Born in Japan but raised in Korea, actor Soon-Teck Oh (or Soon-Tek Oh or Soon-Taik Oh) is of Korean heritage. He came to the United States as a teenager in 1959, studied at UCLA and trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Long associated with the versatile Los Angeles' East-West Players theatre company, Oh has performed on stage everything from Ibsen to Shakespeare. He made his Broadway debut and received great notices for his work in Stephen Sondheim's musical "Pacific Overtures" in 1976. On TV and film, he has proven to be a reliable player, notably in film action (007's The Man with the Golden Gun and Good Guys Wear Black; existential drama (TV's "Kung Fu" revival series), epic mini-series ("Marco Polo," "East of Eden") and most recently a pivotal role in the film Yellow, marking the first film by and featuring Korean Americans.


Guest-starred in 5 episodes on "M*A*S*H" (1972) as different characters from 1975 to 1982. Two of those episodes were in 1975 alone. In 1995, Oh founded the Lodestone Theatre Ensemble in response to the 1992 Los Angeles riots that dangerously reignited racial stereotyping. His continued efforts to present more accurate portrayals of Asian-American culture on stage has been significant.