James Hong

On being born and growing up in Minneapolis (and spending some time as a child in Hong Kong); on his parents; on listening to radio shows; on appearing on the radio contest show "Stairway to Stardom" and winning second place; on organizing shows during his years in the U.S. Army

On his comedy team "Hong and (Donald) Parker"; on appearing on You Bet Your Life; on quitting his engineering job to pursue a career in entertainment; "breakthrough" film roles in the '50s

On cliched roles offered to Asian-Americans that were "novelty" parts; on how he approached his role in the feature film Black Widow (1987); on impressions he did in his early days as a comic, including James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson

On auditioning for the Fireside Theatre episode "Bamboo Cross" and experience with director John Ford; on an incident with his Blood Alley director William Wellman; on stars Lana Turner and Lorne Greene; on his agent Bessie Loo, who represented Asian-American actors

On appearing as a regular in The New Adventures of Charlie Chan; on shooting in Europe; on J. Carrol Naish's portrayal of Charlie Chan; on getting fired when he missed a cue

On a non-cliche part he played on Dragnet; on a guest-starring role on The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin; on the vast number of TV productions during the '50s-'60s at Warner Brothers; on acting groups he got started

On leading a temperate lifestyle; on appearing in an episode of Sugarfoot, directed by Robert Altman; on Raymond Burr's technique for reading cue cards; on Have Gun - Will Travel star Richard Boone's acting technique

On a "one take" scene he did with George Takei on MacGyver; on his experience filming the feature film "Blade Runner" and the role he played ("I just do eyes"); on running into George Takei when both he and Takei were auditioning for Sulu on Star Trek

On appearing on Kung Fu; on working with David Carradine; on criticism of Carradine's portrayal of Caine; on other Asian-American actors Hong worked with, including Keye Luke; on his favorite roles on Kung Fu; on the set of Kung Fu (redressed from "Camelot"); briefly on his guest role on All in the Family; on I Dream of Jeannie's Larry Hagman

On his experiences on Hawaii Five-O; on star Jack Lord

On the TV movie Pueblo, where he played a particularly effective scene with Hal Holbrook; on how he came to co-write the story for an episode of Bachelor Father

On his approach to the role of the maitre d' on the classic Seinfeld episode "The Chinese Restaurant"; on meeting John Huston (on the set of Chinatown)

On appearing on The X-Files and The West Wing; on the pleasant atmosphere on the set of The Big Bang Theory; on the treatment of Asian-American actors; on the number of roles he's played in his career