Pioneering Asian-American actor Mako dies

Posted:
Jul 23, 2006

Japanese-born American actor Mako, whose portrayal of Chinese sailor Po-han in the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles earned him an Oscar nomination, died Friday at 72.

Mako, who usually used only a shortened version of his first name, died of esophageal cancer at his home in Somis, in California's Ventura County.

He was nominated for a 1976 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for Pacific Overtures. He played multiple roles as a reciter, shogun, emperor and American businessman in the Stephen Sondheim production.

Beyond his long career in live-action works, Mako provided the voice of evil sorcerer Aku in Cartoon Network Studios' Samurai Jack. Known for his raspy voice, he was also the main title narrator for Hanna-Barbera Studios' Dexter's Laboratory.

Born Makoto Iwamatsu in Kobe, Japan on December 10, 1933, he co-founded East West Players in 1965 in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles. It was the first Asian-American theater company in the United States.

Mako used his Oscar nomination for best supporting actor to gain credibility in his drive to get Asian-American actors better and more substantial roles in Hollywood and on Broadway.

He was a voice actor in the 1972 Blue Racer cartoon Yokahama Mama. In 2000's Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, he provided the voice of Mr. Yamaguchi. And he was Uncle Iroh in nine episodes of Nicktoons' Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Other roles in cartoons included The Ancient One in Big Appetite in Little Tokyo, a 2003 episode of What's New, Scooby-Doo?; Happy Cat in several episodes of Duck Dodgers;the narrator in Test Of Time/A Kick In The Asgard, a pair of 2004 episodes of Grim & Evil; and Master Offay in "Monster Battle Club Now!", a 2005 episode of Walt Disney Television's Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!

"What many people say is, 'If it wasn't for Mako, there wouldn't have been Asian American theater,'" Tim Dang, the current artistic director of East West Players, told the Los Angeles Times. "He is revered as sort of the godfather of Asian American theater."

Mako was often seen in films and TV in an acting career lasting over four decades. He had guest appearances on the TV series McHale's Navy, I Spy, MASH, Quincy and Walker, Texas Ranger.

In the movies, he was Akiro the wizard in Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, appearing with Arnold Schwarzenegger -- now California's governor. He also portrayed a Japanese admiral in Pearl Harbor and a Singaporean in Seven Years in Tibet.

As artistic director of East West Players, Mako staged such classic films as Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Chekhov's Three Sisters. He spent the whole 1981 season staging works related to the Second World War internment of Japanese-Americans.

"Generally for him, it was particularly hard, because he was an immigrant…. There was the linguistic challenge," said George Takei, who played Sulu in Star Trek. "But he recognized we needed more opportunities to practice our craft."

At age 5, Mako's parents left his native Japan to study art in New York. Mako stayed in Japan to be raised by his grandparents.

His parents were not interned during the Second World War because they lived on the East Coast. They worked for the United States Office of War Information and were later granted residency. Mako joined them at age 15.

Mako enrolled at the Pratt Institute in New York, intending to become an architect. But a friend asked him to design a set and do lighting for an off-Broadway children's play. "That's when the trouble began. I was out of class so much that I lost my draft deferment," Mako once recalled.

He spent two years in the military, traveling to Korea and Japan. After his discharge, he moved to California and studied theater at the Pasadena Playhouse.

"Of course we've been fighting against stereotypes from Day One at East West," Mako said in a 1986 Los Angeles Times interview. "That's the reason we formed: to combat that, and to show we are capable of more than just fulfilling the stereotypes -- waiter, laundryman, gardener, martial artist, villain."

Mako married dancer, choreographer and actress Shizuko Hoshi. She and their daughters, Sala and Mimosa, survive him.