Ralph Ahn, the fan-favorite actor who played "Tran" on Fox sitcom New Girl, passed away at the age of 95.
The Korean American Federation of Los Angeles confirmed to USA TODAY that Ahn passed away Feb. 26th, after having recently been admitted to the hospital. There is no release on the cause of death at the moment.
Ahn was actor Jake Johnson's silent friend in the show, a sort of grandpa-figure who showed his emotions through body language and facial expressions. With the New Girl cast mourning the loss, Johnson posted on Instagram with the actor, sharing some memories from the show. He captioned the photos with,
"RIP. So much fun to work with. He gave so much with literally no lines. I loved when he was on set. I was always expecting to somehow work with him again.Condolences to his family/friends."
Lead actress of New girl, Zooey Deschanel, also commented on the post with "😢 Noooooo." Lamorne Morris, who plays Winston Bishop, paid tribute with a photo writing,
"Damn. RIP to Ralph Ahn. He played Tran on New Girl. Always the funniest scenes in the episode. This man lived a lot of life, keep his friends and family in y'all thoughts and prayers."
In 2014, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed creator Elizabeth Meriwether, who told them Tran would be a recurring character on the show.
"He’s really easy to write for [laughs]. It was Jake Johnson’s idea, originally. He texted me about it. We all thought it was so funny. Going into this year, I think one of the writers in the retreat pitched his granddaughter being a love interest. But Jake also wanted to do something like that."
Ahn's brother, Philip, who was the first Korean American film actor in Hollywood and played Master Kan in the television series Kung Fu, got Ahn into acting.
