By Glenn Barnett
In the May issue of Around Alhambra, mention was made of actor Ke Huy Quan as a ‘Distinguished Alumnae’ of Alhambra High School for winning an Academy Award. Even before his family moved to Alhambra, Quan was a child actor and at 12 years old he landed the part of Short Round co-starring with Harrison Ford in the Steven Spielberg movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). Soon after that he would also star in another Spielberg movie, The Goonies (1985).
Quan began life in 1971 in Saigon, Vietnam. His family is ethnic Chinese, who were an unloved minority in Vietnam. In 1978, his family joined the ‘boat people’ fleeing the restrictive new government in the country. He, his father, and five brothers spent a year at a refugee camp in Hong Kong with hundreds of others fleeing Vietnam. The family remained there until receiving visas to the United States where they were reunited with Quan’s mother and three other siblings.
After graduation from Alhambra High School, Quan went to USC and studied in the school of Cinematic Arts. Unfortunately, after his promising start in acting he found that the parts available to Asian actors dried up for almost 20 years. He spent his time behind the camera, choreographing martial arts fight scenes in the U.S. and Hong Kong and serving as an assistant director. When he watched the success of the movie Crazy Rich Asians, he knew it was time to return to the big screen.
His agent gave him the script of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once and he loved it. He was cast to play the part of Waymond Wang opposite Michelle Yeoh, who he describes as, “The Queen of Martial Arts.” At the 2023 Academy Awards event, Yeoh took home the Oscar for Best Actress, while Quan accepted the Best Supporting Actor Award and a standing ovation that included his first mentor, Steven Spielberg. That year, he also won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award. He had come a long way from that refugee camp in Hong Kong and he is not done yet.
Quan signed on to the Disney + project, American Born Chinese, which was screened at the White House for President Biden. At the event, Quan introduced the President himself. He was next cast in the second season of the Marvel Universe project Loki for Disney + in which he portrays a quirky character who can fix anything. His performance earned him a Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. In June of 2023, Quan was invited to join The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a voting member and in December of last year, signed on as a voice actor for the movie Kung Fu Panda 4.
To paraphrase an old Hollywood saying, “It has taken a long time for this Alhambra High School Alumnae to become an overnight success.”
