Marcus Scott Chong (né Wyatt; born July 8, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for playing Miguel Mendez in the short-lived crime drama, Street Justice (1991–1993), real-life activist Huey P. Newton in Panther (1995), directed by Mario Van Peebles, and most notably, Tank in The Matrix (1999), directed by The Wachowskis.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
• 3 Later years
• 4 Filmography
  • 4.1 Film
  • 4.2 Television
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Early life

Chong was born in Seattle on July 8, 1967, to an African-American father and a Chinese-American mother. His biological father, Martin Wyatt, was a sports reporter in San Francisco for KGO-TV. He was adopted by Tommy and Shelby Chong in 1978.

Career

Chong began acting at age nine. His first role was portraying the young Frankie Warner in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations (1979). He was a guest star in Little House on the Prairie, in "Blind Journey: Part 2".

Chong originated the role of student Lee Cortez in the Broadway production of Stand-Up Tragedy, written by Bill Cain which opened at the Criterion Center Stage Right and closed in October 1990 after 13 performances. The short-lived role nevertheless earned him a 1991 Theatre World Award; he was also nominated Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play.

In the early 1990s, Chong played the recurring character Miguel Mendez on the TV show Street Justice from 1991 to 1993. By 1994, he later appeared in the Vanishing Son action series as Fu Qua Johnson alongside many actors of Asian descent. In 1995 appeared in Temptations music video, with Coolio, Ice-T and Jada Pinkett Smith.

In 1999, Chong appeared as Tank in The Matrix. In May 2003, Chong filed a lawsuit at Los Angeles County Superior Court against Warner Bros and AOL Time Warner, saying Warner was in breach of a 1998 verbal agreement, and a 2000 contract to continue the character of Tank in the film's two sequels. It was reported that a breakdown in talks caused by his salary demands and threatening phone calls prompted The Wachowskis to write Chong's character out of the second and third films in the series.

Throughout the 2000s decade and briefly the 2010s, Chong has appeared in popular TV shows in supporting guest roles. In 2001, he appeared in the third season of the TV series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and in 2002, appeared in the first season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In 2009, he appeared in the sixth season of Numb3rs and in 2010, he had a role in the fourth season of Burn Notice.

Chong's last feature film role was in the 2005 movie The Crow: Wicked Prayer as a character named War. The film was released briefly in theaters in Chong's hometown of Seattle, Washington. Following this, he's appeared in multiple short films: "Concrete River" (2009), "Son Shine" (2013), and "Not 4 Sale" (2013); the latter in which he plays legendary actor Harry Belafonte. Following the last short film Not 4 Sale, Chong has had no acting roles since.

Later years

While Chong's acting career came to a halt by the mid-2010s, the second half of the decade displayed him coming forward with a few accusations and projects surrounding production of The Matrix and the team behind it.

In 2016, he did a radio interview with Blog Talk Radio going into detail regarding behind-the-scenes issues during production of The Matrix and instances that occurred afterwards where he felt he was treated unfairly. In the interview, Chong states how the situation kept him from auditioning for big film roles over the next several years.

In 2018, he released a do*entary "The Marcus Chong Story" on his YouTube channels (under the names "Marcus Wyatt" and "Marcus Chong"); detailing his life and the issues he's faced working with actor C. Thomas Howell on the direct-to-video movie Pure Danger (1996) and during production of The Matrix in 1998. The do*entary has been in the works as far back as 2000, showing footage of Chong during this time having phone conversations with one Howell's personal *istant, speaking with the now ex-wife of Lilly Wachowski, Elisa, that occurred on October 17, as well as going to a Los Angeles police station on October 18 to make a report against a Warner Bros. executive Steve Slack, who was working with the Wachowskis whom Chong felt was threatening him. Chong ended up being apprehended given the threats he had made towards the Wachowskis.

A book further detailing the ordeal, The Kill Off, written by Chong, was published and released in 2019.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

• Marcus Chong at IMDb