Wo Fat
Encyclopedia
Wo Fat is the name of a fictional villain in the long-running CBS
series Hawaii Five-O
. On the show, Wo Fat is the arch-nemesis of Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord
), the head of Hawaii's (fictional) state police
force. The character appeared in eleven episodes of Hawaii Five-O
including the TV-movie pilot and the final episode. Two of his appearances were in two-part episodes and three were two-hour specials later re-edited into two-parters for reruns. The character evolved from beginning as a master spy for the Red Chinese
, later into a extremist Chinese agent working with a hawkish Chinese general that opposed peace discussions with the United States in the early 1970s, and finally as international super-criminal out for his own interests in the series finale. In the last episode, Wo Fat is finally arrested and jailed. However, in the final shot, he smiles and craftily produces a file hidden in his shoe. It remains a perpetual cliffhanger
.
Wo Fat was portrayed by actor Khigh Dheigh
(born Kenneth Dickerson) who, despite looking sufficiently Asia
n for the role, was actually of mixed Anglo
, Egypt
ian, and Sudanese
ancestry.
By the episode, titled "Presenting... in the Center Ring... Murder" (December 10, 1974), Wo Fat is working for a hawkish government faction in China, and attempts to assassinate a Chinese government foreign minister, who represents the more peace-oriented leadership in China at the time.
In Murder - Eyes Only (September 12, 1975), Wo Fat returns to his more traditional role as an intelligence operative attempting to obtain the coordinates for a downed American military satellite in the Pacific through a mole in U.S. Naval Intelligence.
However, by Nine Dragons (September 30, 1976), Wo Fat is depicted as the head of the Chinese mafia, who is attempting to cause a conflict between the U.S. and China through a mass killing in China from American developed nerve gas, stolen from Hawaii, which would allow him to regain power in the Chinese government.
In his final appearance and the series finale (Woe to Wo Fat (April 5, 1980)), Wo Fat is presented as completely unaffiliated with the Chinese government, operating on a remote island, developing a solar weapon for the highest bidder.
The evolution of Wo Fat's role for the Chinese government is presumably due to President Richard Nixon's
visit to China in February 1972 and his talks with Mao Zedong
that led to a period of détente
between the two nations, his appearances after the historic event became far more sporadic: just five episodes in eight years.
, the producer of the series, took the name for the character from the now-defunct Wo Fat restaurant in Honolulu's Chinatown
. The Wo Fat Building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
featured a recurring drug lord named Luther Mahoney whose gang always seemed to escape the blame for the murders they caused. In the DVD commentary for that series, producers explained that Mahoney was largely based on Wo Fat, and then adapted to the gritty Baltimore
setting of their series.
announced that Mark Dacascos
had been cast to fill the role of Wo Fat in the 2010
remake of Hawaii Five-0. Wo Fat debuted in episode twelve ("Hana 'a'a Makehewa"), which aired on December 13, 2010. Wo first appeared when he was interrogating villain Victor Hesse (James Marsters
), who had murdered Steve McGarrett's (Alex O'Loughlin
) father Jack (William Sadler
) in the pilot episode. In episode thirteen ("Ke Kinohi") Wo is shown playing golf with the Honolulu Yakuza
's crime boss Hiro Noshimuri when Steve McGarrett confronts Hiro and his brother Koji about stealing evidence concerning the car bomb murder of his mother. After the arrest of Hiro Noshimuri for arranging the theft, it is suggested that Wo Fat is a person of some importance, as he is being chauffeured around in a golf cart. In the latter half of season one, it is revealed that Wo Fat was the one calling the shots for McGarrett's father's murder. In the first season finale, Wo Fat kills the Governor (Jean Smart
) and then frames McGarrett for it. We later learn that the Governor was working for Wo Fat. In season 2 episode 1, he orders Victor Hesse to kill McGarrett to prevent him from investigating further. In the end of the episode, he kills Victor Hesse and gets into a car driven by ex-CIA analyst Jenna Kaye. At the end of the second episode of the second season, she leaves to follow-up on a lead that her fiancé, whom she claimed had been killed by Wo Fat, might in fact be alive. In the middle of season 2 episode 6, he appears at Commander White's residence and fights Commander White at his residence. Wo Fat then escapes. He next appears in episode 10, where he tricks Jenna Kaye to bring McGarrett to him in exchange for her fiancé. Jenna Kaye is then killed by Wo Fat to tie up loose ends. Five-0 eventually come to McGarrett's rescue, and Wo Fat disappears in the commotion.
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
series Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
. On the show, Wo Fat is the arch-nemesis of Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord
Jack Lord
John Joseph Patrick Ryan , best known by his stage name Jack Lord, was an American television, film, and Broadway actor. He was known for his starring role as Steve McGarrett in the American television program Hawaii Five-O from 1968 to 1980. Lord appeared in feature films earlier in his career,...
), the head of Hawaii's (fictional) state police
State police
State police are a type of sub-national territorial police force, particularly in Australia and the United States. Some other countries have analogous police forces, such as the provincial police in some Canadian provinces, while in other places, the same responsibilities are held by national...
force. The character appeared in eleven episodes of Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
including the TV-movie pilot and the final episode. Two of his appearances were in two-part episodes and three were two-hour specials later re-edited into two-parters for reruns. The character evolved from beginning as a master spy for the Red Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, later into a extremist Chinese agent working with a hawkish Chinese general that opposed peace discussions with the United States in the early 1970s, and finally as international super-criminal out for his own interests in the series finale. In the last episode, Wo Fat is finally arrested and jailed. However, in the final shot, he smiles and craftily produces a file hidden in his shoe. It remains a perpetual cliffhanger
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
.
Wo Fat was portrayed by actor Khigh Dheigh
Khigh Dheigh
Khigh Alx Dhiegh was an American television and motion picture actor of mixed North African ancestry, noted for portraying Asian roles. He is perhaps best remembered for portraying villains, in particular his recurring TV guest role as Chinese agent Wo Fat on Hawaii Five-O , and brainwasher Dr...
(born Kenneth Dickerson) who, despite looking sufficiently Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n for the role, was actually of mixed Anglo
Anglo
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England or the English people, as in the terms Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-African and Anglo-Indian. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, Australia and...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian, and Sudanese
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
ancestry.
Evolution of Wo Fat's role with the Chinese government
In the first two-and-a-half years of the show's existence, Wo Fat made six appearances. In Hawaii Five-O: Cocoon (September 20, 1968), the series pilot, Wo Fat, as a Chinese spy, uses sensory deprivation to crack the most loyal U.S. intelligence agents to give up top secret information. In Forty Feet High and It Kills! (October 8, 1969), A Bullet for McGarrett (October 29, 1969), And a Time to Die... (September 16, 1970), F.O.B. Honolulu: Part 1 (January 27, 1971), F.O.B. Honolulu: Part 2 (February 3, 1971), The Ninety-Second War: Part 1 (January 18, 1972), The Ninety-Second War: Part 2 (January 25, 1972), and The Jinn Who Clears the Way (October 10, 1972), Wo Fat continues his position as a top Chinese intelligence agent in the Pacific, whose duties include running Chinese spy missions in Hawaii.By the episode, titled "Presenting... in the Center Ring... Murder" (December 10, 1974), Wo Fat is working for a hawkish government faction in China, and attempts to assassinate a Chinese government foreign minister, who represents the more peace-oriented leadership in China at the time.
In Murder - Eyes Only (September 12, 1975), Wo Fat returns to his more traditional role as an intelligence operative attempting to obtain the coordinates for a downed American military satellite in the Pacific through a mole in U.S. Naval Intelligence.
However, by Nine Dragons (September 30, 1976), Wo Fat is depicted as the head of the Chinese mafia, who is attempting to cause a conflict between the U.S. and China through a mass killing in China from American developed nerve gas, stolen from Hawaii, which would allow him to regain power in the Chinese government.
In his final appearance and the series finale (Woe to Wo Fat (April 5, 1980)), Wo Fat is presented as completely unaffiliated with the Chinese government, operating on a remote island, developing a solar weapon for the highest bidder.
The evolution of Wo Fat's role for the Chinese government is presumably due to President Richard Nixon's
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
visit to China in February 1972 and his talks with Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
that led to a period of détente
Détente
Détente is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War...
between the two nations, his appearances after the historic event became far more sporadic: just five episodes in eight years.
Name origin
Leonard FreemanLeonard Freeman
Leonard Freeman was an American television writer and producer whose most famous achievement was the creation of the CBS television network series Hawaii Five-O in 1968. The show ran for twelve seasons. At the time that was a record for a crime drama. In 1960, he wrote for the series Route 66; in...
, the producer of the series, took the name for the character from the now-defunct Wo Fat restaurant in Honolulu's Chinatown
Chinatown, Honolulu
The Chinatown Historic District is a neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii known for its Chinese people and is one of the oldest Chinatowns in the United States.-History:The area was probably used by fishermen during ancient Hawaii but little evidence remains...
. The Wo Fat Building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Influence of original Wo Fat character on other television shows
Wo Fat's influence continued beyond the Hawaii Five-O series itself. For instance, several seasons of the 1990s police drama Homicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
featured a recurring drug lord named Luther Mahoney whose gang always seemed to escape the blame for the murders they caused. In the DVD commentary for that series, producers explained that Mahoney was largely based on Wo Fat, and then adapted to the gritty Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
setting of their series.
Episodes featuring Wo Fat (original series)
- Hawaii Five-O: Cocoon (September 20, 1968) (TV-movie pilot, re-edited into two-parter "Cocoon" for series reruns)
- Forty Feet High and It Kills! (October 8, 1969)
- A Bullet for McGarrett (October 29, 1969)
- And a Time to Die... (September 16, 1970)
- F.O.B. Honolulu: Part 1 (January 27, 1971)
- F.O.B. Honolulu: Part 2 (February 3, 1971)
- The Ninety-Second War: Part 1 (January 18, 1972)
- The Ninety-Second War: Part 2 (January 25, 1972)
- The Jinn Who Clears the Way (October 10, 1972)
- Presenting... in the Center Ring... Murder (December 10, 1974)
- Murder - Eyes Only (September 12, 1975) (two-hour special, two-parter in reruns)
- Nine Dragons (September 30, 1976) (two-hour special, two-parter in reruns)
- Woe to Wo Fat (April 5, 1980)
Hawaii Five-0 (2010–present)
On November 2, 2010, CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
announced that Mark Dacascos
Mark Dacascos
Mark Alan Dacascos is an American actor and martial artist. He won numerous karate and various styles of kung fu championships between the ages of 7 and 18....
had been cast to fill the role of Wo Fat in the 2010
2010 in American television
The following is a list of events that affected American television in 2010, a year marked by the usual debuts, cancellations, and continuations of shows; the launches, closures, or rebrandings of channels; but also significant cable/satellite carriage disputes, as well as...
remake of Hawaii Five-0. Wo Fat debuted in episode twelve ("Hana 'a'a Makehewa"), which aired on December 13, 2010. Wo first appeared when he was interrogating villain Victor Hesse (James Marsters
James Marsters
James Wesley Marsters is an American actor and musician. Marsters first came to the attention of the general public playing the popular character Spike, a platinum-blond yobbish English vampire in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel from 1997 to 2004...
), who had murdered Steve McGarrett's (Alex O'Loughlin
Alex O'Loughlin
Alex O'Loughlin is an Australian actor, currently starring in CBS's Hawaii Five-0 as Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett. His best known earlier roles include Kevin Hiatt in The Shield, Mick St. John in Moonlight, Dr. Andy Yablonski in Three Rivers, and Stan in The Back-up Plan...
) father Jack (William Sadler
William Sadler
William Sadler may refer to:*William Sadler , Irish landscape painter*William Sadler , American sailor and Medal of Honor recipient*William Sadler , American film and television actor...
) in the pilot episode. In episode thirteen ("Ke Kinohi") Wo is shown playing golf with the Honolulu Yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
's crime boss Hiro Noshimuri when Steve McGarrett confronts Hiro and his brother Koji about stealing evidence concerning the car bomb murder of his mother. After the arrest of Hiro Noshimuri for arranging the theft, it is suggested that Wo Fat is a person of some importance, as he is being chauffeured around in a golf cart. In the latter half of season one, it is revealed that Wo Fat was the one calling the shots for McGarrett's father's murder. In the first season finale, Wo Fat kills the Governor (Jean Smart
Jean Smart
Jean E. Smart is an American film, television, and stage actress. She is known for her comedic roles, one of the best known being her role as Charlene Frazier Stillfield on the CBS sitcom Designing Women. She later gained critical acclaim for dramatic work, with her portrayal of Martha Logan on 24...
) and then frames McGarrett for it. We later learn that the Governor was working for Wo Fat. In season 2 episode 1, he orders Victor Hesse to kill McGarrett to prevent him from investigating further. In the end of the episode, he kills Victor Hesse and gets into a car driven by ex-CIA analyst Jenna Kaye. At the end of the second episode of the second season, she leaves to follow-up on a lead that her fiancé, whom she claimed had been killed by Wo Fat, might in fact be alive. In the middle of season 2 episode 6, he appears at Commander White's residence and fights Commander White at his residence. Wo Fat then escapes. He next appears in episode 10, where he tricks Jenna Kaye to bring McGarrett to him in exchange for her fiancé. Jenna Kaye is then killed by Wo Fat to tie up loose ends. Five-0 eventually come to McGarrett's rescue, and Wo Fat disappears in the commotion.
Episodes featuring Wo Fat (2010 remake)
- Hana 'a'a Makehewa (December 13, 2010)
- Ke Kinohi (January 3, 2011)
- Ne Me'e Laua Na Paio (March 21, 2011)
- Oia'i'o (May 16, 2011)
- Haʻiʻole (September 19, 2011)
- Ka Hakaka Maikai (October 24, 2011)
- Kiʻilua (November 21, 2011)