Harry Endo

Though a Colorado native, actor Harry Endo spent the majority of his life in and around Hawaii, and initially worked as a banker. His first encounter with show business seemed to come out of the blue: while doing a commercial for his bank in the late '60s, he was approached by a CBS producer to sign for a role on the network's then-nascent police drama Hawaii Five-O, opposite stars Jack Lord, James MacArthur, Richard Denning, and others. Endo promptly agreed and remained with the series from 1970 through 1977; he played Che Fong, the program's resident forensics expert. Following his departure from Hawaii, he turned up as a series of different characters on occasional episodes of Magnum, P.I. (an unofficial spin-off of the earlier program, set in the same locale and using the same sets) opposite Tom Selleck and John Hillerman. A WWII veteran who served in Europe as a radio operator with an infantry unit, Endo was married to the same woman for over 60 years. He died of a stroke at age 87 in January 2009.