RIP Soon-Tek Oh

Soon-Tek Oh or Soon-Taik Oh died of Alzheimer’s disease on April 4, 2018. He was 85. Oh came to the United States as a teenager in 1959, studied at UCLA and trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Long associated with the versatile Los Angeles' East-West Players theatre company, Oh has performed on stage everything from Ibsen to Shakespeare. He made his Broadway debut and received great notices for his work in Stephen Sondheim's musical "Pacific Overtures" in 1976. On TV and film, he proved to be a reliable player, notably in action films 007's “The Man with the Golden Gun” (1974) and “Good Guys Wear Black” (1978); existential drama (TV's) “Kung Fu” (1973-1974) and “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993), epic mini-series “Marco Polo” (1982), “East of Eden” (1981)) and most recently a pivotal role in the film “Yellow” (1998), marking the first film by and featuring Korean Americans. I remember him best in “Missing in Action 2: The Beginning” (1985) starring Chuck Norris where he played the despicable Colonel Yin.