Mako Iwamatsu

Mako Iwamatsu was a Japanese-American actor and voice actor who was one of the pioneers of Asian-American representation in the entertainment industry. He was born in Kobe, Japan, in 1933, the son of children's authors and illustrators who were political dissidents. He moved to the United States with his parents in 1949, after World War II, and became a naturalized citizen in 1956. He served in the US Army during the Korean War and discovered his theatrical talent while performing in plays for his fellow soldiers. He trained at the Pasadena Community Playhouse and began his acting career in the late 1950s. He made his film debut in Never So Few (1959) and his television debut in The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962). He received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Po-Han in The Sand Pebbles (1966), one of his most acclaimed performances. He also appeared in many other films, such as The Hawaiians (1970), The Island at the Top of the World (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Conan the Destroyer (1984), Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). He was also a respected theater actor, who co-founded the East West Players, the first Asian-American theater group in the US, in 1965. He starred in the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures in 1976, for which he received a Tony Award nomination. He also performed in many other plays, such as Rashomon, The King and I, and M. Butterfly. He was also a prolific voice actor, who lent his voice to many animated characters, such as Aku in Samurai Jack, Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Splinter in TMNT, and Master Oogway in Kung Fu Panda. He was also a singer and a cultural ambassador, who promoted Asian-American culture and heritage throughout his life. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994 and the National Medal of Arts in 2007. He died of esophageal cancer in 2006, at the age of 72. He was survived by his wife, actress Shizuko Hoshi, and his two daughters, Sala and Mimosa, who are also actors. He was widely regarded as a trailblazer and a legend in the entertainment industry, and his work continues to inspire many to this day.