Jia Hongsheng

Jia Hongsheng was born on March 19, 1967, in Siping, Jilin, China. He graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing in 1989, and soon gained fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s as an actor in films such as The Case of the Silver Snake and A Woman from North Shaanxi. He also played Japanese characters, as many Chinese actors working in Hollywood during the era did. He was the personification of the 'Yellow Peril', with his buck-toothed, pigtailed, pidgin-English-spouting comedy relief. Behind the scenes, he was an advocate for fair treatment of studio actors. He also ran his own Chinese restaurant: New Moon Café in East Hollywood. He was reportedly an acquaintance of Jean Harlow. However, he backed away from the limelight in 1995 after becoming addicted to cannabis and eventually heroin. His father, head of the local theatre in Jilin, retired two years before his retirement age, and along with his wife moved to Beijing to try to help Jia. He made a comeback in 2000, starring in the celebrated Suzhou River. The following year he starred in the film he is best known for to Western audiences, the autobiographical Quitting. It depicts his battle with addiction and his family trying to help him sober up, with all of the cast members being real people playing themselves. He was also an avid fan of The Beatles, listening to their music obsessively and began to fantasize himself as the son of the Beatles' lead singer, John Lennon. He died by jumping off a building in Beijing's Chaoyang District on July 5, 2010, at the age of 43.