LOS ANGELES ( Associated Press) — Ke Huy Quan disappeared from Hollywood for more than two decades, deterred by the lack of camera work for Asian Americans. But he returned in style on Sunday and won the Oscar for best supporting actor.
Quan received the trophy for his role in “Everywhere Everyone Together”, becoming the second Asian winner in the supporting category, after Haing S. Ngor, who won the Oscar for “The Killing Fields” (“The Cry of Silence” in 1984).
When her name was announced, Quan stood and cheered on co-stars Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis, the latter of whom won the Oscar for best supporting actress.
“My mother is 84 years old and is at home watching,” she said. “Mommy, he just won the Oscar!”
Touched, Quan kissed his set repeatedly, and leaned into the microphone on stage, after a standing ovation. Puerto Rican-born actress Ariana DeBose, who presented Quan with the award, cried next to him onstage.
“My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow ended up here on the biggest stage in Hollywood,” he said. “They say stories only happen in movies. “I can’t believe this is happening,” Quan said. “This is the American dream.”
Quan arrived at the Oscars with a bang, winning every major award except the BAFTA from the British Film Academy. Quan earned his favors both by the acceptance of the prayers and by the victorious respect. he used it to encourage other actors to one day also eat success.
The Vietnam-born actor, whose family immigrated to California in the late 1970s, first came to work as a pre-teen in the 1980s blockbuster movies “The Cursed Temple of Doom”) and “The Goonies.” (a fellow Oscar winner named Brendan Fraser) continued in the early 1990s before taking a long hiatus from acting.
