Ke Huy Quan is having a very, very good year. The actor rose to fame on the strength of his childhood performances in blockbuster hits like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies but slowly slipped off of Hollywood’s radar, instead appearing in foreign market films and eventually finding work behind the camera as a fight choreographer and assistant director.
That all changed in 2018 when Quan saw the movie Crazy Rich Asians and, believing Hollywood’s discriminatory casting policies had changed, decided to work to make his dreams of acting success a reality. Quan’s most recent role, as Waymond Wang in the surprise art house hit Everything Everywhere All at Once has brought him that success in spades. The film and Quan have amassed critical acclaim and won a slew of awards. Quan himself has won dozens of Best Supporting Actor awards from Film Critics associations nationwide and recently picked up the SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.
With Everything Everywhere All at Once a favorite to win the Best Picture Oscar and Quan’s career looking brighter than ever before, here are the nine best performances by the award-winning actor.
Red Pirate
Quan’s fanny pack action sequence in Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the movie’s most riveting action sequences but Quan has a long history with action films. After his career as a child actor was drawing to a close Quan appeared in the 1997 Taiwanese actioner Red Pirate. He starred as Hong Kong inspector Kwai Chia-Chiang, who travels to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to try and bring down a notorious crime lord.
Breathing Fire
Quan’s martial arts movie debut was Breathing Fire, a 1991 remake of the 1977 Hong Kong action movie The Flash Legs, aka Shaolin Deadly Kicks. The film was produced by Tan Tao-liang – a former martial arts movie star who was Quan’s Taekwando mentor. The film nearly featured the late Power Rangers star Jason David Frank as Quan’s adoptive brother but Frank had to refuse the role due to scheduling conflicts.
Second Time Around
Quan starred in this 2002 Chinese romantic drama as the protagonist’s best friend. In a strange twist the film — which would feature Quan’s last performance for nearly twenty years — also featured the use of parallel universes (although not nearly the same amount that Everything Everywhere All at Once utilizes).
Together We Stand
After earning big-screen success, Quan had his first major television role in the short-lived 1986 sitcom Together We Stand. The show featured Elliott Gould and E.T.’s Dee Wallace as a married couple who adopt two children in addition to their biological son and daughter. Quan starred as Sam – an Asian-American orphan adopted by the pair. Although initial ratings were high, they soon plunged and the show was canceled after only one year on the air.
Finding Ohana
While fans have been clamoring for a sequel to The Goonies for some time now, this 2021 Netflix family adventure film is probably as close as they will ever get to having one. Finding ‘Ohana is loosely based on the 1985 hit directed by Christopher Columbus and featuring Quan in one of his early childhood breakout roles. A pair of siblings move to Hawaii and find themselves in the middle of a Goonies-style hunt for pirate treasure. Quan was the only member of the original cast to appear in the movie.
Encino Man
Though Quan only plays a small role in this fish-out-of-water story of a stone-age teenager transplanted to ’90s-era California, it did introduce him to star Brendan Fraser. The two formed a friendship that has continued to this day, a fact they are both celebrating in a year where both of their stars have changed trajectory and the two of them are celebrating critical acclaim in a way neither has for years if ever.
Goonies
Goonies is undoubtedly Quan’s second-biggest role of his childhood and one that is still beloved by Gen-X kids and Millennials alike. His performance as the gadget-loving kid genius and James Bond fanatic Data was the role that cemented his child star career. Quan has stated that he’s even open to revisiting the character although he finds the idea of a sequel unlikely given the death of the movie’s director Richard Donner.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Very few people get to make their movie debut in an Indiana Jones movie, much less one of the most popular sequels of all time. Quan nailed down the role of Short Round when he was only 12 years old and auditioned for his part at his own elementary school. Before winning the part, Quan had no plans to become an actor. “I love Steven Spielberg. I love this man with all my heart,” Quan told Variety. “And after I gave my speech on the stage, I looked over to him, and he gave me a standing ovation. Can you believe it? I could not believe it. Here is the most successful director of all time. Gave me a standing ovation. And he gave me a lot. Gave me my first job. He’s the reason why I fell in love with acting.”
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Waymond Wang — the husband of Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn Quan Wang — may be the role Quan was born to play. Though his character at the start of the film is a nebbishy, almost henpecked husband, by the end of the film we get to see Waymond transformed into a multitude of alternate universe versions, not only showing the heart of the character but allowing Quan to demonstrate the extreme acting range that has made him the darling of this year’s awards season. He even got to utilize his impressive skills as a martial artist. It’s safe to say no one will ever see a fanny pack the same way after seeing Quan in Everything Everywhere All at Once.