James Hong honored with the 2723rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Photo: Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Legendary Chinese American actor and U.S. Army veteran James Hong has been honored with the 2723rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At 93-years-old, Hong is the oldest honoree to receive a star, and he joins fellow Asian recipients like Anna May Wong, Mako, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu. Hong’s illustrious career includes over 700 credits including 469 TV shows, 149 feature films, 32 short films, and 22 video games, including iconic films like “Blade Runner” and “Chinatown,” animated features like “Kung Fu Panda” and “Mulan,” and classic television shows like “Hawaii Five-O (the original)” and “Seinfeld.” His latest credits are for “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “Turning Red.”
Speaking to Vanity Fair about the honor, Hong said, “The star is going to be in front of Madame Tussauds Hollywood, next to the TCL Chinese Theatre [formerly Grauman’s Chinese Theatre]. I’m happy with the location. When I first came to Hollywood, I used to go to that theater and put my feet in those celebrity footprints in the cement. I thought, ‘Maybe someday I’ll have something here.’ It’s a great honor. That it was funded by my fans means a great deal to me.”
Fellow actors Daniel Dae Kim and Jamie Lee Curtis were guest speakers and there to help him celebrate.
In 2020, Kim took on the instrumental role of starting a GoFundMe to raise the funds needed for the creation and installation of Hong’s star, and then helped submit Hong’s application. The GoFundMe went on to raise over $55k. In the GoFundMe, Kim wrote, “This man epitomizes the term ‘working actor,’ and that's not even taking into account all he's done to help further representation for actors of color. Not only was he one of the few who worked steadily when there were even fewer roles than there are now, but he also served the Asian American community by co-creating the legendary East West Players theater company with fellow pioneers like Mako and Nobu McCarthy, just to name a few. Let's show this man the respect and love his career has merited by getting him a Star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame! We all know what an important part of Hollywood lore the Walk of Fame has been over the years. Tourists from around the world flock to these star-studded blocks stretching across Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. If you're reading this you probably agree that James deserves to be among them.”
Speaking to Vanity Fair via email, Kim said, “I started the campaign simply because many of us in the Asian American community have known about James’s work for decades. I’d learned that he’d actually been rejected for a star in the past, so I thought a more grassroots campaign might help the decision-makers see how worthy he truly is. I posted the idea on social media and started a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the cost of the star. It ended up being fully funded in a matter of days, which to me was an affirmation that I wasn’t the only one who felt this way about his body of work. It was heartwarming to know how much love there was for him, and what was notable was that the support wasn’t just from the Asian American community. It spanned every demographic…. In fact, I hope that James’s recognition improves the prospects for actors from all underrepresented groups whose work may have been traditionally overlooked.”
