Jonathan Ke Quan has not disappeared off the face of the earth probably

November 22, 2010 at 12:38 pm (Whatever happened to ...?) (Indiana Jones, Jet Li, Jonathan Ke Quan, Tak Sakaguchi)

Remember Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? I know the part you’re remembering right now is the part where they rip that guy’s heart out before sending him into a pit of fire, but I want you to think harder, and remember Indy’s sidekick.

And then his heart burst into flames while the other guy was holding it! Man, that was so cool.

That’s right. Shortround.

"He no nuts, lady. He crazy."

Unless you remember Goonies, which I obviously don’t, or I’d’ve remembered that one Hobbit being in it, that was the last time you saw Jonathan Ke Quan on the big screen.

So what has he been doing since then? And what was he doing prior to then?

At the least, we know he's been rocking the nerd glasses.

Ke Huy-Quan was born in 1971 in Vietnam, and speaks fluent English, Vietnamese, Mandarin and Cantonese, which is four more languages than most Internet users are fluent in, ha-ha, zing. Anyway, his family was selected for political asylum in the United States when he was young, which is already pretty lucky, but then he gets to star in a movie with a young Harrison Ford? I mean, no wonder he hasn’t done much acting since then. How could he improve on that, you know?

So Jonathan Ke Quan’s career began with The Temple of Doom in 1984, continued with The Goonies in 1985, and then went into hibernation mode as he starred in a TV series I’ve never heard of from 1986 to ’87, called “Together We Stand,” which is described as a “formulaic, inoffensive couple-with-kids sitcom.” Apparently, it was originally conceived as a Brady Bunch spin-off, so I already hate it.

He then had a part in a Japanese movie that even IMDB isn’t sure it’s heard of, and then was on another sitcom in the early ’90s, Head of the Class. (It starred that guy from WKRP in Cincinnati, remember?) (And now you know: yes, I am much, much older than you.)

So, SO old.

He had a few more roles after that, most recently in Second Time Around, which is a time-travel drama about gambling. That was in 2002.

So what the hell’s he been doing for the last eight years? Does Harrison write?

"No."

Well, it turns out that, like my hero Tak Sakaguchi, Jonathan Ke Quan went on to become a stunt choreographer! Maybe he and Tak Sakaguchi are friends. That would be so awesome.

My hero is prettier than you and can still kick your ass.

Ke Quan worked on stunt choreography in X-Men and The One, that Jet Li movie I watched because it had Jet Li in it. Actually, it had multiple Jet Lis in it because it was some sort of multiverse story. So we got to see Jet Li fighting Jet Li! I can’t believe I didn’t go blind from the power of the awesome.

Or that my brain didn't overload! How many Jet Lis can one movie stand???

And, um, those movies came out a long time ago, but that’s the most recent information the Internet has on Ke Quan, so I hope things are going OK for him now.

I seriously love those glasses on him.