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(1912–2001). American actor.
Thanks to a recent message from his son, I can
now provide more detailed information about his life. The son of Korean
diplomat Dosan Ahn Chang Ho, Philson Ahn belonged to a family of overachievers,
including his older brother, actor Philip Ahn (with whom he is often confused),
who enjoyed a forty-year career of mostly minor roles until succumbing to lung
cancer in 1978; younger brother Ralph Ahn, also an actor; and his younger
sister, Susan Ahn Cuddy, the first woman to serve as a gunnery officer in the
U.S. Navy and later a prominent community leader in Los Angeles. Upon enrolling
at UC Berkeley, Philson originally wished to become an architect, but he was
persuaded to major in chemistry in order to better assist the Koreans in
resisting the Japanese. To earn extra money to finance his college education
(his son suspects), he then drifted in small, uncredited film performances,
undoubtedly with the assistance of older brother Philip, already established in
the industry; if the Internet Movie Database is to be believed (and one cannot
uncritically believe it, since they too at times seem to be confusing Philson
and Philip), Philson had precisely one credited role, as the Saturnian Prince
Tallen in the Buck Rogers serial.
Granted, this was not a prestigious venue
(indeed, one suspects that Philip was first offered the part, but turned it
down and suggested his brother instead), and granted, the producers were
undoubtedly casting an Asian-American in the part solely because they
prejudicially thought that an Asian face would seem more alien to their young
audiences than a Caucasian face. Still, this represented a rare opportunity for
an Asian-American actor of that era to portray a figure with authority and
dignity, and Philson, I think, acquitted himself rather well. While not
entirely unable to overcome the tendency in these serials to deliver lines in
the stilted manner of performers in a high school play, he persuasively
conveyed that he was a man who expected and deserved respect; he was genuinely
likable, so that one could readily believe that he was a beloved figure among
his people; he made his improbable friendship with visiting Earthman Buck
Rogers seem sincere and heartfelt; and since Rogers spent much of his time rescuing
Prince Tallen, instead of female lead Wilma Deering, Tallen effectively
functioned as the emotional centerpiece of the drama. Audiences came to care
about his fate, and that was a major reason why they were rooting for Buck
Rogers to save him and his people from the insidious schemes of Killer Kane. If
not a remarkable performance, one can say that it was a memorable one.
This role might have jumpstarted Philson's
career, since there were plans for a second Buck Rogers serial that surely
would have included the reappearance of Prince Tallen; however, the relatively
unenthusiastic response to Buck Rogers inspired producers to instead
film a third Flash Gordon serial, and Philson returned to the obscurity of
tiny, uncredited roles. Finally, feeling no genuine desire to stand in the
spotlight, Philson retired from acting to work as an engineer at Hughes
Aircraft, where he enjoyed a long career and reportedly had encounters with
Wernher von Braun and Howard Hughes himself. He lived long enough that he could
have earned a modest income and basked in the admiration of fans by coming to
science fiction conventions and reminiscing about Buck Rogers, but he
carried on with his private life until he died in 2001, succumbing to pneumonia
after hip surgery, clearly preferring the obscurity that he had achieved.
However, it is the task of science fiction film historians to retrieve certain
figures from obscurity, and whether he would have enjoyed it or not, Philson
Ahn does merit some attention for his one impressive contribution to the
history of science fiction film.
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