He was 95 years old and played fan-favourite character Tran on the sitcom, with Jake Johnson sharing the news and Zooey Deschanel also mourning the loss, reports The Sun.Jake, who played Nick Miller, shared the sad news on his Instagram page on Monday.“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,” Johnson wrote. “Condolences to his family/friends.”Zooey commented under Jake’s sad news, “Noooooo” and included a crying emoji in her response.Ralph was beloved for his betrayal of Tran, an elderly man Nick became friends with on the show.Without many lines, he made an impact and became a recurring character.Showrunner Liz Meriweather told The Hollywood Reporter that after joining in Season 2, she decided to make Ahn a series regular and it wasn’t a difficult decision.“He’s really easy to write for,” she said in 2014.“It was Jake Johnson’s idea, originally. He texted me about it. We all thought it was so funny.”Executive producer Brett Baer said the two actors got “along so well off-camera.”His cause of death is currently unknown.Ahn’s amazing legacyRalph was born in Los Angeles as one of the early families to immigrate from Korea.He was a World War II veteran, as were his siblings – Dosan Ahn Chang-ho, his father, was a revered patriotic figure in South Korea.His sister Susan Ahn Cuddy was the US Navy’s first female Asian American naval officer and eventually became the service’s first female gunnery officer, per Defense.gov, passing in 2015 at age 100.“My mother and father came over here in 1902,” Ralph told YOK Oral Histories project on his history-making parents.“They were the first couple to come to the US from Korea. Mother was a second woman to come to the US and they came as students.”Ralph’s older brother Philip also boasted an impressive resume but one that more closely mirrored his own – he was a character actor with a massive 180 acting credits to his name, passing in 1978.Ralph himself had an impressive 42 acting credits to his name.He started off playing soldiers and guards in army-style TV shows and films but soon got cameos in classic pieces of pop culture like Gilmore Girls.He also had cameos in Walker Texas Ranger, ER, The Sheild, Eyes of An Angel and more – though New Girl may have seen him make his biggest and most beloved mark.One plot line in the show involved Jake’s character Nick dating Ralph, or Tran’s, granddaughter played by Greta Lee.Ralph’s wide-ranging life experiences also saw him play college football and coach football when he became a math teacher.“I taught English and uh the lower division math, but my primary job is to coach the football team. I also became like a Dean of Student Activities,” he told YOK.He also owned a restaurant for a time and was at one point married, as he further explained, becoming a family man.“My wife had three sons when I married her and we had two daughters so I had my hands full,” he said.In the 1980s during that time he began to more heavily pivot to acting and it was a natural fit.Fans mourn the loss“Just saw Ralph Ahn, the guy that played Tran on New Girl, passed away.” one Twitter user wrote.“He led a fascinating life besides that role, but the friendship he has with Jake Johnson’s Nick is one of my favourite things I’ve seen on TV over the last decade.”“RIP Ralph Ahn I’m so sad” wrote a third.While a fourth wrote, with a photo of Tran and Jake’s character Nick bonding on the show in a pool: “Sad times. Tran and Nick had some great scenes.”This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.
Powered by WPeMatico
