Peter Kwong, the actor and martial artist best known for his role as Rain, one of the Three Storms, in John Carpenter’s 1986 film Big Trouble in Little China, has died at the age of 73. His representatives confirmed to Deadline that he passed away overnight on Tuesday.
Born on 9 April 1952, Kwong had a screen career spanning nearly 50 years, beginning in the mid-1970s.
Kwong’s early television appearances included guest roles in popular series such as Wonder Woman and Black Sheep Squadron. In the 1980s, he featured in shows like Cagney & Lacey, Dynasty, The A-Team, and Miami Vice.
He secured his most famous film role in Big Trouble in Little China, where he starred alongside Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall. In the same year, 1986, he also appeared in The Golden Child with Eddie Murphy, playing the character Tommy Tong, a restaurant owner and henchman. His film credits also include The Presidio, Gleaming the Cube, and Paper Dragons. Later in his career, he continued to take on TV guest roles in programmes such as General Hospital, JAG, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
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Beyond his acting, Kwong was an accomplished martial artist. He trained in Northern Shaolin kung fu, Chinese kata, and various weapon styles, including swords, staffs, spears, and nunchaku. Friends also noted his skills in dancing, including ballroom, martial arts fusion, disco, and pop-locking.
Alongside his work in front of the camera, Kwong was actively involved in Hollywood industry politics for decades. He served on the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) National Board of Directors for more than 10 years and was also on the AFTRA National Board of Directors. His extensive involvement included a four-year term on the Television Academy Board of Governors and membership in the Actors Branch Executive Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organises the Oscars.
Kwong was a vocal advocate against anti-Asian stereotyping in Hollywood. In 2016, he was among signatories on a letter to AMPAS, decrying jokes made at the expense of Asians during that year’s Academy Awards ceremony.
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“I was there at the Academy Awards, and I was shocked because [Academy President] Cheryl Boone-Isaacs went up and talked about diversity and then right after that comes the jokes from Chris Rock and Sacha Baron Cohen,” Kwong told Deadline at the time. He argued that such humour “gives people permission to not only continue it but to escalate it as well.”
In 2023, Kwong received the Asian World Film Festival’s Snow Leopard Award for outstanding cinematic achievement.
Information regarding survivors and a memorial service has not yet been fully released.
