Ke Huy Quan (/ˌkiːhwiːˈkwɑːn/KEE-hwee-KWAHN;[4]Vietnamese: Quan Kế Huy;[3] born August 20, 1970[5][6]), also known as Jonathan Ke Quan, is a Vietnam-born American actor. As a child actor, Quan rose to fame playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Data in The Goonies (1985). Following a few roles as a young adult in the 1990s, he took a 19-year acting hiatus, during which he worked as a stunt choreographer and assistant director.
Quan became a child actor at age 13, starring as Harrison Ford's 12-year-old sidekick Short Round in the Steven Spielberg film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984.[13] The casting director auditioned a number of children at Castelar Elementary School, including Quan's younger brother.[14] He described the role as "one of the happiest times of my life".[11] For his performance, he was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.[15] In 1985, Quan co-starred in The Goonies as a member of the eponymous group of children, the inventor Richard "Data" Wang. He played a pickpocket orphan in the 1986 Taiwanese movie It Takes a Thief. In 1987, he appeared in the Japanese movie Passengers (Passenjā Sugisarishi Hibi [ja]) with the Japanese idol singer Honda Minako. He played Sam on the short-lived TV series Together We Stand (1986–1987) and played Jasper Kwong in the sitcom Head of the Class from 1990 to 1991. In 1991 he starred in the movie Breathing Fire, and had a small role in Encino Man the following year. He played the starring role in the 1993 Mandarin-language Taiwan TV show Eunuch & Carpenter, which ran for forty episodes.[16][1] He also starred in the 1996 Hong Kong-Vietnam co-production Red Pirate.
He studied Taekwondo under Philip Tan on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and later trained under Tao-liang Tan.[17]
2000–2020: Acting sabbatical and other work
As an adult, Quan found it difficult to find acting work in the United States. He eventually quit acting and enrolled in the film program at University of Southern California.[18][19] During his time there, he edited a comedy horror short film titled Voodoo alongside his friend and fellow student Gregg Bishop, who directed the film.[19]Voodoo won the Audience Award at the 2000 Slamdance Film Festival, and continues to be shown to USC students to this day.[20] After graduating from USC, Quan was asked by Corey Yuen to go to Toronto, Ontario, to help choreograph fighting sequences in X-Men (2000).[18][14] For the next decade, he worked behind the scenes on various productions in Asia and the United States.[14] He again helped Yuen as a stunt choreographer for The One (2001).[21] Quan worked as assistant director on Wong Kar-wai's 2046 (2004).[14]
2021–present: Return to acting and upcoming projects
Quan was inspired to return to acting following the success of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018.[22] That same year, the filmmaking duo Daniels began casting for their film Everything Everywhere All at Once. They struggled to cast an actor in the role of Waymond Wang, a character who would appear in three different incarnations of the film. Co-director Daniel Kwan stumbled upon Quan on Twitter. Two weeks after getting a talent agent, Quan received a call to audition for the film.[19] In January 2020, Quan was announced as a cast member of Everything Everywhere All at Once.[23] The film was released in March 2022 to overwhelming acclaim, becoming the most-awarded film of all time,[24] with Quan's performance receiving near unanimous praise and media attention, eventually leading to him winning a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Academy Award for his role. The Screen Actors Guild Award win made him the first Asian man to win any individual category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, with his win of the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. He was the first Vietnamese-American actor to be nominated in that category.[25][26][27][28] Quan is one of two actors of Asian descent to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the other being Haing S. Ngor in 1985,[29] and is the first Vietnam-born actor to win an Academy Award.[30]
Quan is of Han Chinese ancestry from the Hoa ethnic minority group of Vietnam. He is fluent in English, Vietnamese, Cantonese, and Mandarin.[38] Quan is married to Echo Quan, who served as the on-set translator for Everything Everywhere All at Once,[39] and resides in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.[19][18] Quan holds a second-degreeblack belt in taekwondo; he started taking classes after learning from a taekwondo instructor for his role in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.[19] He remains close friends with his Goonies co-star Jeff Cohen, who is also Quan's entertainment lawyer and helped Quan negotiate his contract to star in Everything Everywhere All at Once.[14]
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^ a b"Quan Kế Huy nhớ thời chật vật ở Hollywood". VTV (in Vietnamese). January 11, 2023. Archived from the original on February 8, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
^"Ke Huy Quan, Oscar-winning actor, on Reuniting With Harrison Ford & 'EEAAO' | W Magazine". youtube.com. W Magazine. March 13, 2023. Retrieved August 21, 2024. My name is Ke Huy Quan.;
^ a bDax Shepard; Monica Padman (July 15, 2024). "Ke Huy Quan". Armchair Expert (Podcast). Event occurs at 3:59. Actually, I was born in 1970. It's wrong on IMDB.
^ a b cHead, Jonathan; Vo, Tran (March 15, 2023). "Why Vietnam doesn't want to claim Ke Huy Quan". Retrieved July 18, 2024.
^"Time 100". Time. April 13, 2023. Archived from the original on April 13, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
^Tamagawa, Emiko (April 8, 2022). "Actor Ke Huy Quan returns in front of the camera in 'Everything, Everywhere, All at Once'". WBUR-FM. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^Youngs, Ian (March 13, 2023). "Ke Huy Quan: From forgotten child star of Indiana Jones and The Goonies to Oscars hero". BBC. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^Bedigan, Mike (March 13, 2023). "Ke Huy Quan's triumphant return to the world of mainstream acting". Yahoo! News. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^ a bLee, Ann (November 14, 2022). "'I didn't have a single audition for a year': Goonies and Indiana Jones child star Ke Huy Quan on finding fame again". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
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^Canby, Vincent (May 23, 1984). "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 12, 2014. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
^ a b c d eEbiri, Bilge (March 11, 2022). "In Another Life, Ke Huy Quan Was a Star". Vulture. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^"Past Saturn Awards". February 11, 2009. Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
^Della Cai (December 6, 2022). "Ke Huy Quan's True Hollywood Comeback". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
^Nick Mamatas (December 14, 2012). "10 reasons we still love The Goonies 25 years later". Syfy Wire. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
^ a b cIto, Robert (April 5, 2022). "Ke Huy Quan: From Short Round to Romantic Lead in Just Four Long Decades". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 3, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^ a b c d e fCollis, Clark (February 24, 2022). "What Short Round did next: The strange journeys of Ke Huy Quan". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on April 11, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^Wampler, Scott (March 13, 2023). "Wanna See Oscar-Winner Ke Huy Quan's Award-Winning Horror Short, VOODOO?". Fangoria. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^"The kid from Indiana Jones: What does he look like now?". Now. August 8, 2015. Archived from the original on August 10, 2015. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
^McEvoy, Colin (March 8, 2023). "Oscar Frontrunner Ke Huy Quan Had Quit Acting for Good. Crazy Rich Asians Brought Him Back". Biography.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
^Fleming, Mike Jr. (January 23, 2020). "A24 Reunites With 'Swiss Army Man' Directors; Finance & Distribute AGBO's 'Everything Everywhere All At Once'". Deadline. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
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^Thomas, Carly (February 26, 2023). "Michelle Yeoh Makes History with SAG Awards win: "This is for Every Single Girl That Looks Like Me"". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
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^Rosenbloom, Alli (February 27, 2023). "Ke Huy Quan makes history with SAG award win for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'". CNN. Archived from the original on March 1, 2023. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
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^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved March 15, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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Bibliography
Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p. 387.
External links
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