''Hawaii Five-0'' cast member dies at 87 in NYC

January 10, 2009

NEW YORK - Harry Endo, the actor who played a forensic scientist on the long-running TV show Hawaii Five-O," has died at the age of 87.

Family members say he suffered a stroke and died at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital on Friday afternoon.

Endo played the character "Che Fong" on the popular show. He was one of the original cast members on the crime drama that began in 1968.

Daughter Leslie Baker says her father was born in Colorado but spent much of life in Hawaii, where he worked for a bank. While doing a commercial for the bank, he was approached to play the role of Fong.




After the show ended in 1980, he played a couple of small parts on "Magnum P.I." He retired from show business in the late '80s.

Endo enlisted in the U.S. Army in late 1941, serving in Europe as a radio operator with an infantry unit. He was married for more than 60 years.

He is survived by his wife Myrtle, daughter Leslie Baker of Brooklyn and Scott Endo of San Diego.