Harry Endo, Hawaii Five-O's "Che Fong," Dead at 87

For most of its twelve-year run, Harry Endo played the clever, calm and reliable forensic scientist, Che Fong, on Hawaii Five-O. The show starred Jack Lord as Detective Steve McGarrett, head of the Five-O team. James MacArthur as Danno and Kam Fong as Chin Ho Kelly also were key characters.

According to Endo's daughter, in Newsday, Harry Endo was working at a bank in Hawaii in the 1960's. He was filming a local commercial for the bank when he was approached by Five-O producers and asked to appear on the show. Endo became a regular cast member and eventually appeared in 111 episodes of Hawaii Five-O between 1969 and 1977.

The first Hawaii Five-O episode Endo appeared in was "Which Way Did They Go?" Endo played a bank manager named Keoki (although the credits call his character Kaspar). The last episode in which Endo appeared was "Up the Rebels." The plot involved an Irish terrorist group and illegal arms trade. The episode is memorable for the fact that Steve McGarrett jumps out of his car and off a bridge to make the final arrest of the bad guys.

After his long stint on Hawaii Five-O, Harry Endo appeared occasionally on other television series, notably Magnum P.I., Murder, She Wrote, and Jake and the Fat Man.

Endo also kept up regular participation in Five-O fan events. He was a popular draw, along with James MacArthur, Kam Fong and others. In 1996, on the unofficial 30-year anniversary of the first script for Hawaii Five-O, Endo joined other former cast members, including Kam Fong (Chin Ho Kelly), Glenn Cannon (District Attorney Manicote), Herman Wedemeyer (Duke Lekela) and Zula (Kono) at "Mahalo Con," a fan convention held in Los Angeles and Honolulu.

Panel discussions at Mahalo Con included topics such as, "How Hawaii Five-O did it right," "Wonderful villains and heroes of Hawaii Five-O," "Dead Girlfriend of the Week," and "Did McGarrett or Danno ever get the girl?" Harry Endo graciously participated in many fan question and answer periods over the years.

Hawaii Five-O was one of the first police dramas to be filmed on location and one of the few television shows ever to use mostly untrained local actors on a regular basis. The theme song, written by Morton Stevens and recorded by the Ventures, is another enduring legacy of the show. Hawaii Five-O, with mention of Endo's work as Che Fong, garnered an entry in The Guide to United States Popular Culture.

Harry Endo's intelligent, professional, yet warm and sometimes humorous portrayal of Che Fong, Five-O's forensic scientist, made Fong an important and memorable character in Hawaii Five-O. Harry Endo died at the Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in New York City after a stroke on Friday. He was 87.

Sources:

Hawaii Five-O, The Internet Movie Database.

"Hawaii Five-O: The series that launched a thousand 'book 'ems' is booked for reunions,"Honolulu Star-Bulletin.