Richard Loo (October 1, 1903 – November 20, 1983) was an American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1982. Chinese by ancestry and Hawaiian by birth, Loo spent his youth in Hawaii, then moved to California as a teenager. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and began a career in business. The stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent economic depression forced Loo to start over. He became involved with amateur, then professional, theater companies and in 1931 made his first film. Like most Asian actors in non-Asian countries, he played primarily small, stereotypical roles, though he rose quickly to familiarity, if not fame, in a number of films. His stern features led him to be a favorite movie villain, and the outbreak of World War II gave him greater prominence in roles as vicious Japanese soldiers in such successful pictures as The Purple Heart (1944) and God Is My Co-Pilot (1945). Loo was most often typecast as the Japanese enemy pilot, spy or interrogator during World War II. In the film The Purple Heart he plays a Japanese Imperial Army general who commits suicide because he cannot break down the American prisoners. According to his daughter, Beverly Jane Loo, he didn't mind being typecast as a villain in these movies as he felt very patriotic about playing those parts. In 1944 he appeared as a Chinese army lieutenant opposite Gregory Peck in The Keys of the Kingdom. He had a rare heroic role as a war-weary Japanese-American soldier in Samuel Fuller's Korean War classic The Steel Helmet (1951), but he spent much of the latter part of his career performing stock roles in films and minor television roles. In 1974 he appeared as the Thai billionaire tycoon Hai Fat in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, opposite Roger Moore and Christopher Lee. Loo was also a teacher of Shaolin monks in three episodes of the 1972–1975 hit TV series Kung Fu and made a further three appearances as a different character. His last acting appearance was in The Incredible Hulk TV series in 1981, but he continued to act in Toyota commercials into 1982. Loo died of a cerebral hemorrhage on November 20, 1983, age 80. [biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]
95 movies · 30 shows
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002·5.8
Kung Fu: The Movie
1986·5.3
Collision Course: Truman vs. MacArthur
1976·4.0
The Man with the Golden Gun
1974·6.5
Kung Fu: The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon
1972·7.2
Chandler
1971·4.6
One More Train to Rob
1971·5.4
Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Matter of Humanities
1969·10.0
The Sand Pebbles
1966·7.2
A Girl Named Tamiko
1962·5.8
Diamond Head
1962·5.5
Confessions of an Opium Eater
1962·5.8
The Scavengers
1959·7.5
Hong Kong Affair
1958·10.0
The Quiet American
1958·5.8
Battle Hymn
1957·6.6
Around the World in 80 Days
1956·6.7
The Conqueror
1956·3.6
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
1955·6.0
House of Bamboo
1955·6.2
Soldier of Fortune
1955·6.0
The Shanghai Story
1954·5.0
Living It Up
1954·6.5
The Bamboo Prison
1954·6.4
Hell and High Water
1954·6.0
China Venture
1953·7.8
Destination Gobi
1953·5.9
Target Hong Kong
1953·5.8
5 Fingers
1952·7.5
I Was an American Spy
1951·6.6
The Steel Helmet
1951·7.0
Malaya
1949·6.9
The Clay Pigeon
1949·5.7
State Department: File 649
1949·5.0
Rogues' Regiment
1948·6.8
The Cobra Strikes
1948·7.5
Half Past Midnight
1948·7.0
To the Ends of the Earth
1948·5.9
Women in the Night
1948·4.0
Beyond Our Own
1947·9.0
Web of Danger
1947·5.5
Seven Were Saved
1947·6.5
Tokyo Rose
1946·7.0
Prison Ship
1945·6.5
First Yank into Tokyo
1945·6.0
Back to Bataan
1945·6.1
China's Little Devils
1945·6.0
China Sky
1945·5.1
Betrayal from the East
1945·6.4
God Is My Co-Pilot
1945·7.1
The Keys of the Kingdom
1944·7.1
The Story of Dr. Wassell
1944·6.4
The Purple Heart
1944·6.1
So Proudly We Hail
1943·5.9
Destroyer
1943·6.8
Behind the Rising Sun
1943·6.1
Yanks Ahoy
1943·6.6
China
1943·6.9
Flight for Freedom
1943·5.8
The Falcon Strikes Back
1943·5.6
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
1943·6.7
Road to Morocco
1942·6.9
Across the Pacific
1942·6.6
Wake Island
1942·5.9
Star Spangled Rhythm
1942·6.2
Secret of the Wastelands
1941·5.5
Doomed to Die
1940·5.7
The Fatal Hour
1940·5.7
Barricade
1939·6.5
Daughter of the Tong
1939·5.2
Island of Lost Men
1939·5.6
Lady of the Tropics
1939·6.5
Miracles for Sale
1939·6.5
Mr. Wong in Chinatown
1939·5.4
Panama Patrol
1939·7.5
North of Shanghai
1939·8.0
Shadows Over Shanghai
1938·5.3
Too Hot to Handle
1938·6.0
Blondes at Work
1938·6.3
West of Shanghai
1937·5.8
That Certain Woman
1937·5.6
The Good Earth
1937·6.3
The Soldier and the Lady
1937·7.3
Lost Horizon
1937·6.9
Stowaway
1936·6.7
Mad Holiday
1936·6.4
Shadow of Chinatown
1936·5.2
Roaming Lady
1936·7.0
China Seas
1935·6.2
Stranded
1935·6.0
Student Tour
1934·6.7
Now and Forever
1934·6.8
The Bitter Tea of General Yen
1932·6.3
The Secrets of Wu Sin
1932·6.5
War Correspondent
1932·5.5