Burt Kwouk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Burt Kwouk (Chinese: 郭弼; pinyin: Guō Bì) (born July 18, 1930) is an actor who was born in Manchester, England "because my mother happened to be there" but was raised in Shanghai between the ages of ten months and seventeen years. He has appeared in numerous films and TV programmes over the years and is perhaps most famous for playing Cato, Inspector Clouseau's man-servant in the Pink Panther films. Another notable film role was in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness as the leader of a prison revolt who later aids the main character in leading orphans to safety and heroically dies to save them.
Having appeared for many years in virtually any UK production that called for a man of East Asian appearance, Kwouk is well known in the UK and is a bit of a cult figure for children of the 1970s—hence his appearances in Harry Hill's TV programme as himself. He appeared as a henchman in two James Bond films -- as an agent of SPECTRE in You Only Live Twice and as a Chinese scientist working for the titular villain in Goldfinger.
His most notable television role is as the commandant Major Yamauchi in Tenko (1981) the long-running POW drama.
He also appeared in the Doctor Who serial Four to Doomsday in 1981; and provided his voice to the Doctor Who audio drama Loups-Garoux. In 1992 he appeared in Carry On Columbus. In 2003 he gave voice talent to the character El'Lusha in the Kuju video game Fire Warrior, set in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 gaming world. He currently plays Entwistle in Last of the Summer Wine.
