Willie Fung
Fung inSecret Valley (1937)
Born	(1896-03-03)3 March 1896 Canton,Great Qing
Died	16 April 1945(1945-04-16) (aged 49) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Other names	Willy Fung
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1922–1944

Willie Fung (3 March 1896 – 16 April 1945) was a Chinese-American film actor who played supporting roles in 125 American films from 1922 to 1944. Like many Chinese actors working in Hollywood during the era, he often played Japanese characters.^[1]

Fung was born inCanton during the waning years of theQing Dynasty.^[2] He made a name for himself as an actor on the stage in San Francisco.^[3] After moving to Los Angeles after his uncle's peanut^[4] business collapsed during theDepression of 1920-1921, Fung made his film debut in 1922 inHurricane's Gal. The majority of his roles were inWesterns and dramas.

Behind the scenes, he was an advocate for fair treatment of studio actors,^[4] and was reportedly an acquaintance ofJean Harlow.^[5] While maintaining his acting career, he ran his own Chinese restaurant: New Moon Café in East Hollywood.^[6][7][4]

Fung died of a coronary occlusion in Los Angeles on April 16, 1945 at the age of 49.^[8] He is buried inAngelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.^[9][10]

Willie Fung experienced racist typecasting throughout his career. As Hal Erickson^[who?] scaldingly said: "Chinese character actor Willie Fung spent his entire Hollywood career imprisoned by the Hollywood Stereotype Syndrome...Fung was the personification of the 'Yellow Peril'...buck-toothed, pigtailed, pidgin-English-spouting comedy relief."^[11]

Despite being in 125 films over the course of 22 years of acting, his efforts were unappreciated during his time due to racism, and afterwards by critics and historians for having played racially stereotyped roles.^[4]

• Willie Fung atIMDb
• Willie Fung at All Movies Guide

• Chinese male film actors
• Chinese male silent film actors
• American male film actors
• American male silent film actors
• 20th-century American male actors
• Male Western (genre) film actors
• 1896 births
• 1945 deaths
• Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
• Chinese emigrants to the United States
• Male actors from Guangdong
• Male actors from Guangzhou
• 20th-century Chinese male actors

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