He was born in Canton, China, and grew up in Seattle.
He made his film debut in The Painted Veil in 1934, and the following year gained his first big role, as Charlie Chan's eldest son in Charlie Chan in Paris. It was a role he would continue to play, on and off, until The Sky Dragon in 1949 - in which, having outlasted two stars of the series, he was older than the actor then playing his father. And in 1972, he became the first Chinese actor to play Charlie Chan himself, in the otherwise undistinguished animated series The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan.