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Leonard Strong

Leonard Strong

Actor · 1908 – 1980 · Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Leonard Clarence Strong (born 12 August 1908, Salt Lake City, Utah - d. 23 January 1980, Glendale, California was a prolific American character actor specialising in playing Asian roles. Beginning with Little Tokyo, U.S.A in 1942, Strong played a gamut of roles as Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Thais, etc. in films such as Dragon Seed (1944),Up in Arms (1944), Jack London (1943), Salute to the Marines (1943), Behind the Rising Sun (1943), Night Plane from Chungking (1943), Bombardier (1943),Underground Agent (1942), and Manila Calling (1942). He played the Thai interpreter in both Anna and the King of Siam and its musical remake The King and I. Strong also appeared in the movie Shane (1953) as homesteader Ernie Wright. Strong achieved some pop culture notoriety for his role on television as "The Claw" on Get Smart. He appeared in a season-five episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960) "The Cure" written by horror writer Robert Bloch. Set deep in an Amazon jungle, Strong plays Luiz, a loyal native who speaks broken English and saves his employer, an oil explorer, from the attempted murder of his supposedly mentally ill and unfaithful wife. Something gets lost in the translation when his employer wants Strong to take her to a psychiatrist 200 miles down river, and he takes her instead to a native headshrinker. The denouement comes when Strong returns alone to the shock of his employer. He says, "I do what you tell me. I take her to my people. The best headshrinkers in the world". Then, pulling his employer's wife's now shrunken head out of a bag, he says, "Best job in the world." Another notable television role was his haunting and mostly silent portrayal of the title character in the original Twilight Zone episode, "The Hitch-Hiker", which is often listed as one of the ten best episodes of the series. With his thumb extended, seeking a ride, and asking "Going my way?", Strong is seen in one of the half-dozen, seconds-long scenes used at the start of every one of the 30 DVDs in the CBS DVD five-season collection, "The Twilight Zone, The Definitive Edition."

Movies24

  • Movie7.3

    Shane

    1953 · 708 votes

  • Movie7.1

    The King and I

    1956 · 419 votes

  • Movie7.1

    The Keys of the Kingdom

    1944 · 55 votes

  • Movie6.1
  • Movie6.1

    Back to Bataan

    1945 · 72 votes

  • Movie6.6

    The Naked Jungle

    1954 · 124 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Cult of the Cobra

    1955 · 38 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Scared Stiff

    1953 · 44 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Blood on the Sun

    1945 · 42 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Backfire

    1950 · 32 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Destination Gobi

    1953 · 21 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Behind the Rising Sun

    1943 · 7 votes

  • Movie5.7

    Bombardier

    1943 · 21 votes

  • Movie5.5

    Hell's Half Acre

    1954 · 20 votes

  • Movie6.0

    First Yank into Tokyo

    1945 · 6 votes

  • Movie5.2

    Bengal Brigade

    1954 · 12 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Escape from Zahrain

    1962 · 30 votes

  • Movie4.5

    Prisoner of War

    1954 · 7 votes

  • Movie5.4

    Jet Attack

    1958 · 8 votes

  • Movie5.7

    The Atomic City

    1952 · 17 votes

  • Movie7.7

    Sword of the Avenger

    1948 · 3 votes

  • Movie4.8

    Backlash

    1947 · 20 votes

  • Movie9.0

    Underground Agent

    1942 · 1 votes

  • Movie6.6

    Cargo to Capetown

    1950 · 6 votes

Series17

  • TV8.0

    Get Smart

    1965 · 448 votes

  • TV8.5

    The Twilight Zone

    1959 · 1.1K votes

  • TV5.7

    One Step Beyond

    1959 · 15 votes

  • TV8.0

    The Untouchables

    1959 · 139 votes

  • TV7.8

    Alfred Hitchcock Presents

    1955 · 266 votes

  • TV7.2

    77 Sunset Strip

    1958 · 26 votes

  • TV6.6

    Peter Gunn

    1958 · 26 votes

  • TV7.2

    The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

    1964 · 75 votes

  • TV5.2

    Navy Log

    1955 · 5 votes

  • TV7.9
  • TV6.7

    The Alaskans

    1959 · 3 votes

  • TV8.0

    The Islanders

    1960 · 2 votes

  • TV5.3

    Dangerous Assignment

    1952 · 3 votes

  • TV8.0

    The Lone Wolf

    1954 · 2 votes

  • TV6.8

    Crossroads

    1955 · 4 votes

  • TV7.3

    The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu

    Dr. Fu Manchu

    1956 · 3 votes

  • TV5.0

    Terry and the Pirates

    1952 · 2 votes