Bo Ching "Winnie" Park was an American actor active in Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1940s.[1][2]
Bo Ching | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bo Ching Park April 21, 1911 Alameda County, California, USA |
| Died | July 13, 1999 (aged 88) Los Angeles County, California, USA |
| Other names | Winnie Park |
| Alma mater | Berkeley High School University of California, Berkeley |
| Spouse | William Tong (m. 1945) |
| Family | Bo Ling (sister) |
Biography
editBo Ching was born in Alameda County, California, to Edward "E.L." Park and Oie "Florence" Chan. Her parents — born in the United States to Chinese immigrants — were actors; E.L. appeared as Charlie Chan in the 1924 film Behind the Curtain and later served as an interpreter for the county of Los Angeles, while Florence appeared in a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s. When the family relocated to Los Angeles in the late 1920s, E.L. and Florence opened a Chinese restaurant on Alameda Street and owned their own Chinese costume store.[2][3]
After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley,[4] Bo Ching and her older sister, Bo Ling, performed in Las Vegas and around the country as a vaudeville act before settling in Hollywood and getting work as actors in the film industry.[5][6][7] Their contemporaneous publicity materials often claimed the pair were born in China and that they were twins, despite being born several years apart.[8][9]
Bo Ching married William Tong — a Seabee with the U.S. Navy — in Los Angeles in 1945.[10][11] The pair met at the Hollywood Guild Canteen a year earlier. Later on in Tong's life, she more or less retired from acting but worked as a tap-dancing teacher.[12] She briefly came out of retirement for one role in the 1980s, appearing as Keiko's grandmother in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Select filmography
edit- Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) (TV)
- First Yank Into Tokyo (1945)
- God Is My Co-Pilot (1945)
- The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943)
- Petticoat Fever (1936)
- International House (1933)
References
edit- ^ "The Pittsburgh Press 21 Aug 1939, page Page 10". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-08-25.
- ^ a b California, Jenny Cho and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern (2013). Chinese in Hollywood. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-9973-1.
- ^ "The Minneapolis Times-Tribune 23 Aug 1939, page 10". Retrieved 2023-08-25 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Los Angeles Evening Post-Record 22 Jan 1934, page 9". Retrieved 2023-08-25 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Times Union 07 Apr 1932, page 45". Retrieved 2023-08-25 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Daily News 03 Jun 1927, page 13". Retrieved 2023-08-25 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Neon Museum Las Vegas | The history of Las Vegas through neon - A Brief History of the Chinese of Las Vegas: Part I". neonmuseum.org. 2021-06-25. Retrieved 2023-08-25.
- ^ "The Los Angeles Times 29 Dec 1928, page 23". Retrieved 2023-08-25 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Belleville News-Democrat 12 May 1928, page 10". Retrieved 2023-08-25 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Los Angeles Times 04 Mar 1945, page 20". Retrieved 2023-08-25 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Wedding portrait of Bo Ching Park and Navy SeaBee William Tong with attendants Charles Wilson and Bo Ling Mason, 1945, 1945-03-03, retrieved 2023-08-25
- ^ "The Los Angeles Times 10 Sep 1994, page Page 1". Retrieved 2023-08-25 – via Newspapers.com.
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