 | This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Aki Aleong" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Aki Aleong | |
|---|---|
| Born | Assing Aleong (1934-12-19) December 19, 1934 (age 90) Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1956–present |
Assing "Aki" Aleong (born December 19, 1934) is a Trinidadian-born American character actor and singer who has also been active in songwriting and musical production.
Biography
He was born to Henry Leong (Aleong), a cook from Hong Kong, and Agnes Vera Gonsalves from St. Vincent, British West Indies.
His first important role was in the 1957 movie No Down Payment, which starred Joanne Woodward and Jeffrey Hunter. He is probably best known for portraying Senator Hidoshi during the first season of Babylon 5, as well as portraying Mr. Chiang, the aide to Nathan Bates in the weekly series of V: The Series. He also portrayed the character of Colonel Mitamura in Farewell to the King. He owned the Gingham Dog fast food restaurant in Hollywood, California, c. 1965.
Aleong co-wrote and produced the nonsense doo-wop record Shombalor by Sheriff and the Ravels for Vee-Jay records in 1958.
He has a listing in the Top Pop Singles 1955–2008 by Joel Whitburn, with "Trade Winds, Trade Winds" appearing in November 1961. The song peaked at No. 101 in Billboard on the "Bubbling Under the Hot 100" charts, and it remained on the chart for four weeks. According to an interview with Aleong on YouTube ("Part 1 of Twyman Creative Insider Interview with Aki Aleong") the song was Number 1 in Los Angeles in 1961. While that is not exactly accurate, "Trade Winds, Trade Winds" did reach Number 10 on KDAY and Number 11 on KRLA, two L.A. Top 40 stations.
Aleong is a member of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) and is the executive director for Asians in Media.
He starred as "Agent X" in the Wong Fu Productions YouTube short starring Ryan Higa, Agents of Secret Stuff.
He appeared on the television show, Hazel as Mike Shiga and, in 1968, on the TV show The Virginian saison 6 épisode 7 (Ah Sing vs Wyoming) as Ah Sing. He also played the manager of a Japanese restaurant in Season 2, Episode 6 of Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001).
References
- "Awesome Album Covers: Aki Aleong and the Nobles' "Come Surf with Me"". Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
- Vee-Jay 304 (45 RPM record)
- Aki Aleong lifeisreallybeautiful.com Archived July 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Aki Aleong at IMDb
- 1934 births
- Living people
- American male film actors
- American male television actors
- American male singer-songwriters
- Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United States
- Musicians from Port of Spain
- American people of Hong Kong descent
- 20th-century American male actors
- 20th-century American singer-songwriters
- 20th-century American male singers