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Peter Kwong, a martial artist and actor who was known for movies such as Big Trouble in Little China, and The Golden Child died in his sleep overnight Tuesday. He was 73.
His agent, Theo Caesar, confirmed the death to Entertainment Weekly and noted his client was “a great guy.”
In Big Trouble in Little China, the 1986 action comedy costarring Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall, Kwong portrayed Rain, one of the Three Storms (the others are Carter Wong’s Thunder and James Pax’s Lightning) that Russell faces in his mission in what has become a cult classic.
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Also in 1986, Kwong appeared in The Golden Child, which costarred Eddie Murphy as a private detective looking for a special missing child.
The actor’s professional acting career began in the mid-ʼ70s, with appearances on popular TV series such as Wonder Woman, Little House on the Prairie, Dynasty, 227, and Miami Vice.
In his big year for film roles, Kwong was also cast in 1986’s Never Too Young to Die, which starred a pre-Full House John Stamos as an action hero and costarred Gene Simmons and Vanity. (Kwong himself appeared on Full House in 1988.) He costarred alongside Christian Slater in the 1989 action drama Gleaming the Cube.
Kwong’s work in the late ʼ80s and beyond was often on TV. He appeared on series such as The Wayans Brothers, Malcolm & Eddie, General Hospital, My Wife and Kids, JAG, and Drake & Josh. One of his final appearances was a 2020 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In addition to acting, Kwong was “a true champion of union rights,” his agent noted. The actor served on various boards, including the SAG National Board of Directors for more than 10 years and for four years on the Television Academy Board of Governors, according to Deadline.
In 2016, Kwong was one of the dozens of people who signed a letter protesting jokes made about Asians during the Oscars broadcast.
Paramount Pictures
“I was there at the Academy Awards, and I was shocked because [Academy President] Cheryl Boone-Isaacs went up and talked about diversity and then right after that comes the jokes from Chris Rock and Sacha Baron Cohen,” Kwong told Deadline of the offending incidents. “Some people have the attitude, ‘Why can’t you have a sense of humor?’ and ‘in humor there are no boundaries.’ It’s because it gives people permission to not only continue it but to escalate it as well.”
The Academy of Motion Pictures, the organization behind the annual awards show, later apologized for the “tone-deaf approach to its portrayal of Asians.”
In 2023, Kwong was given the Snow Leopard Award for Outstanding Cinematic Achievement at the Asian World Film Festival.
