Pat Morita

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Image:Noriyuki Morita.jpg Noriyuki "Pat" Morita 森田沢之 Morita Noriyuki, June 28, 1932 – November 24, 2005) was a Japanese American actor best known for the roles of Arnold on the TV show Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the movie The Karate Kid, for which he was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.

1 Early life
2 Television and movie career
3 Death
4 Partial filmography
5 References
6 External links

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Early life

Born in Isleton, California, the son of an itinerant fruit worker, Morita developed spinal tuberculosis at age two and spent the bulk of the next nine years in Northern California hospitals, including the Shriners Hospital in San Francisco. He was for long periods wrapped in a full body cast and was told he would never walk. The boy, often alone and isolated, made sock puppets to entertain himself.

After a surgeon fused four vertebrae in his spine, Noriyuki finally learned to walk again at age 11. By then, his Japanese American family had been sent to an internment camp to be detained for the duration of World War II. The boy was transported from the hospital directly to the camp in Arizona to join them. It was at this time that he met a Catholic priest from whom he would later take his stagename "Pat".

For a time after the war, the family operated Ariake Chop Suey, a restaurant in Sacramento, California. Teenage "Nori" would entertain customers with jokes and serve as master of ceremonies for group dinners.

Noriyuki graduated from Armijo High School in Fairfield, California and shortly thereafter moved back to the Sacramento area, where he took a job with Aerojet-General, an aerospace company that designed and manufactured rocket engines, including those for the US Navy's UGM-27 Polaris.

It was only after working his way up to head of a computer operations department that Morita, by now a husband and father, and also seriously overweight, decided he had taken the wrong life path. He quit and became a standup comedian. Often billed as "the Hip Nip" in his standup act, he became a member of the Los Angeles improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings.

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Television and movie career

His first movie role was as a stereotypical henchman in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Later, a recurring role as a Korean Captain Sam Pak on the sitcom M*A*S*H helped advance the comedian's acting career.

He had a recurring role on the show Happy Days as Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi, owner of the diner Arnold's. After the first season (1975-1976), he left the popular show to star in his own sitcom called Mr. T and Tina as an inventor named Taro Takahashi. The sitcom was placed on Saturday nights by ABC and was quickly cancelled after a month in the fall of 1976. Morita eventually returned to Happy Days, reprising his role in the 1982-1983 season. He also had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom Sanford and Son in the mid-1970s, playing a Japanese chef named Ah Chew.

Morita gained worldwide fame playing wise karate teacher Kesuke Miyagi who taught young "Daniel-san" (Ralph Macchio) in The Karate Kid, a film that included the famous quote "Wax on, wax off". He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as well as a Golden Globe and reprised his role as the sensei Mr. Miyagi in three sequels. Morita never formally practiced a martial art and most of his karate scenes were performed by stunt double (and noted shito-ryu karate-ka) Fumio Demura. Although he had been using the name "Pat Morita" for years, producer Jerry Weintraub suggested that Pat be billed with his given name to sound more ethnic (see [1]).

Morita went on to star as the title character in the ABC detective show Ohara (1987-1988) and wrote and starred in the World War II romance film Captive Hearts (1987).

Late in his career, Morita starred on the Nickelodeon television series The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo and a recurring role on the sitcom The Hughleys. He also starred the lead in the film-short, Talk To Taka, somewhat reprising his role of Arnold, as a Sushi Chef that doles out advice to anyone that will hear him.

Morita also had a cameo appearance in the 2001 Alien Ant Farm video "Movies." Morita's appearance in the video spoofed his role in The Karate Kid.

Like many Asian American actors, Morita spoke English with a natural American accent but was frequently typecast with a Japanese or Korean accent.

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Death

Morita died on Thanksgiving Day, November 24 2005, at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, of natural causes at age 73. However, according to an article in People Magazine, Evelyn Guerrero, his third wife (separated from Morita by the time of his death), attributed the cause of his death from complications associated with alcoholism.

Morita is buried at Palm Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery. In addition to Guerrero, he is survived by his daughters, Erin, Aly and Tia, and two grandchildren.

His final role was a voicework in the videogame Kingdom Hearts II, in which he reprised his role as the Chinese Emperor from Mulan.

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