Jack Ong

Jack Ong
Jack Ong, Executive Director of The Dr. Haing S. Ngor Foundation, displays Dr. Ngor's Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for The Killing Fields and the recently published second edition of Ngor's autobiography, Survival in the Killing Fields
Born	(1940-11-06) November 6, 1940 (age 76) Mesa, Arizona, US
Occupation	Actor & Writer
Years active	1974–present

Jack Ong (born November 6, 1940) is an American actor, writer, activist and marketing professional.

Ong was born in Mesa, Arizona, the seventh of eight children of Chinese immigrant parents, Kam Fong and Jeung Shee Ong. His family owned and operated a small grocery store, where he received an early education in the business world. Growing up as a part of a very small minority, he quickly realized the benefits of escaping reality and delving into the world of the Silver Screen. Jack earned his B.A. at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He worked his way through college as a staff reporter-photographer with the Mesa Daily Tribune, which had recruited him before his high school graduation. Jack moved to Los Angeles after college.

Ong served as a Navy photojournalist during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Commander, Seventh Fleet, in the Philippines. His reporting and photography were published in Stars and Stripes and frequently circulated by the global wire services.

After his stint in the Navy, Jack worked as an advertising executive, writing and creating print, radio, TV, point-of-purchase and billboard campaigns for the International Hotel (now the Hilton) in Las Vegas, where he also worked on publicity for such entertainers as Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Peggy Lee and Bill Cosby. He also worked on marketing and promotional campaigns for Galpin Motors, the largest and most successful automobile enterprise in the world; and Topanga Plaza, America's first mega-shopping mall.

A dramatic as well as comedic actor, Jack has guest starred in numerous hit television series including Cold Case, ER, Friends, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, The Bernie Mac Show, Still Standing, Dharma & Greg, Touched by an Angel, V.I.P., Chicago Hope, The Simpsons and Beverly Hills, 90210. Jack has also been featured in multiple films including Next (2007), Akeelah and the Bee (2005), Art School Confidential (2005), National Lampoon's Gold Diggers (2004), Leprechaun in the Hood (2000), Godzilla 2000 (1999), The Iron Triangle (1989), and Mac and Me (1988). He has also received critical praise for his work in several short films including Saving Levi, Laundromat, and 2010's Journey of a Paper Son. Jack's face is familiar across North America thanks to his classic 1994 commercial for Kan-Tong Fried Rice on YouTube.