This is a list of the top 10 Asian American actors/actresses of the last few decades in the United States according to the gross earnings of the movies the actors/actresses have been in
1. TOP 10 ASIAN AMERICAN ACTORS/ACTRESSES By Mitch Maiers AMCULT 214.002
2. Introduction This is the a list of the top 10 Asian American actors/actresses in the United States Even though there are not many Asian American actors/actresses in American movies, there are still a few that have been very successful This presentation will highlight those Asian Americans who have shined in Hollywood
3. Methods The list was compiled by researching over 200 Asian American actors/actresses listed on Wikipedia Each actor was researched to find out which movies they had been in Then each movie was found to see the total gross sales of the movie Finally each actor received a total sum of gross sales by adding up the total gross sales for each movie they acted in and the top ten were ranked If an actor or actress never played a major role in any of their movies they were not counted on the list Actors, such as Bruce Lee were not included because there is not data on the sales of their movies since their movies were made before movies reported their sales
4. 10. Pat Morita Total Grosses in US: $521,908,937 Played Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid and The Karate Kid Part II and III Was born in Iselton, California to Japanese immigrants Was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the Karate Kid
5. 9. Jet Li Total Grosses in US: $594,176,709 Played Emperor Han in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Han Sing in Romeo Must Die Was born in Beijing, China and is a martial artist Li is an international film star
6. 8. George Takei Total Grosses in US: $726,104,347 Played Commander Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek I –VI Takei is a Japenese American actor born in Los Angeles, California Speaks fluent English, Japanese and Spanish
7. 7. Mako Total Grosses in US: $766,153,647 Played Admiral Yamamoto in Pearl Harbor Born in Kobe, Japan His first movie was The Sand Pebbles in 1966 and he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the movie
8. 6. Ken Leung Total Grosses in US: $1,006,587,104 Played Kid Omega in X-Men: The Last Stand and Sang in Rush Hour Was born in New York City
9. 5. Lucy Liu Total Grosses in US: $1,128,456,083 Played Alex in Charlie’s Angels and O-RenIshi (aka cottonmouth) in Kill Bill Volume I and II Born in Queens, New York by Taiwanese immigrant parents Went to the University of Michigan
10. 4. James Hong Total Grosses in US: $1,179,495,058 Has played numerous roles, but most recently as Mr. Wu in The Day the Earth Stood Still Was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota because his dad immigrated from Hong Kong Former President of the Association of Asian/Pacific Islander Artists (AAPAA)
11. 3. John Cho Total Grosses in US: $1,193,553,000 Played Harold in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Sulu in Star Trek Was born in South Korea He popularized the slang term “MILF” in his small role in American Pie
12. 2. Keanu Reeves Total Grosses in US: $1,797,495,058 Played Neo in The Matrix and Jack Traven in Speed Was born in Lebanon and His father is an American of Hawaiian and Chinese descent Has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame
13. 1. Jackie Chan Total Grosses in US: $1,203,452,000 Played Detective Inspector Lee in Rush Hour, and Rush Hour II and III Was born in Hong Kong Has 10 Best Actor Nominations and 6 Best Action Choreography Nominations
14. For More Information… All of the gross sales information for all of the actors and exactly what the gross of each movie was can be found at http://www.the-numbers.com/people/ The information on the actors biographies can be found by typing in the actor’s name in Wikipedia. We found where each actor was born on Wikipedia.
15. Conclusion There are hundreds of Asian American actors and actresses, this study analyzed over 200 of them The ten people listed above are just a short list and are definitely not the only successful Asian American actors and actresses It was hard to make the top ten, I challenge you to research other successful Asian American actors and actresses
