Jack Soo

Jack Soo, born Goro Suzuki on October 28, 1917, was an American actor and singer whose Broadway appearances spanned from 1958 to 1960. He was born aboard a ship crossing the Pacific Ocean, as his parents, who lived in Oakland, California, had arranged for him to be born in Japan as their firstborn son. He later graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in English.

Soo lived in Oakland until the passage of Executive Order 9066 during World War II led to his internment alongside other Japanese Americans. He was relocated to the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah, where fellow internees remembered him as a camp favorite who sang at dances and other events. Following the war, he launched his professional entertainment career as a stand-up nightclub performer, working primarily in the Midwestern United States. To navigate anti-Japanese-American prejudice, he adopted the stage name Jack Soo — a surname he had also used when leaving the Topaz internment camp — while performing at venues such as Chin's, a Chinese nightclub in Cleveland, Ohio.

His Broadway breakthrough came in 1958 when he was cast in the musical Flower Drum Song, where he originated the role of the show's MC and comedian Frankie Wing. He had been performing at the Forbidden City, a Chinese nightclub and cabaret in San Francisco, when actor and dancer Gene Kelly, who was directing the production, discovered him. During the run of the show, Soo transitioned into the role of Sammy Fong, and he reprised that role in the 1961 film adaptation of the musical.

Beyond Broadway, Soo built a substantial screen career over the following decades. His first nationwide television appearance came on The Jack Benny Program on November 27, 1962, in which he played a tough-talking talent agent. In 1964, he took on a weekly supporting role as Rocky Sin, a poker-playing con artist, in the television comedy series Valentine's Day, starring Anthony Franciosa. He also appeared in the 1967 musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie and in The Green Berets, in which he played a colonel of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Guest appearances on television series including Hawaii Five-O, The Odd Couple, and two episodes of M*A*S*H further extended his profile during this period.

In 1965, Soo joined Motown Records as one of the label's first non-African-American musicians. While there, he recorded a slow ballad version of "For Once in My Life," making him the first male singer to record the song in that style. The recording was never released and remained in the Motown archives; the song subsequently became famous through Stevie Wonder's version.

Soo's most prominent role came in 1975 when he was cast in the ABC sitcom Barney Miller, a connection made possible through his longstanding friendship with the show's producer, Danny Arnold, whom he had met while both were working the nightclub circuit. On the series, Soo played Detective Nick Yemana, a character known for brewing notoriously bad coffee — a recurring joke throughout the show — and for occasionally subverting Asian American stereotypes by underscoring his character's solidly American identity. Throughout his career, Soo refused roles he felt demeaned Asian Americans and consistently advocated against negative ethnic portrayals.

During Barney Miller's fourth season in 1977–1978, Soo was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and missed the final five episodes. He returned for the opening of the fifth season, but the disease progressed rapidly. His last appearance on the series was in the episode "The Vandal," which aired on November 9, 1978. Soo died on January 11, 1979, at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, at the age of 61. A retrospective episode featuring castmates sharing personal memories of Soo aired during the final episode of season five, concluding with the cast raising their coffee cups in tribute to him. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.

Soo had married Jan Zdelar, a model, in 1945. The couple had three children: Jayne, Richard, and James.