Victor Sen Yung

Acting · 1.2 popularity

Age

110

Movies

102

Born: October 18, 1915 – November 1, 1980
From: San Francisco, California, USA

Biography

Victor Sen Young (born Victor Cheung Young or Sen Yew Cheung; October 18, 1915 – body discovered November 9, 1980) was an American character actor, best known for playing Jimmy Chan in the Charlie Chan films and Hop Sing in the Western series Bonanza. He was born in San Francisco, California to Gum Yung Sen and his first wife, both immigrants from China. His mother died during the flu epidemic of 1919. His father placed Victor and his younger sister, Rosemary, in a children's shelter, and returned to his homeland to seek another wife. He returned in 1922 with his new wife, Lovi Shee, forming a household with his two children. Sen Yung made his first significant acting debut in the 1938 film Charlie Chan in Honolulu, as the Chinese detective's "number two son", Jimmy Chan. Sen Yung played Jimmy Chan in 11 Charlie Chan films between 1938 and 1942. Moonlighting from the popular Chan series, Sen Yung won critical acclaim playing the nuanced role of Ong Chi Seng, a young attorney assisting Howard Joyce, in defending Leslie Crosbie, in The Letter. Like other Chinese-American actors, he was cast in Japanese parts during World War II, like his role as the treacherous Japanese-American Joe Totsuiko in the 1942 Humphrey Bogart film Across the Pacific. During World War II he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces just as his erstwhile co-star Sidney Toler was set to revive the dormant Charlie Chan series at Monogram Pictures. Sen Yung's military obligations forced him to decline rejoining the series immediately, but Monogram gave him a standing invitation to work there after his tour of duty. Sen Yung's military service included work in training films at the First Motion Picture Unit and a role in the Army Air Forces' play and film Winged Victory. In 1946 Sen Yung resumed his Hollywood career at Monogram, now billed as Victor Sen Young, and reunited with Sidney Toler. Toler's health was failing; Monogram was conserving Toler's waning energy, limiting his scenes and giving him long rest periods during filming. To relieve the burden on Toler, Monogram entrusted much of the action to Victor Sen Young; he and either Mantan Moreland or Willie Best shared much of the footage in Toler's final three films, Dangerous Money, Shadows Over Chinatown, and The Trap. The addition of Moreland as Chan's black chauffeur, Birmingham Brown, reflected the fact that by this time the Chan pictures had a significant following among black Americans, who liked a film series that for once did not feature a white hero. Moreland's popularity in the Chan pictures was so great that he was booked for a nationwide vaudeville tour. Following Toler's death in 1947, Victor Sen Young appeared in five of the remaining six Charlie Chan features. His character "Jimmy" was renamed "Tommy". Victor Sen Young continued to work in motion pictures and television in roles ranging from featured players (affable or earnest Asian characters) to bit roles (clerks, houseboys, waiters, etc.). Arguably even more than for his work in the Charlie Chan films, Victor Sen Yung is remembered as "Hop Sing," the irascible cook and general factotum on the iconic television series Bonanza, appearing in 107 episodes between 1959 and 1973. Sen Yung was also an accomplished and talented chef. He frequently appeared on cooking programs and authored The Great Wok Cookbook in 1974.

Works

102 films

Blood Alley

19556.0

The Movie Orgy

19686.7

The Good Earth

19376.3

The Hunters

19585.8

The Hawaiians

19705.5

Charlie Chan at Treasure Island

19396.7

The Killer Elite

19755.8

The Sniper

19526.7

The Letter

19407.3

The Flame

19475.8

The Blue Gardenia

19536.5

Men in War

19576.6

Forbidden

19536.3

A Ticket to Tomahawk

19506.0

Across the Pacific

19426.6

Soldier of Fortune

19556.0

Woman on the Run

19506.8

The Red Pony

197310.0

The Left Hand of God

19556.3

The Trap

19466.8

Flight to Hong Kong

19567.3

A Yank on the Burma Road

19425.7

Grounds for Marriage

19515.0

The Rawhide Years

19565.6

Double or Nothing

19376.7

The Man with Bogart's Face

19806.0

Charlie Chan in Panama

19406.8

Cripple Creek

19526.0

The Shanghai Story

19545.0

The Breaking Point

19507.1

Dead Men Tell

19416.5

Moontide

19426.4

International Settlement

19386.0

Flower Drum Song

19616.3

Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise

19406.8

Red Light

19495.9

The Shanghai Chest

19486.6

The Crimson Key

19474.5

Docks of New Orleans

19486.1

Hong Kong

19525.1

Kung Fu: The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon

19727.2

Jet Attack

19585.4

Winged Victory

19446.3

The Law and the Lady

19516.4

Trader Tom of the China Seas

195410.0

Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum

19407.7

The Chinese Ring

19475.1

Valley of Fire

195110.0

Torchy Blane in Chinatown

19396.8

State Department: File 649

19495.0

The Saga of Hemp Brown

19586.4

20,000 Men a Year

19396.2

Rogues' Regiment

19486.8

Charlie Chan in Reno

19396.5

G.I. War Brides

19469.0

Betrayal from the East

19456.4

Port of Hell

19547.0

Peking Express

19517.5

Thank You, Mr. Moto

19376.2

Dangerous Millions

19465.4

They Met in Bombay

19417.3

Key to the City

19506.5

And Baby Makes Three

19495.1

Accused of Murder

19564.8

Charlie Chan in Rio

19416.5

Jubilee Trail

19545.2

A Flea in Her Ear

19686.5

Chinatown at Midnight

19496.0

Dangerous Money

19465.9

Shadows Over Shanghai

19385.3

Charlie Chan in Honolulu

19386.5

The Golden Eye

19485.6

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

19495.5

Shadows Over Chinatown

19466.2

Murder Over New York

19406.2

She Demons

19584.8

Confessions of an Opium Eater

19625.8

To the Ends of the Earth

19485.9

China

19436.9

Jump Into Hell

19554.2

Lost Angel

19438.0

Mr. Moto Takes a Chance

19385.8

Manila Calling

19428.0

Half Past Midnight

19487.0

Dragon by the Tail

1961

The Feathered Serpent

19486.1

Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture

19496.1

The Mad Martindales

19427.5

The Sickle or the Cross

19497.0

Target Hong Kong

19535.8

Tuna Clipper

19497.8

Web of Danger

19475.5

Barricade

19396.5

Secret Agent of Japan

19425.5

Castle in the Desert

19427.1

The Groom Wore Spurs

19515.0

Little Tokyo, U.S.A.

19427.0

Escape to Paradise

19395.4

Intrigue

19475.6

Secrets of Monte Carlo

19518.0

The Family Nobody Wanted

1956

Night Plane from Chungking

19436.5