Everything about Pat Morita totally explained
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (
June 28,
1932 –
November 24,
2005) was an
American actor who was probably best known for playing the roles of Arnold on the TV show
Happy Days and
Mr. Miyagi in the
The Karate Kid movie
tetralogy, for which he was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in
1984.
Early life
Morita was born in
Isleton, California, to
Japanese immigrants; his father was a farmer and owned a restaurant. 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'd never walk. Often alone and isolated, young Morita 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. He was transported from the hospital directly to the
Gila River camp in
Arizona to join them. It was at this time that he met a Catholic priest from whom he'd later take his stage name "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'd taken the wrong path in life. He quit and became a
standup comedian. Often billed as "the Hip Nip" in his stand-up act, he became a member of the
Los Angeles improvisational comedy troupe
The Groundlings.
Television and movie career
His first movie role was as a stereotypical henchman in
Thoroughly Modern Millie (
1967). Later, a recurring role as South Korean Army 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 Mesuma "Arnold" Takahashi, owner of the diner Arnold's. After the first season (
1975-
1976), he left
Happy Days to star as inventor Taro Takahashi in his own show,
Mr. T and Tina, the first Asian American sitcom on network TV. The sitcom was placed on Saturday nights by
ABC and was quickly canceled after a month in the fall of 1976. In 1977, Morita starred in the short lived
Blansky's Beauties as Arnold. Morita eventually returned to
Happy Days, reprising his role in the
1982-
1983 season. He appeared in an episode of
The Odd Couple, and 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 Keisuke Miyagi who taught young "Daniel-san" (
Ralph Macchio) in
The Karate Kid, a film that included the famous quote
"Wax on, wax off" and also taught young "Julie-san" (
Hilary Swank) in
The Next Karate Kid. 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'd been using the name "Pat Morita" for years, producer
Jerry Weintraub suggested that Pat be billed with his given name to sound more ethnic.
Morita went on to star as the title character in the ABC detective show
Ohara which aired in
1987 and ended a year later due to poor ratings. He then 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 in the short film,
Talk To Taka, somewhat reprising his role of Arnold, as a Sushi Chef that doles out advice to anyone that will hear him. In 1998, Morita gave voice to the Emperor of China in Disney's 36th animated feature
Mulan, and reprised the role in
Mulan II, the sequel released only on video.
Morita also had a cameo appearance in the
2001 Alien Ant Farm music video "
Movies". Morita's appearance in the video spoofed his role in
The Karate Kid. He would also reprise his role (to an extent) in the stop-motion animated series
Robot Chicken. In the episode, he's assumed to be Mr. Miyagi, but he immediately denies that by saying, "First of all, I'm Pat F'in Morita, ya nutsack!" He trains
Joey Fatone how to do karate in order to defeat the
Yakuza thugs that killed the other
'N Sync members.
One of Morita's last TV roles was as Master Udon on the
SpongeBob SquarePants episode,
Karate Island. The episode was dedicated to him after he died about six months after the episode's first run. One of his last film roles was in the 2005
independent feature film,
Only the Brave, about the
442nd Regimental Combat Team, where he plays the father of lead actor (and director)
Lane Nishikawa. His last movie was
Royal Kill which also stars
Eric Roberts,
Gail Kim, and
Lalaine and is directed by
Babar Ahmed.
Morita spoke English with an "
American accent", but was frequently
typecast with a Japanese or Korean accent.
Death
Morita died on
November 24,
2005 at his home in Las Vegas. Morita was buried at Palm Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery.
Filmography
Further Information
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