Jonathan Ke Quan

Jonathan Ke Quan in
 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Jonathan Ke Quan (1971-    ) is an American stunt choreographer and former child actor of Chinese-Vietnamese origin best known for having costarred in two major Hollywood blockbuster movies of the the 1980s, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and The Goonies (1987).

He was born to Chinese-Vietnamese parents on August 20, 1971 in Saigon, South Vietnam with the given birth name, Quan Kế Huy.  He arrived in the United States from Vietnam with his family in 1975 and was raised primarily in Alhambra, California.  At the age of 12, he landed his first cinematic role in the Stephen Spielberg-directed action-adventure film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  He had been selected out of 6,000 candidates at a casting call in Los Angeles for the part.  Principal photography for the film lasted a total of four months taking place in several different countries in different corners of the world including Sri Lanka, Great Britain and Macau.  For his portrayal of Harrison Ford's sidekick, Short Rounds, he was credited as Ke Huy Quan.  On May 23, 1984, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in movie theaters taking in a record-breaking $45.7 million USD during its first week.  It ended up as the top grossing film of 1984 with a total accumulation of $331.1 million USD worldwide.  On December 2, 1984, Ke Huy Quan was honored at the 6th annual Youth in Film Awards (now known as the Young Artist Awards) with a win for Best Young Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical, Comedy, Adventure or Drama beating out Corey Feldman for his work on Gremlins along with six other nominated candidates.

Jonathan Ke Quan
on the Set of The Goonies (1985)

Impressed with the natural talents of the young child actor, Stephen Spielberg invited Jonathan Ke Quan back for another film role during the fall of 1984.  In The Goonies he would play the role of David "Data" Wang, one of the members of the eponymous group of kids who was known as the kid inventor.  Other cast members of The Goonies included Sean Astin, Corey Feldman, Martha Plimpton and Josh Brolin.  After its release on June 7. 1985, the film would would go onto becoming one of the top ten highest grossing films of the year with a total accumulation of $61 million USD.  This time around, he would be credited as Jonathan Ke Huy Quan.


After a season as one of the main characters in the short-lived CBS prime time sitcom, Together We Stand (1986-1987) starring Elliot Gould and Dee Wallace, Jonathan Ke Quan broadened his horizons into world cinema.  His next cinematic roles were in foreign language films produced overseas:  It Takes a Thief  (1986), filmed in Taiwan in Mandarin, and Passenger (1987), filmed in Tokyo in Japanese.

Jonathan Ke Quan (2000)

In 1989, after graduating from Alhambra High School he enrolled at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in the fall semester.  During the next four years at USC,  Jonathan Ke Quan successfully juggled between his careers in academics and acting.  From 1990 until 1991, he was a regular cast member in the 5th and final season of the hit ABC sitcom, Head of the Class, which also starred Robin Givens and Khrystyne Haje.  He was cast in the lead role in Breathing Fire (1991), a martial arts feature film produced in Hollywood.  And in 1992, he had a supporting role in the Pauly Shore comedy vehicle, Encino Man (1992).  Following his graduation from USC in 1993, Jonathan Ke Quan traveled to Taipei, Taiwan where he would spend nearly a year there starring in a 40-episode Taiwanese drama series, The Big Eunuch and the Little Carpenter.  He then starred in two Hong Kong-produced feature films, Red Pirate (1996) and Second Time Around (2002) with Ekin Cheng and Cecilia Cheung, which won the Film of Merit Prize at the 2003 Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.  Since the early 2000s, Jonathan Ke Quan has made the transition from being in front of the camera to working behind the scenes.  He is now a stunt choreographer.  Some of his earliest credits as a stunt choreographer were in such major feature films like X-Men (2000) starring Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry and The One (2001) starring Jet Li.

Jonathan Ke Quan Today

Happily married to his wife, Corinna, he currently makes his home in Alhambra, California.  Jonathan Ke Quan speaks English, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin fluently.