William Ching

William Brooks Ching (October 2, 1913 – July 1, 1989) was an American actor born in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in New Orleans. He built a career spanning stage, film, and television across the 1940s and 1950s before his death from congestive heart failure at age 75. He is buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California.

Ching launched his professional life as a singer, performing in a summer series at the Memphis Open Air Theater before transitioning to musical theater. In 1947, he appeared on Broadway in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro, the same year he signed with Republic Pictures. His first film role had come in 1946, and over the following dozen years he worked primarily in Westerns and dramas for the studio. Ching chose not to adopt a stage name when he moved into films, despite the possibility that his surname might suggest Asian heritage to audiences.

Among his film appearances, Ching is particularly associated with two notable productions. He had a supporting role in Rudolph Maté's 1950 film noir D.O.A. and played the overbearing boyfriend of Katharine Hepburn's character in George Cukor's 1952 comedy Pat and Mike. He also appeared alongside Randolph Scott in the Western Tall Man Riding in 1955.

Ching's television work included a recurring role as Clint Allbright on the CBS series Our Miss Brooks, which began in 1955. In 1958, he portrayed Glenn McKay in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Corresponding Corpse." His final major acting credit came in a 1959 episode of 77 Sunset Strip.