Born and raised in Japan, Mako moved to the USA after WWII. An architecture student, he got into set design and later acting through some friends in off-Broadway theater and later studied at the Pasadena Playhouse. He co-founded an Asian-American theater company, the East/West Players, with six other actors in 1965 and was noticed by Hollywood shortly thereafter. Mako's first major film role won him an Oscar nomination and remains his most memorable: that of Po-Han, the funny, tragic engine-room attendant and surprise boxing champ in "The Sand Pebbles" (1966), starring Steve McQueen.
A martial arts expert, Mako later appeared in many standard-issue action films such as "Armed Response" (1986), "Silent Assassins" (1988) and "The Perfect Weapon" (1991), and played many Hawaiians onscreen, as in--appropriately enough--"The Hawaiians" (1970) and the TV series "Hawaiian Heat" (1984). He played Akiro the wizard in Arnold Schwarzenegger's two "Conan" extravaganzas, but his more interesting roles have been in such offbeat items as "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" (1988); "The Wash" (1988), about the effects of divorce on a Japanese-American family; and "An Unremarkable Life" (1989), as a Chinese-American garage owner who disrupts the lives of two elderly sisters. More recently, he co-starred in one segment of the Showtime TV-movie "Riot" (1997), which examined the 1992 L.A. riots from the points of view of various city residents.
- Also Credited As:
Mako Iwamatsu
- Born:
December 10, 1933 in Kobe, Japan
- Died:
July 21, 2006.
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Job Titles:
Actor, Director, Playwright, Set designer
Family
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Daughter: Mimosa Iwamatsu. mother, Shizuko Hoshi
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Daughter: Sala Iwamatsu. mother, Shizuko Hoshi
Education
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Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena, California
Milestones
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1949 Moved to New York at age 15 (date approximate)
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1959 Feature debut in the American feature film, Never So Few
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1965 Co-founded, with six other actors the East West Players theatre company, in Los Angeles
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1966 First notable film role, The Sand Pebbles ; Earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor
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1967 TV acting debut, Alfred of the Amazon
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1970 Portrayed the Chinese contract laborer Mun Ki in the epic movie The Hawaiians, starring Charlton Heston and Tina Chen
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1974 Appeared on the CBS series, “M*A*S*H,” in multiple roles such as a Chinese doctor, North Korean soldier, and South Korean Major
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1976 Made Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim s Pacific Overtures , for which he received a Tony nomination
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1982 Appeared as the a wizard/narrator in “Conan the Barbarian,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
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1984 Played Major Taro Oshira on the short-lived ABC police drama, Hawaiian Heat
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1984 Reprised role as the narrator for “Conan the Destroyer”
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1986 Cast in the action film, “Armed Response”
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1988 Co-starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream”
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1989 Starred in “An Unremarkable Life,” as a Chinese-American garage owner who disrupts the lives of two elderly sisters
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1993 Played Kanemitsu in “Robocop 3”
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1994 Portrayed the sorcerer, Nakano in “Highlander III”
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1997 Co-starred in one segment of the Showtime TV-movie “Riot”
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2000 Appeared in the Nickelodeon movie “Rugrats in Paris,” as Coco’s boss
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2001 Cast as Admiral Yamamoto in the film, “Pearl Harbor”
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2001 Voiced the evil demon, Aku in the animated series “Samurai Jack” on the Cartoon Network
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2003 Voiced Commander Shima in the video game “Medal of Honor: Rising Sun”
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2005 Guest-starred in an episode of the NBC political drama, “The West Wing,” as an economics professor and former rival of President Bartlet
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2005 Had a cameo role in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” the feature adaptation of the best-selling novel
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2007 Provided the voice of Splinter in “TMNT”; completed his recording before his death
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Settled in Los Angeles after serving for two years in the Korean War
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Turned down a walk-on role in the Broadway musical The World of Suzie Wong
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Was in school studying architecture when friends asked him to get involved with the set design for an off-Broadway production in the early 1950s