A Tough Act I, but the Second Has Some Funny Bits Michelle V. Agins/The New
York Times
Kim Chan retired after decades of acting in small roles. In the 1940s, he was
often cast as a Japanese soldier even though he is from China, but in 1983 he
had a breakthrough character part in “The King of Comedy.”

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By THOMAS LIN
Published: June 19, 2007
KIM CHAN, like many character actors, has a face that is more familiar than
his name. His high cheekbones, the mischief in his eyes and his knack for both
serious and comedic performances seemed to be what Hollywood always looked for
when casting roles for Asians.
Skip to next paragraph Multimedia Video Kim Chan: The Zen of Comedy




So Mr. Chan is the ancient wise man from “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues,” and
the mob boss Uncle Benny in “Lethal Weapon 4.”
He was the 76-year-old butler in “The King of Comedy,” directed by Martin
Scorsese.
Mr. Chan, now in his 90s, realized long ago that even small film and
television roles beat washing and ironing shirts for 10 cents apiece in real
life.
As an actor, he said: “You’ll be the king, you’ll be a millionaire, you’ll be
a great merchant, a great lover. You’re not yourself, so I enjoyed it.”
Fifty roles later, he is finally letting up, having traded in his modest Bronx
apartment for the Prospect Park Residence, an assisted-living home in Brooklyn.
“It was a big struggle,” said Mr. Chan’s niece, Judy Gee, who visits him daily.
Mr. Chan’s career path was an unlikely one. His father, Lem Chan, a
philosopher, fled China in 1928, bringing young Kim and his two older sisters
first to Rhode Island, then to New York, where the family got into the
restaurant and laundry businesses.
One day, the father caught the son lying to cover up an afternoon whiled away
at the movies. Presented with an ultimatum, Kim Chan chose to leave his family,
only to end up homeless in Central Park before moving on to other laundries. He
never fully reconciled with his father, who died in 1952. Both his sisters have
also died.
As he recalled family memories, Mr. Chan fell silent at times, stroking his
long, wispy beard.
It took nearly four decades in inconsequential television, film and stage
productions for Mr. Chan to shake free of the day labor grind.
He spent those years adrift, working at restaurants and laundries. He made
movie contacts by day, and hustled cards and slept at night on ironing boards
crawling with bedbugs.
His big break came in 1983 in “The King of Comedy.” He played Jonno, Jerry
Lewis’s butler, and tangled with Robert De Niro, a frustrated comedian and
obsessed fan who forces his way into Mr. Lewis’s home. Mr. Chan’s frantic
efforts in the scene to warn Mr. Lewis provide comic relief.
“I always like comedy,” Mr. Chan said. “I enjoy making somebody laugh.”
He sometimes chafed in an industry rife with derogatory stereotypes. In the
1940s, he was usually cast as a Japanese soldier.
As an extra for a long-forgotten “King Kong” movie, Mr. Chan said, he led an
insurrection of actors, egging the contingent of “natives” to protest their
barefoot condition by shouting, “Ouch, ouch,” each time the director called,
“Action.”
“Finally,” Mr. Chan recalled with an impish smile, “they gave us shoes.”
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