BIO

Victor Sen Yung was born Sen Yung [揚森] in San Francisco, California, in 1915.   His mother died in 1919 during the Spanish Flu Pandemic.   His father placed the children in an orphanage and returned to China to find another wife.   He returned three years later and reclaimed his children.

Yung worked his way through school, graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in animal husbandry.   While completing graduate work in Los Angeles, he began working as an extra in the film business.

Yung made his film debut in The Good Earth (1937) with Paul Muni.   He went on to appear in more than 90 feature films through 1980.   Yung was featured in 18 Charlie Chan mysteries between 1938 and 1948.

He primarily appeared in television roles beginning in the early 1950s and was a regular on the long running series Bonanza (1959-1973).

Yung was one of the passengers on a U.S. commercial airline flight that was hijacked by Bulgarian terrorists in 1972.   When the F.B.I. stormed the plane, he was one of four passengers shot. Two died. He survived with a gunshot wound in the back.

Yung died of asphyxiation at his home in Los Angeles, in 1980, from a leaking gas pipe.   His body was not discovered for 10 days.

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS

Complete filmography at:

TV SERIES

Bonanza