Soon-tek Oh 오순택 | |
Birth Date: | 29 June 1932 |
Birth Place: | Mokpo, Chōsen (now South Korea) |
Death Place: | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Other Names: | Soon-taek Oh |
Occupation: | Actor |
Yearsactive: | 1967–2006 |
Hangul: | 오순택 |
Rr: | O Sun-taek |
Mr: | O Sun-t'aek |
Soon-tek Oh (Korean: 오순택, O Sun-taek – also spelled as Soon-taek Oh or Soon-taik Oh or Soon-teck Oh; June 29, 1932 – April 4, 2018[1]) was a Korean–American actor. He was the voice of Fa Zhou in Disney's Mulan and the direct-to-video sequel Mulan II and the sadistic Colonel Yin in . He has starred in many films, and also acted in television series, including Stargate SG-1; MacGyver; M*A*S*H; Charlie's Angels; Airwolf, Magnum, P.I.; Hawaii Five-O; Kung-Fu; Zorro; The Man with the Golden Gun; Baa Baa Black Sheep and Touched by an Angel.
Oh was born on June 29, 1932, in Mokpo during the period when Korea was under Japanese rule. He attended high school at Gwangju, South Korea, and attended Yonsei University in Seoul.
After the end of Japanese rule in August 1945 and before the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, he and his family immigrated to the United States where he attended the University of Southern California. He later gained an MFA from UCLA.[2]
On Broadway, he appeared in the original cast of the Stephen Sondheim musical Pacific Overtures.[3] He was an early member of East West Players, an Asian American theatre group founded in 1965.
In 1995 he founded the Korean American theatre group, Society of Heritage Performers, which later evolved into the present Lodestone Theatre Ensemble. From 2005, he had been a chair professor at Seoul Institute of the Arts.
Oh died in Los Angeles on April 4, 2018, at age 85 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease, according to actor Chil Kong.[4] [5]
In 2008, Soon-tek Oh was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the San Diego Asian Film Festival.[6]