Luke Chan was a Canadian character actor and designer who worked in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also a prominent figure in the development of Los Angeles's Chinatown neighborhood.

Biography

Chan was born in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. T ...

, Canada, to parents of Chinese origin. His father, Chan Yu Tan, was a minister and his mother was a doctor. Chan graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, and later married Mary Alice Van Vleet in 1936; she died several years later. He was known for his intellectual manner, and he struck up an enduring friendship with actress

Elissa Landi Elissa Landi (born Elisabeth Marie Christine Kühnelt; December 6, 1904 – October 21, 1948) was an Austrian-American actress born in Venice, who was popular as a performer in Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s. She was noted for her ...

. Like a lot of Chinese actors during this period, he often played Japanese roles. Chan opened the Chinese Junk Cafe in Los Angeles's Chinatown in the late 1930s. He and fellow actor Johnson Sing spent time designing a large replica of a Chinese pirate ship that adorned the restaurant at 733 N. Main St. (The building later burned down in a fire.) Chan also served as president of the neighborhood's China City Merchants' Association and as Chinatown's unofficial mayor, and helped design the look of the area.

Selected filmography

* ''

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'' (1948) * ''

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

'' (1947) * ''

Ladies' Man A ladies' man or lady's man is a man who enjoys spending time socially with women, who strives to please them and that women find attractive. Ladies' man or lady's man may also refer to: Literature * ''Ladies' Man'' (novel), a 1978 novel by R ...

'' (1947) * ''

The Show-Off ''The Show-Off'' is a 1924 stage play by George Kelly about a working-class North Philadelphian family's reluctance to accept their daughter's suitor Aubrey Piper, an overly confident Socialist buffoon. The play has been revived five times on Bro ...

'' (1946) * ''

The Well Groomed Bride ''The Well Groomed Bride'' is a 1946 American romantic comedy film directed by Sidney Lanfield and starring Olivia de Havilland, Ray Milland, and Sonny Tufts. Written by Claude Binyon and Robert Russell, the film is about a man and a woman who f ...

'' (1946) * ''

Secret Agent X-9 ''Secret Agent X-9'' is a comic strip created by writer Dashiell Hammett ('' The Maltese Falcon'') and artist Alex Raymond (''Flash Gordon''). Syndicated by King Features, it ran from January 22, 1934 until February 10, 1996. Premise and publ ...

'' (1945) * '' God Is My Co-Pilot'' (1945) * ''

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' is a 1944 American war film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo is based on the 1943 book of the same name by Captain Ted W. Lawson. Lawson was a pilot on the historic Doolittle Raid, ...

'' (1944) * '' Dragon Seed'' (1944) * ''

The Chinese Cat ''The Chinese Cat'' (also titled ''Murder in the Funhouse'') is a 1944 mystery film starring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan. Plot Mr. Manning is murdered in his study while the door is locked from the inside. Pol ...

'' (1944) * '' The Story of Dr. Wassell'' (1944) * ''

The Purple Heart ''The Purple Heart'' is a 1944 American black-and-white war film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, directed by Lewis Milestone, and starring Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Don "Red" Barry, Sam Levene and Trudy Marshall. Eighteen-year-old Farley Gr ...

'' (1944) * ''

The Man from Down Under ''The Man from Down Under'' is an American 1943 drama film starring Charles Laughton as a man who raises two war orphans. It was called "Hollywood's first full-length film dealing exclusively with Australia and Australians". Plot After the end ...

'' (1943) * '' Behind the Rising Sun'' (1943) * ''

Night Plane from Chungking ''Night Plane from Chungking'' (also known as ''China Pass'' and ''Sky Over China'') is a 1943 American war film released by Paramount Pictures, directed by Ralph Murphy, and produced by Michael Kraike and Walter MacEwen from a screenplay by Les ...

'' (1943) * ''

Mission to Moscow ''Mission to Moscow'' is a 1943 film directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the 1941 book by the former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph E. Davies. The movie chronicles the experiences of the second American ambassador to the Soviet ...

'' (1943) * ''

The Adventures of Smilin' Jack ''The Adventures of Smilin' Jack'' is an aviation comic strip that first appeared October 1, 1933, in the ''Chicago Tribune'' and ended April 1, 1973. After a run of 40 years, it was the longest-running aviation comic strip. The strip was created ...

'' (1943) * '' Destination Unknown'' (1942) * ''

Somewhere I'll Find You ''Somewhere I'll Find You'' is a 1942 film directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner, released by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. The film took almost two years to complete and was the last film Gable starred in before he enlisted ...

'' (1942) * ''

Wake Island Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the Sida fallax, kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, sou ...

'' (1942) * ''

Submarine Raider '' Submarine Raider'' is a 1942 American war film directed by Lew Landers and starring John Howard. Plot Production Budd Boetticher was working as an assistant director at Columbia Pictures, notably to George Stevens on ''The More the Merrier' ...

'' (1942) * ''

Remember Pearl Harbor ''Remember Pearl Harbor'' is a 1942 American propaganda film directed by Joseph Santley and written by Malcolm Stuart Boylan and Isabel Dawn. The film stars Don "Red" Barry, Alan Curtis, Fay McKenzie, Sig Ruman, Ian Keith and Rhys Williams. '' ...

'' (1942) * ''

A Yank on the Burma Road ''A Yank on the Burma Road'' is a 1942 drama film directed by George B. Seitz and starring Laraine Day, Barry Nelson and Keye Luke. It is also known as ''China Caravan'' and ''Yanks on the Burma Road''. It was produced as part of a cluster of H ...

'' (1942) * ''

They Met in Bombay ''They Met in Bombay '' is a 1941 American adventure drama film directed by Clarence Brown, and starring Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell, with Peter Lorre.'' Variety'' film review; June 25, 1941, page 16.'' Harrison's Reports'' film review; Ju ...

'' (1941) * ''

The Real Glory ''The Real Glory'' is a 1939 Samuel Goldwyn Productions adventure film starring Gary Cooper, David Niven, Andrea Leeds and Broderick Crawford released by United Artists in the weeks immediately following Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. Based o ...

'' (1939) * '' Too Hot to Handle'' (1938) * ''

West of Shanghai ''West of Shanghai'' is a 1937 American adventure film directed by John Farrow and starring Boris Karloff as a Chinese warlord. It is based on the 1920 Porter Emerson Browne play '' The Bad Man''. Three other films, all titled ''The Bad Man'', ...

'' (1937) * '' Roaming Lady'' (1936) * ''

Charlie Chan in Shanghai ''Charlie Chan in Shanghai'' is the ninth Charlie Chan film produced by Fox Film Corporation with the title character played by Warner Oland. Plot Charlie Chan arrives in Shanghai at the behest of the U.S. government to help stop an opium smugg ...

'' (1935) * '' Without Regret'' (1935) * '' The Mysterious Mr. Wong'' (1934) * '' Now and Forever'' (1934) * ''

The Secrets of Wu Sin ''The Secrets of Wu Sin'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code mystery film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Lois Wilson, Grant Withers and Dorothy Revier. It was made by the Poverty Row studio Chesterfield Pictures.Pitts p. 91 Main cast * Lois ...

'' (1932) * '' War Correspondent'' (1932)

References

Canadian male film actors Canadian male actors of Asian descent {{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Luke Columbia University alumni 1896 births 1983 deaths Male actors from Victoria, British Columbia