Kung Fu (1972). Ahn was also a
successful Los Angeles restaurateur. He died in 1978. Not to be confused
with his brother, actor Philson Ahn.
