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Mako

Source: Freebase

Mako Iwamatsu (マコ 岩松, Mako Iwamatsu?), born Makoto Iwamatsu (岩松 信, Iwamatsu Makoto?) (December 10, 1933 – July 21, 2006) was a Japanese-American actor. Many of his acting roles credited him simply as “Mako”, omitting his surname.

Mako’s first cinema role was in the 1959 film Never So Few. In 1965, frustrated by the limited roles available to himself and other Asian American actors, Mako and 6 others formed the East West Players theatre company, first performing out of a church basement. The company is one of the earliest Asian American theatre organizations, and not only provided a venue for Asian American actors to train and perform, but nurtured many Asian American playwrights. Mako remained artistic director of the company until 1989.

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles. Other roles include the Chinese contract laborer Mun Ki in the 1970 epic movie The Hawaiians starring Charlton Heston and Tina Chen, the sorcerer Nakano in Highlander III, the Wizard Akiro, opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the two Conan movies Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, the Japanese agent in the comedy Under the Rainbow, Kanemitsu in RoboCop 3 in 1993, Kungo Tsarong in Seven Years in Tibet, and Admiral Yamamoto in the 2001 film, Pearl Harbor. He also had a role in Bulletproof Monk. In 2005, Mako had a cameo role in Memoirs of a Geisha. Mako’s last leading role was in the 2005 film Cages, written and directed by Graham Streeter.

• Born: Makoto Iwamatsu December 10, 1933 Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan
• Died: July 21, 2006 (aged 72) Somis, California, United States
• Occupation: Actor
• Spouse: Shizuko Hoshi

Read more about Mako at Wikipedia or at the Internet Movie Database

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