Victor Sen Yung

Actor

• Born: October 18, 1915
• Birthplace: San Francisco, California
• Died: November 9, 1980
• Place of death: North Hollywood, California

Victor Sen Yung is an actor best known for small parts in film and television. Educated at the University of California Berkeley, and a veteran of the US Air Force, Yung is most widely remembered for his roles as Jimmy Chan (later Tommy Chan) in the Charlie Chan films and the loyal but irascible cook Hop Sing in the TV series Bonanza.

Birth name: Sen Yew Cheung

Areas of achievement: Entertainment, acting

Early Life

Victor Sen Yung was born in San Francisco, California, in 1915. He was placed in a shelter with his sister in 1919, after his mother died in a flu outbreak and his father traveled back to China. Yung’s father returned years later with a new bride and reclaimed his children.

Yung worked his way through college at the University of California Berkeley, where he studied animal husbandry and earned a degree in economics. Yung moved to Hollywood for post-graduate work at the University of California Los Angeles. He was occasionally employed as an extra in films, such as the adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth in 1937 and an installment of the Peter Lorre detective series Mr. Moto Takes a Chance in 1938.

Early in his time in Hollywood, Yung worked for a chemical company as a salesman; he hoped to sell flame-retardant suits to the technical workers on Hollywood film lots. Hollywood legend maintains that during one of Yung’s sales visits it was suggested that he audition for Twentieth Century Fox for the role of Charlie Chan’s number-two son Jimmy Chan. In the aftermath of significant changes to the franchise, new leading man Sidney Toler selected Yung to play Jimmy Chan based on his screen test.

Life’s Work

Yung appeared as Jimmy Chan for the first time in 1938’s Charlie Chan in Honolulu; over the years he would perform in seventeen more Charlie Chan films. His early films included The Letter (1940), Little Tokyo, USA (1942), Moontide (1942), and Manila Calling (1942). Like many Chinese American actors at the time, Yung occasionally played Japanese characters (he appeared as the character Joe Totsuiko in the 1942 Humphrey Bogart film Across the Pacific). Though he appeared in several films, Yung was often cast in bit parts as a laundryman, houseboy, waiter, or clerk. Yung left the Charlie Chan series in the early 1940s to join the United States Air Force during World War II. (Actor Benson Fong replaced Yung in the role of Jimmy Chan.) Yung was at first assigned to work on training films with the First Motion Picture Unit. He had a role in the Air Force’s play and film Winged Victory. Yung applied to take an officer’s exam and rose to the rank of captain in intelligence.

After the war, Yung resumed his film career in the Charlie Chan films. The series, however, was in transition. Toler having passing away in 1947, the character of Chan was next played by Roland Winters. Yung was assigned the role of not Jimmy Chan but Tommy Chan, the detective’s number-three son. Yung’s last appearance in a Charlie Chan film was 1948’s The Feathered Serpent, which also featured Keye Luke reprising the role of number-one son Lee Chan.

Other films in which Yung appeared include Target Hong Kong (1953), Trader Tom of the China Sea (1954), and The Flower Drum Song (1961).

Much of Yung’s most popular work was in television. He acted in a variety of comedies and dramas, including The Lone Ranger (1956), Mister Ed (1965), Hawaii Five-0 (1969), Hawaiian Eye (1959–63), Get Smart (1968–70), and Here’s Lucy (1968–69). Yung also had a recurring role in the last season of the John Forsythe series Bachelor Father (1960–61). Yung’s best-known television role, however, was as Hop Sing on Bonanza, a character that appeared for fourteen seasons. Never a member of the regular cast and always relegated to guest star status, Yung played a character who did not appear in every episode but did appear in the pilot episode and over one hundred others.

While continuing to make television and film appearances, Yung worked other jobs to earn money. A skilled Cantonese chef, Yung sometimes gave cooking demonstrations in department stores. He wrote The Great Wok Cookbook in 1974—a book dedicated to his father.

In 1972, Yung was a hostage on a Pacific Southwest Airlines flight that was hijacked out of San Francisco by two Bulgarian nationalists seeking political asylum in Siberia. Yung was one of three passengers wounded by gunfire when the Federal Bureau of Investigation stormed the plane and killed the hijackers.

Yung’s last film appearance was in Sam Marlow, Private Eye (1980). That same year, the actor died in his sleep of carbon monoxide poisoning; he had been using an oven to cure clayware, which he sold as part of a home business. The actor Pernell Roberts, who played Adam Cartwright on Bonanza, delivered the eulogy at Yung’s funeral.

Significance

Victor Sen Yung was a prominent character actor in film and television during a time when Chinese American actors were mostly relegated to small, stereotypical roles. Even though Yung was never a leading man and often played secondary parts and one-dimensional characters, he is remembered for his roles in the Charlie Chan films and the TV series Bonanza. He left a wide array of performances for generations to appreciate.

Bibliography

Berlin, Howard M. The Charlie Chan Film Encyclopedia. Jefferson: McFarland, 2000. Print. Reference work contains capsule biographies of cast members and a complete filmography relating the films in the series.

Hanke, Ken. Charlie Chan at the Movies: History, Filmography, and Criticism. Jefferson: McFarland, 1989. Print. The films are presented in chronological order with full cast and credits, synopses, and evaluations. Biographical details on the three most famous actors to portray Chan and background information on series directors and supporting players are included.

Shapiro, Melany. Bonanza: The Definitive Ponderosa Companion. Nipomo: Cyclone, 1997. Print. Provides summaries of episodes, biographies of main and supporting actors.