Keye Luke (Chinese: 陸錫麒; pinyin: Lù Xīqí; Jyutping: Luk6 Sek3kei4; June 18, 1904 – January 12, 1991) was a Chinese-born American actor and visual artist. He was the first Chinese-American contract player signed by RKO, Universal Pictures, 20th Century-Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild, and was one of the most prominent Asian actors of American cinema in the mid-20th century.
Luke notably portrayed Lee Chan, the "Number One Son" in the Charlie Chan films, the original Kato in the Green Hornet film serials (1939–41), the voice of Brak on the animated television series Space Ghost cartoons (1966–67), Kwai Chang Caine's mentor Master Po on the television series Kung Fu (1972–75), and Mr. Wing in the Gremlins (1984) and its sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990).
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Early life
Luke was born in Canton (Guangzhou) in 1904, during the Qing dynasty. His father, Lee Luke, was a second-generation Chinese American born in San Francisco in 1880. His mother, Down Cook, was from Guangzhou. Luke's parents met while his father was on one of several trips to China. When he was still a young child, he and his family moved back to the United States, settling in Seattle, Washington. Luke was raised in Seattle Chinatown, where Luke's father established an art/import shop in Seattle Chinatown.
In Seattle, Luke attended Franklin High School, where he contributed cartoons and illustrations to school publications. He attended the University of Washington for a brief time, studying engineering. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1944.
Luke had four siblings who all moved from Seattle to California during the Great Depression. His younger brother Edwin Luke also became an actor in the Charlie Chan series. The Luke family includes Washington assistant attorney-general Wing Luke.
Career
Artist
Before becoming an actor, he was an artist in Seattle and, later, Hollywood. Luke worked on several of the murals inside Grauman's Chinese Theatre. He did some of the original artwork for the pressbook of the original King Kong (1933). Luke also painted a mural for the casino set in The Shanghai Gesture (1941).
He published a limited edition set of pen and ink drawings of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the 1950s. He also created illustrations for the books The Unfinished Song of Achmed Mohammed by Earle Liederman, Blessed Mother Goose by Frank Scully and an edition of Messer Marco Polo by Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne (unpublished). Other artwork completed by Luke included the dust jackets for books published in the 1950s and 1960s. It was through his studio art work that he was recruited for his earliest movie roles.
Acting
Luke made his film debut for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in The Painted Veil (1934), and played his first major role, as Charlie Chan's eldest son, Lee Chan (called "Number One Son" by his father) in Charlie Chan in Paris (1935). He became a regular in the series, where Lee Chan alternately helped and distracted his father in each of his murder cases. Lee Chan is culturally American and was an Olympic Gold Medalist in 100-metre swimming in Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937). Luke appeared seven times as Lee Chan opposite Warner Oland's Charlie Chan. He left the Charlie Chan series in 1938, shortly after Oland died. The unfinished Oland-Luke film Charlie Chan at the Ringside was completed as Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938), with Luke now opposite Peter Lorre.
Luke worked prolifically with several Hollywood studios. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast him in a recurring role in its Dr. Kildare film series, and Monogram Pictures featured him in its Frankie Darro comedies and starred him as Mr. Wong in Phantom of Chinatown. Unlike Boris Karloff, who preceded him in the Mr. Wong role, Luke played the detective without any exotic touches. His Mr. Wong, of Chinese descent and able to speak Chinese, was otherwise an ordinary American detective with no trace of a foreign accent.
RKO Radio Pictures used Luke in its The Falcon series and Mexican Spitfire. Luke also worked at Universal Pictures, where he played the valet/chauffeur Kato, the title character's sidekick in its Green Hornet serials. Universal mounted a low-budget serial consisting largely of action footage from older films; Luke was hired to match old footage of Sabu in the serial Lost City of the Jungle (1946).
Luke returned to the Chan mysteries, which were then being produced by Monogram and starred Roland Winters as Chan. "Number One Son" appeared in the last two Chan features, The Feathered Serpent (1948), along with "Number Two Son" Tommy Chan (Victor Sen Yung) in their only appearance together, and Sky Dragon (1949). In both of these films, Luke was older than the actor playing his father. Luke had a featured Broadway role in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song, directed by Gene Kelly in 1958. In the original cast album he sang the part of Mr. Wang, the family patriarch.
Luke continued to play character parts in motion pictures. He had a featured role in The Chairman (1969) starring Gregory Peck. He dubbed the voice of the evil Mr. Han (played by Shih Kien) in Enter the Dragon (1973) starring Bruce Lee. Luke played the mysterious old Chinatown shopowner Mr. Wing in the two Gremlins movies and he had a significant role in Woody Allen's movie Alice (1990).
Honors
Luke was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Asian/Pacific American Artists in 1986. For his contribution to show business, he was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on the sidewalk in front of 7000 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal life
Luke married his wife Ethel Davis in 1942, who predeceased him in 1979. They had one child.
Death
Luke died of a stroke on January 12, 1991, at the age of 86. He is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.
Legacy
Writer and filmmaker Timothy Tau wrote, directed and produced a short film about Keye Luke's earlier life and work, entitled Keye Luke, which premiered at the 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival as a Visual Communications Armed with a Camera Fellowship film. The film was also the Closing Night choice of the inaugural 2013 Seattle Asian American Film Festival. Feodor Chin starred as Keye Luke. Archie Kao starred as Edwin Luke, Keye Luke's brother. Kelvin Han Yee starred as Lee Luke, Keye Luke's father.
