Mako, who created an outlet for minority actors with the establishment of an Asian American theatre company, died Friday of esophageal cancer at his Ventura County home. He was 72.
The veteran actor helped found East West Players in 1965, the country’s first major theater company for Asian American actors and playwrights. The following year, he earned an Oscar nod for a dramatic supporting role in “The Sand Pebbles,” also starring Steve McQueen.
“With Mako’s passing, there is a great feeling of loss in the Asian Pacific artist community,” said EWP Artistic Director Tim Dang. “We have lost a pioneer who helped pave the way for all of us trying to make a career in the arts and the entertainment industry.”
Born Makoto Iwamatsu in Kobe, Japan on Dec. 10, 1933, he was raised by his grandparents from age 5 after his parents, Taro and Mitsu Yashima, moved to New York to study art.
At 15, Mako joined his parents and a few years later enrolled at the Pratt Institute in New York in hopes of studying architecture. Though, after helping a friend with set design for an off-Broadway children’s play, Mako became fascinated with the thespian world.
Mako had a long, prolific career on Broadway and in Hollywood, spanning over five decades with roles in major films such as “Rising Sun,” “Robocop 3,” “Conan the Barbarian,” and more recently, “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
In 1975, he earned a Tony Award nomination for best actor in “Pacific Overtures,” and two decades later he received the 2006th star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
As artistic director for East West Players, he played an equally integral role as mentor for struggling Asian American actors yearning to perform.
“I wouldn’t be the actor I am today without Mako,” said actor Clyde Kusatsu.
A theater company member from 1972 to 1981, Kusatsu recalled the family-like environment Mako created, where people worked both in front of the stage as actors and behind as set-builders. Kusatsu recalled once landing a part on the TV series “Kung Fu” and then returning to the theater to clean the toilets.
A firm believer of colorblind casting, Mako exposed the actors to a wide array of works, from Asian American-written stories to classics like Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and Chekhov’s “Three Sisters.” At the time, other theater companies in town were also staging “Three Sisters,” but East West Players received the best reviews, Kusatsu recalled.
“It was an exciting time for Asian American theater,” he said. “It took off through his guidance and direction.”
Actor Sab Shimono reflected on Mako’s passing as a reminder of how far the Asian American acting community has gone.As a young actor emerging from New York in the 1970s, he remembers the dearth of opportunities for Asian Americans to hone their craft.
“Before the ‘70s, they couldn’t find experienced Asian actors. That’s not the fact anymore,” he said. “With East West Players there was somewhere to work, and when we’re called [for an audition] we’re much more prepared.”
Actor George Takei added that with the creation of EWP, there was greater exposure for Asian American actors.
At the time, Japanese American parents did not encourage talented young people for a life in any of the arts and certainly not performing arts. If anything, they discouraged talent in that way,” said Takei.
By presenting plays written by Asian Americans and performed by Asian Americans, that brought out friends, family, relatives and created an audience that understood the importance of supporting our artists.” |
