Sixteen Candles' Gedde Watanabe Looks Back

When director John Hughes cast Gedde Watanabe as foreign exchange student Long Duk Dong alongside Molly Ringwald (right) in Sixteen Candles 40 years ago, he had no idea the actor-who was born and raised in Utahwas faking his heavy accent.

- GILLIAN TELLING

"I broke character during a table read, and John totally burst out laughing," he recalls. "He was in shock." Watanabe, now 68, didn't think of the role as being stereotypical at the time-he was just happy to get the gig. "The '80s were a hard time for Asian actors. Roles were so scarce," he says.&nbs