Maui-born actor appeared on TV in ‘Hawaiian Eye’

He was the comic relief when the mood grew heavy, but Poncie Ponce was more than a sidekick when he starred on the TV detective series "Hawaiian Eye." He was a pioneer, one of the first Hawaii-born actors to appear regularly on prime-time television.

When Ponce died of congestive heart failure at his home in Los Angeles on July 19 at the age of 80, his role as Kim, the wisecracking cabbie, became his oft-cited legacy.

From 1959 to 1963, Ponciano Tabac "Poncie" Ponce appeared in 126 episodes of "Hawaiian Eye." The series starred Anthony Eisley, Robert Conrad and Connie Stevens. Ponce was part of the opening credits, introduced each week as he floated in an inner tube while playing an ukulele.

The show followed the adventures of a pair of private investigators who got to live on the grounds of the Hilton Hawaiian Village in exchange for security work. Kim was the cabdriver who knew everyone in Honolulu.

"He was the first Filipino from Hawaii on national television," said documentary producer Emme Tomimbang. "In those days, ‘Hawaiian Eye’ was what ‘Hawaii Five-0′ is to us now."

Ponce was born on Maui and raised on Hawaii island, in Paauhau and Hono­kaa. He was a Korean War veteran.

According to the film and television website IMDB.com, Ponce appeared in the 1968 Elvis Presley film "Speedway" and in the 1977 film "The World’s Greatest Lover," which starred Gene Wilder. The site lists his first TV role in an episode of "77 Sunset Strip" that aired a few days before the premiere of "Hawaiian Eye."

"Hawaiian Eye" was the first network TV series to use Hawaii as a backdrop, but the majority of the scenes were shot on a studio lot in Burbank, Calif. Every few weeks, though, new exterior shots were filmed in and around what was then called the Kaiser Hawaiian Village Hotel.

Doug Mossman, who played Moke on the series, said he knew Ponce from childhood days in Hono-kaa and ran into him in the 1950s when Ponce was entertaining at clubs in Los Angeles.

Mossman was also a cultural and casting adviser for the show, and took the producer down to one club to watch Ponce perform.

"‘We’ll create a character for him,’" the producer said, Mossmann recalled.

"There we were, two guys from the Big Island. Suddenly we’re on a national show from a major studio, Warner Brothers," Mossman said. "It was like dying and going to heaven. He was a great addition to it because he was full of energy, extremely talented."

Longtime Hawaii singer and actor Jimmy Borges was a fan of "Hawaiian Eye" before he met Ponce, sometime in the mid-1960s, when Ponce worked as an opening act for various headliners in hotels and casinos in Tahoe and Reno. Ponce, playing off his celebrity status from "Hawaiian Eye," would strum his ukulele, sing and make jokes, Borges said.

"He was a very, very nice, very local guy," said Borges, who considers Ponce a pioneer among Hawaii-born actors. "He was a very down-home guy. He didn’t put on any phony local accents. It was cuteness that he portrayed in the show and basically, I found out in talking to him, that’s how he was. He was very lightly and locally charming."

Services are scheduled for today at St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica, Calif.