# Khigh Dheigh not of Oriental Ancestry?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 28, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khigh-dheigh-not-of-oriental-ancestry/350278 "2006-03-28T18:57:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khigh-dheigh-not-of-oriental-ancestry/350278/1 "2006-03-28T18:57:24Z")
Khigh Dheigh was the actor who pl;ayed Red Chinese agent Wo Fat on Hawaii Five-0. He also played Judge Dee in the ABC Tv-movie **Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders** , which I just re-watched. An interesting film, in which all the actors were of Oriental ancestry. Or so I thought. There wasn’t much on Dhiegh, who played him, so I Googled him, and found this: > [@](#): > > What do YW members think about the actor Khigh Dhiegh ([http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0223556/](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0223556/))? He is probably best known for playing the recurring villain Wo Fat on the TV series Hawaii Five-0, but he also appeared in many other works, including The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and the title role in the 1974 TV movie Judge Dee and the Monastery Murder ([http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0071703/](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0071703/)). I grew up watching him on TV, and all that time, I thought he was Asian. He certainly looked Asian. However, a few years ago, I learned that he was born Kenneth Dickerson in New Jersey and was of British-Egyptian-Sudanese lineage. He wasn’t Asian at all. But looking at his filmography, all of his characters appear to have Asian names. So, he was typecast in Asian roles, just like any Asian American actor. From here: [Welcome forums.yellowworld.org - BlueHost.com](http://forums.yellowworld.org/archive/index.php/t-9199.html) What? Where did they get this information? It’s certainly not on the IMDB: > **[Khigh Dhiegh - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0223556/)** > > Khigh Dhiegh, Actor: The Manchurian Candidate. Khigh Dhiegh was born on August 25, 1910 in Spring Lake, New Jersey, USA as Kenneth Dickerson. He was an actor, known for The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Seconds (1966) and Noble House (1988). He was... Does anyone know anything at al about him? How did he end up playing only oriental characters? (His IMDB listing gives only one character with a non-Oriental name). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khigh-dheigh-not-of-oriental-ancestry/350278/2 "2006-03-28T18:59:48Z")
I missed the bio on the IMDB: > **[Khigh Dhiegh - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0223556/bio)** > > Khigh Dhiegh was born on August 25, 1910 in Spring Lake, New Jersey, USA as Kenneth Dickerson. He was an actor, known for The Manchurian Candidate (... This gives his ancestry, but not whence this info comes. ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khigh-dheigh-not-of-oriental-ancestry/350278/3 "2006-03-28T20:13:09Z")
He doesn’t look asian to me at all. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khigh-dheigh-not-of-oriental-ancestry/350278/4 "2006-03-29T02:04:02Z")
I’ve seen the same stuff, but, again, never seen it corroborated–but I believe that he’s not Oriental. Also, one of the stories that I’ve heard is that the writers or producers picked the name “Wo Fat” from [a well-known Honolulu restaurant](http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2001/Jun/15/en/en11a.html). ---
**Author:** ![CowGoesMoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@CowGoesMoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CowGoesMoo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2021, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khigh-dheigh-not-of-oriental-ancestry/350278/5 "2021-12-12T15:22:06Z")
Looks like I’m 15 years late to this discussion. No, he’s not Asian. I’ve been researching him. His birth name is indeed Kenneth Dickerson. On his father’s side, I’ve traced his roots back to the 1830s and he appears to be descended from free blacks. On his mother’s side, its a little murky so far. His maternal grandfather is listed as being from the “West Indies”, “Cuba”, or “Bermuda” while his maternal grandmother appears to be white. If that’s true, then he could have Caribbean roots as well. As to his claim that he is part Egyptian or Sudanese? I’ve found nothing in the records to confirm that. So… he’s probably 75% black/25% white and may have possibly have a small amount of native Caribbean ancestry. I think that certainly led to his distinctive appearance. His black roots were known in the 1970s. Asian-American groups protested his casting in his detective show “Khan!” in 1974. They wanted an Asian actor to portray one of their own. He wanted to be an actor and it appears that he went with the hand he was dealt. This is my conjecture: He had exotic looks so he went for those parts taking on an exotic name. He was essentially a biracial man (black/white) passing for an Asian and so he went in that direction. He developed an interest in Eastern religion/philosophy and studied them and began to teach/publish as his acting roles began to wane. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khigh-dheigh-not-of-oriental-ancestry/350278/6 "2021-12-12T16:30:31Z")
He certainly had me believing he was Asian until I read a bit about him back in the '70s. (I bought the Egyptian and Sudanese story too.) Being able to play someone of an entirely different background convincingly is the hallmark of a good actor, and it shouldn’t matter what in kind of roles he was cast. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khigh-dheigh-not-of-oriental-ancestry/350278/7 "2021-12-15T18:33:14Z")
I haven’t done any research, but I did take a quick look for Kenneth Dickerson in New Jersey, and I found one who is identified as Egyptian and apparently working on a ferry boat maybe? He would have been in his 20s at the time, so if it’s the same person, he adopted Egyptianity rather early in life. Not the first time by a long shot that someone passed off their ethnicity as something else. (Poster child: Iron Eyes Cody)