Lee Tong Foo

Lee Tung Foo was a Chinese American vaudeville performer who later turned to film acting, singing in English, German and Latin. Born in Watsonville, California, to Chinese immigrants, he began in vaudeville in 1905 and spent 14 years touring the United States, Canada and Europe, mixing operatic and popular songs with comedic patter and impressions of Irish, Scottish and Chinese characters. He left the vaudeville stage during the 1920s, then returned to theater work in the 1930s, taking small parts before playing Wang Yun in The Skull Murder Mystery in 1932. Later he was Mr. Wong's household servant in The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939), and he appeared in Phantom of Chinatown (1940). Across at least 39 films he was usually cast as cooks, waiters, laundrymen and other immigrant workers. He also had a part in The Lone Ranger in 1950, and his final film role, uncredited, came in The Manchurian Candidate. He died in 1966.