---
name: "James Wing Woo"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/james-wing-woo"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "6 September 1922"
died: "27 August 2014"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T21:20:35.209114+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# James Wing Woo

Actor. Born 6 September 1922 in Oleum, California, USA. Died 27 August 2014.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 6 September 1922, Oleum, California, USA
- **Died:** 27 August 2014

## Biography

James Wing Woo (1922–2014) was an American actor and martial arts instructor. Born in Oleum, California, he trained in martial arts from a young age and opened the Academy of Karate Kung Fu studio on Hollywood Boulevard in 1961.

He began acting in the mid-1970s after Hollywood producers and directors visited his studio. His early roles included Tao Yi in *The Killer Elite* (1975) and Chen in *Marathon Man* (1976). He later appeared in films such as *The Big Fix* (1978), *Snapdragon* (1993), *Lethal Weapon 4* (1998) as Four Father James Wing Chow, *The Replacement Killers* (1998) as a priest, *Kung Pow: Enter the Fist* (2002) as Martial Arts Master #1, and *Nancy Drew* (2007). On television he played Kwan in an episode of *Monk* (2002). Across approximately fifteen roles he typically portrayed elders, priests or criminal clan leaders and did not perform martial arts on screen. He taught martial arts for 53 years until his death in Los Angeles in 2014.

*Sources: imdb.com, jameswingwoo.com, catalog.afi.com, rottentomatoes.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Marathon Man* (1976), Fi1m 74, as Chen — [page](https://film.one/film/marathon-man.md)

## Also known for

- *Lethal Weapon 4* (1998), Four Father James Wing Chow
- *Monk* (2002), Kwan
- *Kung Pow: Enter the Fist* (2002), Martial Arts Master #1
- *The Replacement Killers* (1998), Priest
- *Nancy Drew* (2007), Chinese Priest in Movie
- *The Killer Elite* (1975), Tao Yi
- *Snapdragon* (1993), Mr Lui
- *The Big Fix* (1978), Pak Chung

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/james-wing-woo