Peter Kwong — Acting | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Peter Kwong (April 9, 1952 — May 27, 2025) was a veteran of film, television and stage, best known for his roles as Rain in Big Trouble in Little China and as Tommy Tong in Eddie Murphy's The Golden Child (both 1986).

Kwong began his screen career in the mid-1970s with guest shots on such TV series as Wonder Woman and Black Sheep Squadron, and into the ’80s with Cagney & Lacey, Bret Maverick, The Greatest American Hero, Little House on the Prairie, Dynasty, The A-Team, Miami Vice, 227, St. Elsewhere, and Matt Houston.

Training with the East/West Players, Groundlings and other groups, Kwong would continue to work regularly in films and TV shows in the 2020s. Among his silver-screen credits are The Presidio, Gleaming the Cube, I’ll Do Anything, Paper Dragons and Cooties. His numerous TV guest roles also included such popular shows as General Hospital, JAG, My Wife and Kids, The Wayans Brothers, Sisters, Drake & Josh, Lethal Weapon and King of the Hill.

Kwong also was an accomplished martial artist, working in Northern Shaolin kung fu, Chinese kata and with weapons including swords, staffs, spears and nunchaku. Dancing was another specialty — from ballroom and martial arts fusion to disco and breaking.

Along with his nearly 50-year acting career, Kwong was active in Hollywood industry politics. He served on the SAG National Board of Directors for more than a decade and was on the AFTRA National Board of Directors. He also did a four-year stint on the Television Academy Board of Governors and was a member of the Actors Branch Executive Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among other roles. Kwong ran for the the merged SAG-AFTRA National Board and L.A. Local Board in 2017.

He also was an activist against anti-Asian stereotyping in Hollywood. In 2016, Kwong was among about two dozen signatories on a letter to AMPAS decrying jokes made at the expense of Asians during the Oscars that year.