Aki Aleong, an actor who appeared in No Down Payment, Braddock: Missing in Action III and V and a singer who also had stints in the music industry as a songwriter, producer and executive, has died. He was 90.
Aleong was dealing with dementia and died Sunday at his home in Sylmar, his wife of 38 years, Conchita, told The Hollywood Reporter.
A native of Trinidad who advocated for minorities throughout his career, Aleong also worked in lots of martial arts movies. He played Principal Elder in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993), starring Jason Scott Lee, and was a trainer alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme in The Quest (1996).
In his first prominent role, Aleong portrayed the young employee of a store owner (Pat Hingle) who encounters racial bias when he wants to move with his wife into a suburban California enclave in Martin Ritt’s No Down Payment (1957), starring Joanne Woodward, Sheree North and Tony Randall.
On the 1984-85 NBC drama series V, spawned from a popular sci-fi miniseries, he played Mr. Chiang, a henchman working for Science Frontiers CEO Nathan Bates (Lane Smith),
And he was a bad guy again in Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988), playing the sadistic Vietnamese General Quoc, who murders the wife of Chuck Norris’ Vietnam vet and then tortures him and his son.
The oldest of seven kids, Assing Aleong was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on Dec. 19, 1934. His father, Henry, was a cook from Hong Kong, and his mother, Agnes, hailed from St. Vincent in the Caribbean.
After moving to Brooklyn with his mom in 1949, he graduated from Boys High School and attended Brooklyn College while working in a hardware store, then played the goat boy in 1956 in a traveling production of The Teahouse of the August Moon.
He studied acting at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago for a year after August Moon had stopped there before appearing on such anthology TV shows as Producers’ Showcase and Robert Montgomery Presents.
After No Down Payment (1957), he landed a role in John Sturges’ Never So Few (1959), where the star of that film, Frank Sinatra, signed him to a recording contract.
Aleong co-wrote and produced the doo-wop song “Shombalor” from Sheriff & the Ravels in 1958, sang “Trade Winds, Trade Winds” in 1961 and fronted Aki Aleong and the Nobles for the 1963 album Come Surf With Me. (He also led a group called the Licorice Twisters.)
Along the way, Aleong was also showing up in such movies as The Hunters (1958) and Operation Bikini (1963) and on series including The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Ben Casey, Bachelor Father, Hazel and The Virginian. But frustrated with typecasting, he quit acting.
He worked as an executive with such labels as Capitol and Polydor, produced music for Roy Ayers and Norman Connors and promoted artists including Bobby Womack, James Brown and Pharoah Sanders.
Aleong said he was unofficially barred from the music business in the 1970s after leading the Fraternity of Recording Executives, which aimed to bring people of color into the industry.
After driving an ambulance to make ends meet, he restarted his acting career in the 1980s and went on to appear on As the World Turns; General Hospital; Cagney & Lacey; L.A. Law; The A-Team; Hunter; Jake and the Fatman; Walker, Texas Ranger; Babylon 5; Beverly Hills, 90210; Kung Fu: The Legend Continues; JAG; Chicago Hope; and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
His film résumé included The Hanoi Hilton (1987), Out for Blood (1992), Deadly Target (1994), House of Sand and Fog (2003), Superhero Movie (2008), Pound of Flesh (2015) and Savage Dog (2017).
Aleong also served on the national board at SAG.
In addition to his wife, survivors include his children, Akina, Aliya and twins Akian and Ari; grandchildren A.J., Michelle and Jenelle; and four great-grandchildren.
