I mean in English-language movies or TV. I have no doubt there are detectives in Chinese or Japanese movies, or those from other countries in that area.
And I mean since 1940, for reason about to be given.
I ask this because Charlie Chan, to use the most famous example, was famously played in most of his movies by Warner Oland, who was Swedish, then by Sidney Toler. There were several Mexican films, I’m surprised to learn, with Mexican stars. Peter Ustinov played him, and Peter Sellers in Murder by Death played a parody. J. Carroll Naish and Ross Martin played him on TV.
What’s weird is that Chan’s “number one son” was played by Chinese or Japanese actors – you just couldn’t have one in the lead role.
There were other Chan-like sleuths in the 30s and 40s. – played by white actors. Boris Karloff played Mr. Wong in a series of five films from 1938-40, based on a character appearing in stories published in Colliers. Amazingly, Keye Luke – the Number One Son – actually got to star as Mr. Wong in Phantom of Chinatown in 1940.
Peter Lorre played Mr. Moto A Japanese (!) secret agent in eight 1930s films. There was another in 1965, starring Henry Silva.
I thought that there was a breakthrough with the Nicholas Meyer TV movie Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders, based on Robert Hans van Gulik’s novel. All the actors were of Asian descent – a rarity on TV then. Or even now. But it turns out that the lead role, Judge Dee, was played by “Khigh Aix Dhiegh”, who had famously played Chinese agent Wo Fat on Hawaii Five Oh, as well as numerous Asian cvharacters on TV and in the movies. It turns out that he’s the only non-Asian actor in the piece. His real name was Kenneth Dickerson (“K.D.” = “Khigh Dhiegh”, get it?). He was born in Spring Lake NJ, of Sudanese-Anglo-Egyptian ancestry.
There was a British Judge Dee series, too, where he was played by Michael Goodliffe. I don’t think he had an Asian backgriound.
One can’t help thinking of Fu Manchu, too. Not a detective, but an Oriental Mastermind, of course, and invariably played by Western actors – Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Warner Oland, Peter Sellers (why so many Fu Manchu portrayers that previously played Asian detectives?), and a host of lesser-known actors. But none of them of Asian descent.
I was extremely surprised to see on the Wikipedia page that in the earliest films Charlie Chan WAS played by actors with an Asian background – George Kuwa in 1926, Kamiyami Sojin in 1927, E.L. Park in 1929. But in all the cases, Chan’s role was srriously reduced. All the films got bad reviews.
So, aside from one turn by Keye Luke and three virtually unknown actors (with pared-down roles), it seems as if no actor of Asian descent has played a sleuth of such descent on American TV or movies, even up until today. In fact, these four exceptions happened before 1941!
It’s racism, I’m sure – probably the insidious kind tat keeps them from being cast because studio execs think American audiences won’t accept an Asian actor as a lead character (although they COULD play second bananas). But you’d think that things would’ve changed by now.
Me, I’d like to see more Judge Dee adaptations. I heard a rumor a couple of decades back that Paul Veerhoeven was working on a Judge Dee movie, but that never happened. (There WAS a recent Chinese Judge Dee film – but it’s a wholly different tradition, treating him as a martial-arts master, not a master detective. Defdinitely not in the mold of the Dee Goong An and Van Gulik’s interpretation)
