Leonard Strong

Leonard Strong

Born: August 12, 1908
Died: January 23, 1980
in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Leonard Clarence Strong (born 12 August 1908, Salt Lake City, Utah - d. 23 January 1980, Glendale, California was a prolific American character actor specialising in playing Asian roles. Beginning with Little Tokyo, U.S.A in 1942, Strong played a gamut of roles as Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Thais, etc. in films such as Dragon Seed (1944),Up in Arms (1944), Jack London (1943), Salute to the Marines (1943), Behind the Rising Sun (1943), Night Plane from Chungking (1943), Bombardier (1943),Underground Agent (1942), and Manila Calling (1942). He played the Thai interpreter in both Anna and the King of Siam and its musical remake The King and I. Strong also appeared in the movie Shane (1953) as homesteader Ernie Wright. Strong achieved some pop culture notoriety for his role on television as "The Claw" on Get Smart. He appeared in a season-five episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960) "The Cure" written by horror writer Robert Bloch. Set deep in an Amazon jungle, Strong plays Luiz, a loyal native who speaks broken English and saves his employer, an oil explorer, from the attempted murder of his supposedly mentally ill and unfaithful wife. Something gets lost in the translation when his employer wants Strong to take her to a psychiatrist 200 miles down river, and he takes her instead to a native headshrinker. The denouement comes when Strong returns alone to the shock of his employer. He says, "I do what you tell me. I take her to my people. The best headshrinkers in the world". Then, pulling his employer's wife's now shrunken head out of a bag, he says, "Best job in the world." Another notable television role was his haunting and mostly silent portrayal of the title character in the original Twilight Zone episode, "The Hitch-Hiker", which is often listed as one of the ten best episodes of the series. With his thumb extended, seeking a ride, and asking "Going my way?", Strong is seen in one of the half-dozen, seconds-long scenes used at the start of every one of the 30 DVDs in the CBS DVD five-season collection, "The Twilight Zone, The Definitive Edition."

Movies for Leonard Strong...

Title: Get Smart
Character: The Claw
Released: September 18, 1965
Type: TV
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show stars Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, and Edward Platt. Henry said they created the show by request of Daniel Melnick, who was a partner, along with Leonard Stern and David Susskind, of the show's production company, Talent Associates, to capitalize on "the two biggest things in the entertainment world today"—James Bond and Inspector Clouseau. Brooks said: "It's an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy." This is the only Mel Brooks production to feature a laugh track. The success of the show eventually spawned the follow-up films The Nude Bomb and Get Smart, Again!, as well as a 1995 revival series and a 2008 film remake. In 2010, TV Guide ranked Get Smart's opening title sequence at No. 2 on its list of TV's Top 10 Credits Sequences, as selected by readers.
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Escape from Zahrain
Title: Escape from Zahrain
Character: Ambulance Driver
Released: May 23, 1962
Type: Movie
Yul Brynner plays political leader Sharif who is sprung from a police van on his way to a firing squad by young loyalists led by Sal Mineo. Yul and the other prisoners kidnap an ambulance and head into the Arabian desert with the police in hot pursuit. All the performances are magnificent: Sal Mineo showing his acting talents, Jack Warden in a wiseguy performance as an employee of Zahrain oil who was involved in embezzlement, Anthony Caruso as a slimy psychotic and the underrated Madlyn Rhue as a nurse who becomes emotionally involved in the proceedings.
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Title: The Islanders
Character: General Kumari
Released: October 2, 1960
Type: TV
The Islanders is an American adventure television series which aired on ABC from 1960 to 1961, starring William Reynolds, James Philbrook, and Diane Brewster. At the beginning of the series, Sandy Wade and Zack Malloy, co-owners of a Grumman Goose amphibious aircraft, start their one-plane airline in the Moluccas or Spice Islands of the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Throughout the series they experience a variety of adventures where seemingly harmless charter flights put them into danger. They are frequently aided in their endeavours by the unusually-named Wilhelmina ”Steamboat Willy” Vanderveer and Shipwreck Callighan. The Islanders, primarily sponsored by Liggett & Myers' Chesterfield cigarettes, aired at 9:30 Eastern time on Sunday evenings opposite The Jack Benny Program and Candid Camera on CBS and the second half of The Dinah Shore Show and the last season of The Loretta Young Show on NBC. William Reynolds stated in an interview, "The series went from being sort of like a Terry and the Pirates or a Maverick type of concept to becoming just a bunch of people skulking around. It wasn't very good." After The Islanders, Philbrook co-starred in the 1962-1963 season as a magazine publisher and the love interest of Loretta Young in her short-lived The New Loretta Young Show, which aired Mondays on CBS. Reynolds went on to star in two other ABC series,The Gallant Men, a World War II series, and The FBI with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr..
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Title: The Alaskans
Released: October 4, 1959
Type: TV
The Alaskans is a 1959-1960 ABC/Warner Brothers western television series set during the late 1890s in the port of Skagway, Alaska. The show features Roger Moore as "Silky Harris" and Jeff York as "Reno McKee", a pair of adventurers intent on swindling travelers bound for the Yukon Territories during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush. Their plans are inevitably complicated by the presence of singer "Rocky Shaw", "an entertainer with a taste for the finer things in life". The show was the first regular work on American television for the British actor Roger Moore.
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Title: The Twilight Zone
Character: The Hitch-Hiker
Released: October 2, 1959
Type: TV
A series of unrelated stories containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist.
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Title: One Step Beyond
Character: Conductor
Released: January 20, 1959
Type: TV
Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond is an American anthology series created by Merwin Gerard. The original series ran for three seasons on ABC from January 1959 to July 1961.
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Title: 77 Sunset Strip
Released: October 10, 1958
Type: TV
Stu Bailey and Jeff Spencer are the wisecracking, womanizing private-detective heroes of this Warner Brothers drama. They work out of an office located at 77 Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, California, right next door to a snazzy restaurant where Kookie works as a valet. The finger-snapping, slang-talking Kookie occasionally helps Stu and Jeff with their cases, and eventually becomes a full-fledged member of the detective agency. Rex Randolph and J.R. Hale also join the firm, and Suzanne is their leggy secretary.
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Title: Peter Gunn
Character: King Felix
Released: September 22, 1958
Type: TV
Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series. Filmed in a film noir atmosphere and featuring Henry Mancini music that could tell you the action with your eyes closed, Peter Gunn worked in style. Known as Pete to his friends and simply as Gunn to his enemies, he did his job in a calm cool way.
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Jet Attack
Title: Jet Attack
Character: Maj. Wan
Released: February 15, 1958
Type: Movie
A Soviet nurse helps a U.S. pilot, his buddies and a scientist escape from North Korea. American International Pictures originally distributed this film as a double feature with "Suicide Battalion".
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Title: Dr. Fu Manchu
Released: September 3, 1956
Type: TV
The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu is a syndicated American television series that aired in 1956. The show was produced by Hollywood Television Service, a subsidiary of Republic Pictures.
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Title: Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Character: Luiz
Released: October 2, 1955
Type: TV
A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
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Title: Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Character: Manuel
Released: October 2, 1955
Type: TV
A television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
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Title: Navy Log
Released: September 20, 1955
Type: TV
Navy Log is an American drama anthology series that initially aired for one season on CBS. It relates the greatest survival war stories in the history of the United States Navy. This series premiered on September 20, 1955, but the following year, it was moved to ABC, where it aired until September 25, 1958. The program aired for a total of three seasons and 102 episodes.
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Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
Title: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
Character: Fortune Teller (uncredited)
Released: August 18, 1955
Type: Movie
A widowed doctor of both Chinese and European descent falls in love with a married American correspondent in Hong Kong during China's Communist revolution.
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Cult of the Cobra
Title: Cult of the Cobra
Character: Daru
Released: March 30, 1955
Type: Movie
While stationed in Asia, six American G.I.'s witness the secret ritual of Lamians (worshipers of women who can change into serpents). When discovered by the cult, the High Lamian Priest vows that "the Cobra Goddess will avenge herself". Once back in the United States, a mysterious woman enters into their lives and accidents begin to happen. The shadow of a cobra is seen just before each death.
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Bengal Brigade
Title: Bengal Brigade
Character: Mahindra
Released: November 6, 1954
Type: Movie
Year 1856, British India. Capt. Jeffrey Claybourne is severely punished after disobeying an order. Feeling unworthy of his fiancée Vivian Morrow, the daughter of his superior officer, Claybourne leaves the army until he could regain his reputation. When the Rajah Karam launches an attack on the British forces in India, Claybourne finds a chance at redemption.
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Hell's Half Acre
Title: Hell's Half Acre
Character: Ippy
Released: June 1, 1954
Type: Movie
A woman travels to Hawaii to find out if a man in prison there is actually her missing husband.
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Prisoner of War
Title: Prisoner of War
Character: Col. Kim Doo Yi
Released: May 4, 1954
Type: Movie
American soldiers, captured by North Korean's, are periodically brainwashed into giving up their capitalist ways to join the communist movement.
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The Naked Jungle
Title: The Naked Jungle
Character: Kutina
Released: March 3, 1954
Type: Movie
The Leiningen South American cocoa plantation is threatened by a 2-mile-wide, 20-mile-long column of army ants.
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Scared Stiff
Title: Scared Stiff
Character: Shorty
Released: April 27, 1953
Type: Movie
A nightclub singer and his partner escape mobsters by fleeing to Cuba with a beautiful heiress, who has inherited a haunted castle on an isolated island. The trio hunt for a hidden treasure and encounter a ghost, a zombie, and a mysterious killer...
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Shane
Title: Shane
Character: Ernie Wright
Released: April 23, 1953
Type: Movie
A weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smouldering settler and rancher conflict forces him to act.
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Destination Gobi
Title: Destination Gobi
Character: Wali-Akhun
Released: March 20, 1953
Type: Movie
A group of US Navy weathermen taking measurements in the Gobi desert in World War II are forced to seek the help of Mongol nomads to regain their ship while under attack from the Japanese.
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Title: Terry and the Pirates
Released: November 25, 1952
Type: TV
Terry and the Pirates is a short-lived American adventure series based on Milton Caniff's popular comic strip, was telecast from June 26, 1953 to November 21, 1953. The syndicated series ran for 18 episodes and was produced by Don Sharpe Enterprises. Canada Dry Ginger Ale was the show's original sponsor.
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The Atomic City
Title: The Atomic City
Character: Donald Clark
Released: May 1, 1952
Type: Movie
Spies hold the son of a nuclear physicist (Gene Barry) hostage in exchange for the Los Alamos bomb formula.
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Title: Dangerous Assignment
Released: January 1, 1952
Type: TV
A U.S. government agent travels the world on undercover missions in this 1950s series. Star Brian Donlevy originated the role on radio in the '40s.
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Cargo to Capetown
Title: Cargo to Capetown
Character: Singh
Released: April 1, 1950
Type: Movie
A sailor and his captain fight over a beautiful girl.
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Backfire
Title: Backfire
Character: Lee Quong (uncredited)
Released: January 26, 1950
Type: Movie
When he's discharged from a military hospital, ex-GI Bob Corey goes on a search for his army buddy Steve Connolly. A reformed crook, Connolly is on the lam from a trumped-up murder rap, and Corey hopes to clear his pal. Tagging along is Army nurse Julie Benson, who has fallen for Corey.
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Sword of the Avenger
Title: Sword of the Avenger
Character: Ming Tang
Released: June 2, 1948
Type: Movie
Roberto Balagtas is falsely arrested for treason and sent to prison where he is tortured. He escapes with other prisoners, but only Batagtas survives the escape, carrying with him a treasure map left by one of the others. He crosses paths with Ming Tang (Strong) and a group of Chinese smugglers, with whom he finds the treasure. The booty makes him extremely wealthy, and he changes his name to Don Diego Sebastian. He then goes back to the Philippines to seek his revenge.
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Jewels of Brandenburg
Title: Jewels of Brandenburg
Character: Marcel Grandet
Released: May 2, 1947
Type: Movie
A former secret agent is sent to retrieve a priceless collection of stolen jewels from a Lisbon nightclub owner who worked both sides during World War II.
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Backlash
Title: Backlash
Character: Willis, Caretaker
Released: March 1, 1947
Type: Movie
In a series of flashbacks, shows that attorney John Morland has given a lift to a hitchhiker who turns out to be a murderer. As a result, Morland himself is implicated in a killing. A pair of detectives discover that Morland has been having business problems and no end of difficulties with his wife Catherine. The trail of clues leads to a surprising revelation.
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Dangerous Millions
Title: Dangerous Millions
Character: Bandit Chieftain
Released: November 27, 1946
Type: Movie
Eight strangers meet in Shanghai to stake claims to the fortune of a late shipping magnate, then must evade a murderer in their midst.
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First Yank into Tokyo
Title: First Yank into Tokyo
Character: Maj. Nogira
Released: September 5, 1945
Type: Movie
A U.S. pilot undergoes plastic surgery and drops into Japan to get a captive scientist's (Marc Cramer) atomic secrets.
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Back to Bataan
Title: Back to Bataan
Character: Gen. Homma
Released: May 30, 1945
Type: Movie
An Army colonel leads a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese in the Philippines.
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Blood on the Sun
Title: Blood on the Sun
Character: Hijikata
Released: April 26, 1945
Type: Movie
Nick Condon, an American journalist in 20s Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world domination. Reaction from the understandably upset Japanese provides the action, but this is overshadowed by the propaganda of the time.
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The Keys of the Kingdom
Title: The Keys of the Kingdom
Character: Mr. Chia
Released: December 15, 1944
Type: Movie
A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. While his boyhood friend, also a priest, flourishes in his calling as a priest in a more Christian area of the world, Father Chisholm struggles. He encounters hostility, isolation, disease, poverty and a variety of set backs which humble him, but make him more determined than ever to succeed.
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Behind the Rising Sun
Title: Behind the Rising Sun
Character: Tama's Father
Released: August 1, 1943
Type: Movie
A Japanese publisher urges his American-educated son to side with the Axis.
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Bombardier
Title: Bombardier
Character: Japanese Officer
Released: May 14, 1943
Type: Movie
A documentary/drama about the training of bombardiers during WWII. Major Chick Davis proves to the U.S. Army the superiority of high altitude precision bombing, and establishes a school for bombardiers. Training is followed in semi-documentary style, with personal dramas in subplots. The climax is a spectacular, if somewhat jingoistic, battle sequence.
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Underground Agent
Title: Underground Agent
Character: Count Akiri
Released: December 3, 1942
Type: Movie
In this espionage caper, a government spy must keep enemy agents from spying upon a defense plant. His work is made easier by his newest invention, a word scrambler which makes it difficult for the enemy agent.