Keye Luke

Keye Luke was a Chinese-born American actor. He was best known for playing Lee Chan, the "Number One Son" in the Charlie Chan films, the original Kato in the 1939-1941 Green Hornet film serials, and Master Po in the television series, Kung Fu. He was the first Chinese-American contract player signed with RKO, Universal, and MGM and was one of the most prominent Asian actors of American cinema in the mid-twentieth century. Luke was born in Guangzhou, China to a father who owned an art shop, but grew up in Seattle. He was part of the Luke family, a relative of Wing Luke, namesake of Seattle's... Wing Luke Asian Museum. He had four siblings who all migrated to California during the Depression. His younger brother Edwin Luke also became an actor in the Charlie Chan series. Luke became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1944—in a moment fictionally recreated in Lisa See's novel Shanghai Girls. Before becoming an actor he was a local artist in Seattle and, later, Hollywood, working on several of the murals inside Grauman's Chinese Theater.
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