Pat Morita

Morita was born on June 28, 1932, in Isleton, California, to Japanese immigrants. For long periods, he was wrapped in a full-body cast and was told that he would never walk. During his time at a sanatorium near Sacramento, Morita befriended a visiting priest who would often joke that, if Morita ever converted to Catholicism, the priest would rename him to "Patrick Aloysius Ignatius Xavier Noriyuki Morita." Released from the hospital at age 11 after undergoing extensive spinal surgery and learning how to walk, Morita was transported from the hospital directly to the Gila River camp in Arizona to join his interned family. After about a year and a half, Morita was transferred to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center. After World War II ended, Morita moved back to the Bay Area and he graduated from Armijo High School in Fairfield, California, in 1949. For a time after the war, the family operated Ariake Chop Suey, a restaurant in Sacramento, California, jokingly described by Morita years later as "a Japanese family running a Chinese restaurant in a black neighborhood with a clientele of blacks, Filipinos and everybody else who didn't fit in any of the other neighborhoods". Morita would entertain customers with jokes and serve as master of ceremonies for group dinners. After Morita's father was killed in 1956 in a hit-and-run while walking home from an all-night movie, Morita and his mother kept the restaurant going for another three or four years. Needing a regular job to support his wife and a newly born child, Morita became a data processor in the early 1960s with the Department of Motor Vehicles and other state agencies, graduating to a graveyard shift job at Aerojet General. In due time, he was a department head at another aerospace firm, Lockheed, handling the liaison between the engineers and the programmers who were mapping out lunar eclipses for Polaris and Titan missile projects. Morita used the nickname "The Hip Nip." ==Television and film career==

Early work Morita's first movie roles were as a henchman in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) and a similar role in The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968), starring Don Knotts. He also appeared in the fourth episode of the 1st season of ''The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969) and in the first episode of the second season of Columbo (1972). Morita had other notable recurring television roles on Sanford and Son (1974–1976) as Ah Chew, a good-natured friend of Lamont Sanford, and as South Korean Army Captain Sam Pak on the sitcom M*A*S*H (1973, 1974). He was also cast as Rear Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka in the war film Midway'' (1976). Happy Days . Arnold asks Fonzie (Henry Winkler) to be his best man at his traditional Japanese wedding ceremony.|leftMorita had a recurring role in the mid-1970s on Happy Days'' as Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi (the new Japanese owner of Arnold's Drive-In) starting in season three (1975–76). The story line was that Takahashi had purchased the Milwaukee eatery from the original Arnold but adopted the former's first name, explaining that it was too expensive for him to purchase the additional neon sign letters required to rename it "Takahashi's"., left) on the TV series Happy Days in the 1975–76 season. As the new owner, Morita moonlighted as a martial arts instructor, teaching self-defense classes at the drive-in after hours. He also played "Arnold" as a guest star during seasons four and six before returning as a recurring character for season 10 (1982–83) and as a guest star in the final 11th season. Morita also played the character of Arnold on ''Blansky's Beauties'' in 1977. The Karate Kid film series During the 1980s, Morita gained particular fame for his work as Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid films. The original preferred choice was Toshiro Mifune, who had appeared in the Akira Kurosawa films Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), and The Hidden Fortress (1958), but Mifune did not speak English. Morita later auditioned for the role, but was initially rejected for the part due to his close association with stand-up comedy, and with the character Arnold from Happy Days. ultimately winning it because he grew a beard and patterned his accent after his uncle. After Morita was cast and although he had been using the name Pat for years, Weintraub suggested that Morita be billed with his given name to sound "more ethnic". In the first film, The Karate Kid (1984), Morita was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a corresponding Golden Globe Award, for his role as the wise karate teacher Mr. Miyagi who taught bullied teenager Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) the art of Goju-ryu karate. He was recognized as Noriyuki "Pat" Morita at the 57th Academy Awards ceremony. He reprised the role twice more with Macchio in The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and The Karate Kid Part III (1989). From 1989 to 1990, Morita voiced Mr. Miyagi in the animated series, The Karate Kid, narrating the plot of each episode before the opening. In 1994, he starred in The Next Karate Kid with Hilary Swank (as bullied teenager Julie Pierce) instead of Macchio. Television series Morita was the star of two television series. In 1976, he starred 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. Morita also starred in the ABC detective show Ohara (1987–1988); it was cancelled after two seasons due to poor ratings. Later work Morita went on to play Tommy Tanaka in the Kirk Douglas-starring television movie Amos, receiving his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination and second Golden Globe Award nomination for the role. at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park|left Morita wrote and starred in the World War II romance film Captive Hearts (1987). He hosted the educational home video series ''Britannica's Tales Around the World (1990–1991). Morita made an appearance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1994 Season 5 episode “Love Hurts”. He also made a guest appearance on a 1996 episode of Married... with Children. Later in his career, Morita starred on the Nickelodeon television series The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo (1996–1998) and had a recurring role on the sitcom The Hughleys (2000). He went on to star in the short film Talk To Taka'' as a sushi chef who doles out advice to anyone who will hear him. Morita voiced the Emperor of China in Disney's 36th animated feature Mulan (1998) and reprised the role in Mulan II (2004), a direct-to-video sequel and Kingdom Hearts II. He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994. Morita spoofed his role as "Mr. Miyagi" in a series of commercials for Colgate toothpaste; he portrayed the white-clad Wisdom Tooth, hailing Colgate as "The Wise Choice". Morita also co-starred with Ichiro Suzuki in a 1996 Nissan commercial aired in Japan. Morita had a cameo appearance in the 2001 Alien Ant Farm music video "Movies". His appearance in the video spoofed his role in The Karate Kid. In 2002, Morita made a guest appearance on an episode of Spy TV. The following year, he had a cameo on an episode of the sitcom Yes, Dear, as an unnamed karate teacher, potentially being Miyagi. Morita would also reprise his role (to an extent) in the stop-motion animated series Robot Chicken in 2005. ==Death==

On November 24, 2005, Morita died of kidney failure, following a urinary tract and gallbladder bacterial infection at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, at age 73. Morita was cremated at Palm Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery in Las Vegas, Nevada. ==Posthumous credits==

Roles created prior to his death were included in a few posthumous works. Morita voiced Master Udon in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Karate Island" (the episode was dedicated to his memory). He had a role in the independent feature film Only the Brave (2006), about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, playing the father of lead actor (and director) Lane Nishikawa (the film included two other Karate Kid stars, Yuji Okumoto and Tamlyn Tomita). Morita also had roles in Act Your Age (2011), Royal Kill (2009), and Remove All Obstacles (2010). The fifth episode of the Netflix series Cobra Kai was dedicated in his memory. In-universe, Mr. Miyagi died on November 15, 2011, but is frequently referenced via archive footage from the original films. Morita's contributions to cinema and his legacy have been the subject of two documentaries including Pat Morita: Long Story Short and More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story in which he appeared in archival footage. == Filmography ==

Film Television Documentary Video game == See also ==