DHIEGH, Khigh (Alx) 1910-1991

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born 1910 in Spring Lake, NJ; died of kidney and heart failure, October 25, 1991, in Mesa, AZ. Actor and author. Actually of mixed Egyptian, Sudanese, and English ancestry, Dhiegh had changed his name from Kenneth Dickerson and convinced many television viewers of the popular show Hawaii Five-0 that he was Chinese. In his early career, Dhiegh worked at his mother's bookstore, sold handmade pipes, and operated a talent agency. His interest in both theater and Chinese culture led him to become a character actor, and his work in the Broadway play Jungle of Cities earned him an Obie Award in 1961. The success of this role led him to his part in Hawaii Five-0 in which he played the villain Wo Fat from 1968 to 1980. He also played a Chinese man in the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate and in the short-lived 1975 series Khan, and he assumed a Japanese part in the television series Noble House (1988). As his acting career waned in the 1970s, Dhiegh continued to act occasionally while pursuing other interests. He taught the philosophy of theater at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1969 and from 1972 to 1976, and, beginning in 1975, he was rector of the Taoist Sanctuary in North Hollywood, California, and founder of Los Angeles's I Ching Studies Institute. Dhiegh was the author of The Eleventh Wing: An Exposition on the Dynamics of I Ching for Now (1973) and edited I Ching: Taoist Book of Days (1975-80) and Tao and Change (1972-77).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

People, November 18, 1991, p. 113.

ONLINE

Hawaii Five-0 Fan Club,http://www.hawaiifive0.org/ (December 17, 2003).