Soon- Tek Oh
Mulan actor who fought for meatier parts for Asian- Americans
In 1965, Pat Li of East West Players explained why the company, which she and eight others had started that year in Los Angeles to promote sub - stantive roles for Asian- American actors, was needed.
“You don’t know how tired you can get of always being Suzie Wong,” she said. “Or a houseboy.”
As if to prove the point, not long after ward, another East West founder, Soon-Tek Oh, landed one of his first television roles – as a houseboy.
It was in an episode of science- fiction series The Invaders. In his scene, which lasted less than a minute, Oh’s job was to usher David Vincent, th es how’ s lead character, played by Roy Thinnes, into a meeting with some other white characters. Oh spoke 17 words.
It must have been the kind of par t that irked him, and it certainly wasn’t the last such stereo typical role he played in a long career that includ - ed more than 100 TV and film appearances.
While keeping that busy schedule, Oh, who died April 4 in Los Angeles at 85, worked to broad en the types of roles available to Asian- American actors, first through East West Players and later through other theatre troupes he founded or guided.
The actor and producer Chil Kong, who said Oh died from Alzheimer’s disease, recalled how Oh took him under his wing in 1994 during a production in Boston of The Woman Warrior, a stage version of a pair of memoirs by Chi-