Kam Fong Chun played Chin Ho Kelly on the CBS television series Hawaii Five-O for ten years. His was the longest running character played by a Hawaii-local in the history of television.
Chun's life was filled with tragedies. His brother burned to death as he was painting the family home and someone had lit a match. Chun watched as his brother get tortured. On June 8, 1944, Chun lost his family in a freak air disaster that devastated their home in Honolulu, Hawaii. Two B-24 bombers collided over the Chun residence, killing wife Esther, four-year old daughter Marilyn and two-year old son son Donald. Chun recalled in an interview, "Everything came crashing down, barely missing Kalakaua School. My wife and children were killed. I lost my family in five minutes. All I wanted to do was die."
Chun later remarried Gladys Lindo in 1949. They later bore a two sons, Dennis and Dickson, and daughters Brenda and Valerie Chun.
KamFongChun is survived by two sons, Dennis and Dickson and two daughters, Brenda and Valerie.
KamFongChun, known to millions of TV viewers as the stalwart Detective Chin Ho Kelly on "Hawai'i Five-0," has died, his family announced yesterday.
Years later, KamFongChun said he was so despondent after the deaths of his wife and family that he began drinking heavily and that at one point he put a gun to his head and tried to kill himself.
KamFongChun played Chin Ho Kelly on the CBS television series Hawaii Five-O for ten years.
KamFongChun (May1918, –October 18, 2002) was born Kam Tong Chun in the Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Chun's stage name came from a misunderstanding of his first name of his first teacher who taught him to write KamFongChun instead of his birthname, Kam Tong Chun.
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