![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/peter-kwong.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPeter Kwong, the martial artist and actor best known for playing Rain, one of the Three Storms in John Carpenter’s 1986 cult classic “Big Trouble in Little China,” has died at age 73. <\/p>\n
His representatives confirmed that Kwong died in his sleep on Tuesday night, though no further details about his death were provided.<\/p>\n
Born on April 9, 1952, Kwong portrayed the super-powered martial artist Rain alongside Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall in the action-adventure film that later gained a devoted cult following despite its initial commercial disappointment.<\/p>\n
Kwong’s most prominent year came in 1986 when he appeared in three notable films.<\/p>\n
Beyond “Big Trouble in Little China,” he played restaurant owner and henchman Tommy Tong in “The Golden Child” starring Eddie Murphy and Charles Dance. <\/p>\n
He also featured in “Never Too Young to Die” alongside John Stamos and Vanity.<\/p>\n
He died aged 73<\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
His television career began in the mid-1970s with guest appearances on popular series including “Wonder Woman,” “The A-Team,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “Miami Vice,” “Dynasty,” “Cagney & Lacey,” and “The Greatest American Hero.”<\/p>\n
Kwong continued working regularly in films and television into the 2020s, with his final TV role appearing in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in 2020.<\/p>\n
Kwong was deeply involved in Hollywood industry politics throughout his career. <\/p>\n
He served on the SAG National Board of Directors for more than a decade and was a member of the AFTRA National Board of Directors.<\/p>\n
![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/peter-kwong.png\")
His television career began in the mid-1970s<\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
He also completed a four-year stint on the Television Academy Board of Governors and served on the Actors Branch Executive Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n
Kwong was an activist against anti-Asian stereotyping in Hollywood.<\/p>\n
In 2016, he was among signatories on a letter to the Academy decrying jokes made at the expense of Asians during that year’s Oscars ceremony. <\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Kwong was an accomplished martial artist, working in Northern Shaolin kung fu, Chinese kata and with weapons including swords, staffs, spears and nunchaku. <\/p>\n
Dancing was another specialty, from ballroom and martial arts fusion to disco and breaking, with friends citing his impressive pop-locking skills.<\/p>\n
![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1748555600_99_peter-kwong.jpg\")
The actor is said to have died in his sleep <\/p>\n
GETTY <\/p>\n
His nearly 50-year acting career spanned from the mid-1970s through the 2020s. <\/p>\n
“He had a wonderful life and career. I watched him fight for the things he believed in, and I championed him for that… He was always a gentleman and willing to help,” Kwong’s longtime friend, actor and producer Peter R.J. Deyell, told Deadline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Kwong, the martial artist and actor best known for playing Rain, one of the Three Storms in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,4781,77,3063,12,512,382,16,15,978,727],"class_list":{"0":"post-142455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-celebrity","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-film","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sgg","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-us-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114593346665581998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}