"Hop Sing"
The only other original cast member the stay with "Bonanza" or the length of its run was actor Victor Sen Yung. He played "Hop Sing", who was supposedly one of a flood of Chinese immigrants that travelled to the American West in the 1840s to escape famine in their homeland and pursue instead the quick riches of the gold rush.
Many originally settled in the Chinatowns of San Francisco and Sacramento, but as the Chinese began to overtake the Irish as a primary source of railroad labor, workers were recruited directly from the Cantonese districts of Sinong and Sinwai. Some came over specifically to serve as cooks, and it was steadfast Hop Sing's job to see to it that Ben Cartwright and his boys were well-fed and content.
"Charlie Chan"
Sen Yung was born in San Francisco on October 18, 1915, to parent who'd immigrated from China in the late 1890s.
After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, he ravelled to Hollywood in search of work as a character actor. In the 1938 film "Charlie Chan in Honolulu" with actor Sidney Toler in the title role, Victor was cast as one of the famed detectives sons. Referred to in various films as "Lee Chan", "Jimmy" and "Tommy Chan", Victor appeared in a total of 18 Charlie Chan movies.
He was also seen in such films as "The Letter" (1940) with Bette Davis, and "Across The Pacific" (1942) with Humphrey Bogart.
Aside from Hop Sing, his only recurring role on television series was the part of racetrack tout Charlie Fong on the situation comedy "Bachelor Father".
"Victor and Hop Sing, both execellent cooks"
In real life Victor was, like Hop Sing, highly skilled in the kitchen. In 1974, after the series had ended, he published a Chinese cook book.He later reflected on his "Bonanza" experience at a 1977 "Los Angeles Chinese Historical Society" dinner in his honor: "I've been all over the country selling a book and everyone thinks I worked on every show (in "Bonanza") and that I am a millionaire. The truth is that I appeared in about twenty percent of the shows over 14 years, and that was not enough to sustain myself. You do all kind of things. When someone needs a cook I can cook."
Tragically, Victor Sen Yung was found dead in his North Hollywood home in 1980, apparently a victim of funes from the gas stove he used to heat his modest bungalow.
