(Source: Big Cartoon Database)
Pioneering Japanese-American actor Mako Iwamatsu lost his battle with esophageal cancer last Friday, at his home in Somis, California. He was 72.
Animated fans will know Mako as the voice of Aku the sorcerer in Samurai Jack. He also narrated the main title in Dexter's Laboratory, voiced Uncle Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Happy Cat in Duck Dodgers, and Mr. Yamaguchi in Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. At the time of his death, he was going to voice the role of Splinter in the upcoming Imagi/Warner Bros. animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In live-action circles, Mako is best-known for his Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated role as Po-han in 1966's The Sand Pebbles, and his Tony-nominated roles in Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures. He also played Akiro the Wizard in the Conan movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Admiral Yamamoto in 2001's Pearl Harbor.
Over his 40-year career, he also made guest appearances on TV shows like McHale's Navy, I Spy, M*A*S*H, Quincy and Walker, Texas Ranger.
Mako, like Sidney Poitier, was an actor who used his success in Hollywood to press for more substantial roles for minorities. He was the artistic director of The East West Players, an Asian-American theatre group.
"Of course (Asian-American actors) been fighting against stereotypes from Day One," Mako said in a 1986 Los Angeles Times interview. "That's the reason we formed (East West): to combat that, and to show we are capable of more than just fulfilling the stereotypes -- waiter, laundryman, gardener, martial artist, villain."
"What many people say is, 'If it wasn't for Mako, there wouldn't have been Asian-American theater,'" Tim Dang, East West's current artistic director, told the Los Angeles Times. "He is revered as sort of the godfather of Asian-American theatre."
Mako is survived by his wife, dancer, choreographer and actress Shizuko Hoshi, and their daughters Sala and Mimosa.
