Victor Sen Yung

Victor Sen Young (born Victor Cheung Young or Sen Yew Cheung; October 18, 1915 – body discovered November 9, 1980) was an American character actor, best known for playing Jimmy Chan in the Charlie Chan films and Hop Sing in the Western series Bonanza. He was born in San Francisco, California to Gum Yung Sen and his first wife, both immigrants from China.

His mother died during the flu epidemic of 1919. His father placed Victor and his younger sister, Rosemary, in a children's shelter, and returned to his homeland to seek another wife. He returned in 1922 with his new wife, Lovi Shee, forming a household with his two children.

Sen Yung made his first significant acting debut in the 1938 film Charlie Chan in Honolulu, as the Chinese detective's "number two son", Jimmy Chan. Sen Yung played Jimmy Chan in 11 Charlie Chan films between 1938 and 1942. Moonlighting from the popular Chan series, Sen Yung won critical acclaim playing the nuanced role of Ong Chi Seng, a young attorney assisting Howard Joyce, in defending Leslie Crosbie, in The Letter. Like other Chinese-American actors, he was cast in Japanese parts during World War II, like his role as the treacherous Japanese-American Joe Totsuiko in the 1942 Humphrey Bogart film Across the Pacific.

During World War II he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces just as his erstwhile co-star Sidney Toler was set to revive the dormant Charlie Chan series at Monogram Pictures. Sen Yung's military obligations forced him to decline rejoining the series immediately, but Monogram gave him a standing invitation to work there after his tour of duty. Sen Yung's military service included work in training films at the First Motion Picture Unit and a role in the Army Air Forces' play and film Winged Victory.

In 1946 Sen Yung resumed his Hollywood career at Monogram, now billed as Victor Sen Young, and reunited with Sidney Toler. Toler's health was failing; Monogram was conserving Toler's waning energy, limiting his scenes and giving him long rest periods during filming. To relieve the burden on Toler, Monogram entrusted much of the action to Victor Sen Young; he and either Mantan Moreland or Willie Best shared much of the footage in Toler's final three films, Dangerous Money, Shadows Over Chinatown, and The Trap. The addition of Moreland as Chan's black chauffeur, Birmingham Brown, reflected the fact that by this time the Chan pictures had a significant following among black Americans, who liked a film series that for once did not feature a white hero. Moreland's popularity in the Chan pictures was so great that he was booked for a nationwide vaudeville tour.

Following Toler's death in 1947, Victor Sen Young appeared in five of the remaining six Charlie Chan features. His character "Jimmy" was renamed "Tommy".

Victor Sen Young continued to work in motion pictures and television in roles ranging from featured players (affable or earnest Asian characters) to bit roles (clerks, houseboys, waiters, etc.).

Arguably even more than for his work in the Charlie Chan films, Victor Sen Yung is remembered as "Hop Sing," the irascible cook and general factotum on the iconic television series Bonanza, appearing in 107 episodes between 1959 and 1973.

Sen Yung was also an accomplished and talented chef. He frequently appeared on cooking programs and authored The Great Wok Cookbook in 1974.

Bonanza

7.5

Get Smart

7.9

The Letter

7.3

Kung Fu

7.6

Hawaii Five-O

7.1

Perry Mason

7.7

The Killer Elite

5.8

Night Gallery

7.8

Woman on the Run

6.8

The Blue Gardenia

6.6

The Breaking Point

7.1

Across the Pacific

6.6

The Wild Wild West

7.6

The Sniper

6.6

The Good Earth

6.3

Men in War

6.7

Adventures of Superman

6.7

Blood Alley

5.9

Mister Ed

6.7

The Rifleman

7.0

The Left Hand of God

6.3

Moontide

6.4

Flower Drum Song

6.1

Soldier of Fortune

5.9

Here's Lucy

6.7

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

7.1

How the West Was Won

6.9

Charlie Chan at Treasure Island

6.6

Dangerous Money

5.7

Kung Fu: The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon

7.0

The Hunters

5.7

The F.B.I.

5.5

Isis

6.5

Charlie Chan in Honolulu

6.4

Red Light

5.5

Charlie Chan in Panama

6.8

Confessions of an Opium Eater

5.6

Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise

6.7

The Trap

6.7

Thank You, Mr. Moto

6.3

Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum

7.6

Murder Over New York

6.1

Dead Men Tell

6.3

To the Ends of the Earth

5.7

A Ticket to Tomahawk

5.8

They Met in Bombay

7.3

Thriller

6.3

Charlie Chan in Reno

6.2

She Demons

4.6

Mr. Moto Takes a Chance

5.8

The Hawaiians

5.4

Castle in the Desert

6.8

The Chinese Ring

4.9

The Jack Benny Program

7.7

The Golden Eye

5.4

Accused of Murder

4.5

Charlie Chan in Rio

6.2

China

6.8

The Rawhide Years

5.5

The Feathered Serpent

5.8

Cripple Creek

5.7

The Movie Orgy

6.5

Chinatown at Midnight

5.6

Forbidden

6.0

Hong Kong

4.5

Shadows Over Chinatown

5.7

The Shanghai Story

4.8

The Man with Bogart's Face

6.4

The Groom Wore Spurs

4.8

Hawaiian Eye

5.2

Yancy Derringer

5.6

Jubilee Trail

4.8

Key to the City

6.1

The Flame

5.4

Jet Attack

5.1

The Mike Douglas Show

5.1

Docks of New Orleans

5.9

Lost Angel

7.5

The Shanghai Chest

6.1

Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture

5.6

Double or Nothing

6.6

Rogues' Regiment

6.5

The Law and the Lady

6.1

The Saga of Hemp Brown

5.6

State Department: File 649

5.0

A Flea in Her Ear

6.2

Betrayal from the East

5.8

Escape to Paradise

4.2

And Baby Makes Three

4.9

Flight to Hong Kong

6.6

Jump Into Hell

4.0

20,000 Men a Year

5.5

Dangerous Millions

4.8

Richard Diamond, Private Detective

6.2

Navy Log

4.5

The Barbara Stanwyck Show

6.2

87th Precinct

7.5

Shadows Over Shanghai

5.7

The Crimson Key

4.3

Grounds for Marriage

4.3

Intrigue

5.0

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

4.7

Captain Midnight

5.7

Broken Arrow

5.0

Web of Danger

4.8

Secret Agent of Japan

4.5

Target Hong Kong

5.0

Manila Calling

7.0

Winged Victory

5.5

International Settlement

5.0

Torchy Blane in Chinatown

6.0

Barricade

5.0

The Paul Lynde Show

5.0

A Yank on the Burma Road

4.0

Tuna Clipper

6.5

Night Plane from Chungking

6.0

The Sickle or the Cross

6.0

Peking Express

8.0

The Mad Martindales

5.0

Half Past Midnight

6.0

Terry and the Pirates

3.0

Dr. Fu Manchu

5.0

Barbary Coast

5.0

The Lone Wolf

7.0

Valley of Fire

0.0

The Red Pony

0.0

Little Tokyo, U.S.A.

0.0

Secrets of Monte Carlo

0.0

G.I. War Brides

0.0

Port of Hell

0.0

Trader Tom of the China Seas

0.0

Mickey

0.0

China Smith

0.0

Hong Kong

0.0