"What's Happening Hot Stuff!"
Posted on 11/29/2005 8:57:24 AM PST by presidio9
Pat Morita, the Japanese-American actor, died on Thanksgiving Day in Las Vegas. He was 73. News reports over the weekend were not specific about the cause of death or funeral details. Also not clear was what Hollywood would do now that Mr. Morita is gone.
The movie and TV industry has never had many roles for Asian-American men, and it seemed for a while that they all went to Mr. Morita. He made his debut as "Oriental No. 2" in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in 1967 and never stopped working. He hit two peaks - as Arnold the diner owner on TV's "Happy Days" and the wise old Mr. Miyagi in the "Karate Kid" movies - and spent the rest of nearly 40 years roaming an endless forest of bit parts.
He was Mahi Mahi, the pidgin-talking cabby in "Honeymoon in Vegas," Lamont Sanford's friend Ah Chew in "Sanford and Son," Brian the waiter in "Spy Hard," Chin Li the Chinese herbalist in "The Karate Dog."
Whenever a script called for a little Asian guy to drive a taxi, serve drinks or utter wise aphorisms in amusingly broken English, you could count on Mr. Morita to be there.
Those who knew Mr. Morita say he was a man of uncommon decency and good humor. He fulfilled the actor's prime directive, to keep busy.
But it's distressing to think that the life's work of one of the best-known, hardest-working Asian-American actors is mostly a loose collection of servile supporting roles.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Heaven forbid that an Asian actor, only gets * gasp * roles playing Asians.
Is that the real headline?
I liked Morita as an actor, but his politics stunk.
Yep.
Wash on, wash off...
Rest in Piece Mr. Miagi, you made me laugh.
I bet it wasn't to him. Keep your face in front of the camera and money flowing into your bank account is not distressing. Good to pay rent and eat own food...............
loved him on Happy days...mad me laugh
Perhaps someone could offer to hold Pat's lifeless body while the author kicks it a few times for good measure.
Pat Morita was a good actor and many people enjoyed his work. Much less could be said of the employees of the NYTs.
I'm of Asian ascent and I have a very hard time getting roles playing black women............
Danielsan. Show me, take the dirt nap!
This article waxes on, waxes off eloquent on Mr. Miagi. He was definately the best around. Nothing could ever keep him down.
And where are the great Eskimo parts nowadays, anyway?
The funniest thing about Pat Morita was that if you ever heard him do an interview, there was NO ONE more Californian. He sounded like a surfer dude.
I read somewhere that Noriyuki is his father's name, and he started calling himself Noriyuki "Pat" Morita to sound more ethnic to casting agents . . . but his given name is indeed Pat. (Or Patrick - stories differ.)
"Is that the real headline?"
Pretty insulting, I'd say. I remember my mother having an absolute tantrum when Richard Burton died, the Times had it on the front page (below the fold) with the headline: Richard Burton, rakish actor, dies.
Maybe my mom was a bigger Burton fan than I had ever known, but she felt they were really putting him down, and that he deserved far better than that. Ohmigosh she was steamed.
"What's Happening Hot Stuff!"
That's because you didn't attend Julliard ;-)
Imagine! An Asian getting a role playing a Japanese admiral in the movie, "Midaway". How belittling!
We sure lost a class act here.
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