Chances are good that most viewers would not recognize the name "Philip Ahn," although they might well recognize his face. Today he is probably best known for playing Master Kan on the Seventies television show
Kung Fu, but he played many roles throughout his long career. Among the things that set Philip Ahn apart from other East Asian Americans of his era was that he was Korean American, rather than Chinese American or Japanese American, although he often found himself cast in Chinese or Japanese roles.
Philip Ahn was born on March 29 1905 in Highland Park, Los Angeles. His father, Doan Ahn Chang-ho, was an educator as well as an activist for Korean independence during the Japanese occupation of that country. Doan Ahn Chang-ho and his wife, Helen Lee, moved to the United States in 1902 to seek more opportunities in education. His sister, Susan Ahn Cuddy, served in the United States Navy during World War II and reached the rank of lieutenant. She later worked for the National Security Agency in Washington DC. His brother Philson Ahn also became an actor, and may be best known for playing Prince Tallen in the 1939 serial
Buck Rogers. His youngest brother, Ralph Ahn, became an actor as well, and may be familiar to viewers as Tran on the sitcom
New Girl. Philip Ahn's name is an Anglicized version of his Korean name, "Pi Lip."
Philip Ahn grew up in the same neighbourhood as future screen legend Ann May Wong, and they even attended the same school . She had a small part in
The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Philip Ahn drove her to the set one day and while he was waiting for her on the set Douglas Fairbanks offered him a screen test. Philip Ahn had to turn down the role as his mother was strongly opposed to it. After graduating from high school, he worked as a labourer in rice fields, an elevator operator, and a truck driver. By 1934 he had saved up enough money to attend college, and he enrolled at the University of Souther California in Los Angles,. He majored in foreign commerce and speech. The siren song of acting still called to Philip Ahn, and it was while he was still attending college that he toured with a production of
Merrily We Roll Along. He completed his sophomore year at USC and then threw himself into a film career.
His first role was not a big one. It was an uncredited role as a Chinese waiter in the movie
Desirable (1934). It would not be long before he started receiving credited roles, and in 1937 he played his first of only two lead roles in his career, that of FBI agent Kim Lee in
Daughter of Shanghai opposite Anna May Wong. He would only have one other lead role in his career. He played lawyer Robert Li in
King of Chinatown (1939), once more opposite Anna May Wong. Both movies would mark the first time in the Sound Era a romantic couple in a Hollywood film was played by East Asian American actors.
Although Philip Ahn was Korean in descent, he only played a few Korean roles in his lifetime. In the movie
China Sky (1945) he played Dr. Kim, marking one of the first times a Korean character was portrayed in an American film. He also played Korean characters in movies that grew out of the Korean War,
Battle Zone (19
52),
Battle Circus (1953), and
Battle Hymn (1956). He made three guest appearances on the television series
M*A*S*H, on which he also played Korean characters.
More often than not, Philip Ahn played Chinese and Japanese characters. During World War II he found himself playing Japanese military officers and Japanese spies. This led some to believe he actually was Japanese, and as a result he received death threats. Philip Ahn remarked of his roles as Japanese villains, "True, I hated the Japanese, but I told myself that if I was going to play the enemy, I was going to play him as viciously as I could. In
Back to Bataan (1945) I slapped little children and went so far as to hang a teacher from an American flag pole. I took pride in being the most evil man alive." While hardly politically correct by today's standards, Phillip Ahn's comment is understandable given Korea was occupied by the Japanese Empire at the time. During World War II Mr. Ahn also served in the Untied States Army for a time.
Much as he had in movies, Philip Ahn continued to play Chinese and Japanese parts on television. In all three of his guest appearances on
Bonanza, he played Chinese characters. He played Japanese characters on
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and
The Time Tunnel. On the Seventies TV series
Kung Fu he played Master Chen Ming Kan, a Shaolin monk and one of the teachers of the lead character Kwai Chang Caine (played by Radames Pera ).
In addition to acting, Philip Ahn also had a Chinese restaurant. It was on June 17 1954 that he and his sister Soorah opened Phi Ahn's Moongate in Panorama City in Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. Phil Ahn's Moongate proved to be a success and remained open until 1990. For twenty years Phililp Ahn was the honorary mayor of Panorama City.
Sadly, Philip Ahn died on February 28 1978 of complications following surgery for lung cancer. It was on 1984 that he was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Then Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley declared the November 14 1984 to be Philip Ahn Day in the actor's honour. Philip Ahn was the first Korean actor to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Philip Ahn was a true pioneer as one of the earliest, if not the earliest, Korean American actors in Hollywood and one of the first to play Korean characters on screen. It would through his work that Americans became more aware of Korea, which was not well-known to many Americans in the 1940s and often regarded little more as an occupied territory of Japan. While Philip Ahn would play his share of stereotypes in his career, he also played characters who broke with those stereotypes. Kim Lee in
Daughter of Shanghai and Robert Li in
King of Chinatown were both groundbreaking roles. Philip Ahn also spoke out against the systemic racism in Hollywood, and was among the Asian American actors who signed an open letter ran in the October 19 1976 issue of
Variety that denounced the racist casting in Hollywood. Philip Ahn paved the way for other East Asian American actors and particularly Korean American actors in the United States.
