Acting
Dec 17, 1906
San Francisco, California, USA
Kam Tong
Acting
Biography
Kam Tong (December 18, 1906 – November 8, 1969) was a Chinese-American actor. He was best known for his role as Hey Boy on the CBS television series Have Gun, Will Travel and as Dr. Li in the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song. Curiously, though appearing as a series regular on Have Gun, Will Travel he was never afforded a regular featured credit, always instead listed undistinguished from the support guest cast, perhaps an indication of inherent discrimination in that regard. Kam was also a regular on the short run CBS-TV series Mr. Garlund in 1960. He appeared in many movies, often as an uncredited Chinese, Japanese, or Filipino character. He appeared in many television shows, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Big Valley, The Time Tunnel, The Final War of Olly Winter, and I Spy. After serving in World War II in an OSS intelligence unit, he became involved in efforts to raise awareness over gun violence. He also owned and operated a restaurant called Shanghai Lil's in San Francisco. On November 8, 1969, Kam Tong died of non-communicable disease. At the time of his death, he was 63 years old. At the time of his death he survived by his large extended friends and family.
Feature Films (21)
Mike Edwards and Danny Burke fly a cropduster, but due to Danny's gambling debts, a local sheriff takes custody of it. Trying to earn money, they hitchhike to the World's Fair in Seattle and, while Danny tries to earn money playing poker, Mike cares for a small girl whose father has disappeared.
It Happened at the World's Fair
A young woman arrives in San Francisco's Chinatown, from Hong Kong, with the intention of marrying a rakish nightclub owner, unaware he is involved with one of his singers.
Flower Drum Song
Intended for military personnel and civilians in sensitive positions abroad, the film shows three playlets involving foreign agents maneuvering Americans into passing valuable intelligence to the Soviets or Red Chinese. It emphasizes the need to be wary of seemingly friendly strangers, whether one is in Europe or Japan.
Espionage Target: You
A widowed doctor of both Chinese and European descent falls in love with a married American correspondent in Hong Kong during China's Communist revolution.
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
Bud and Lou, two stranded American archaeologists, run afoul of an Egyptian cult with big plans to resurrect the mummified corpse of Klaris, guardian of his Princess Ara's treasure-filled tomb. When Lou accidentally eats the cursed medallion needed to find the ancient treasure, the two become targets of the cult's leader, his goons, a mysterious femme fatale, and the mummy of Klaris himself!
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
An American intelligence agent, aided by a Chinese-American female agent, uses a time-travel belt to thwart Chinese operatives who are attempting to import to Los Angeles the materials to make an atomic bomb.
Dimension 5
Chinese villagers hire a mercenary and his team of karate experts to help rid them of a gangster and his henchman who are threatening their island.
Kill a Dragon
Eccentric wealthy old woman Lorinda Channing uses her insane brother, John Channing, to help her frighten their greedy relatives after her money.
The Hidden Hand
A single woman tries to keep her sister from another man by framing her for her husband's murder.
This Is My Love
An amnesiac wanders the streets of Manhattan, trying to solve the mystery of who he is.
Mister Buddwing
In order to get back into the good graces with his wife with whom he has had a misunderstanding, a young chemistry professor concocts a wild story that he is an undercover FBI agent. To help him with his story he enlists the aid of a friend who is a TV writer. The wife swallows the story and the film's climax takes place in the sub-basements of the Empire State Building. The professor and his friend, believing themselves prisoners on an enemy submarine, patriotically try to scuttle the vessel and succeed only in rocking the building.
Who Was That Lady?
Rick Leland makes no secret of the fact that he has no loyalty to his home country after he is court-martialed out of the army and boards a Japanese ship for the Orient in late 1941. But has Leland really been booted out, or is there some other motive for his getting close to fellow passenger Doctor Lorenz?
Across the Pacific
Television & Series (18)
The Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series, written around a theme of time travel adventure. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen's third science fiction television series, released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran for one season of 30 episodes. Reruns are viewable on cable and by internet streaming. A pilot for a new series was produced in 2002, although it was not picked up.
The Time Tunnel
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on CBS television between 1958 and 1960. Two of its 48 episodes served as pilots for the 1950s television series The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables.
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.
Have Gun, Will Travel
The Shiloh Ranch in Wyoming Territory of the 1890s is owned in sequence by Judge Henry Garth, the Grainger brothers, and Colonel Alan MacKenzie. It is the setting for a variety of stories, many more based on character and relationships than the usual western.
