MAKO rest in peace

Sadly I will have to end reviewing Mako's work as I haven't seen much of it. From his narration work on the shows Dexter's Laboratory and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy to his animation roles in Samurai Jack, Avatar The Last Airbender, Duck Dodgers and What's New Scooby Doo to his live actions role in Conan the Barbarian, The Sand Pebbles, Seven Years in Tibet, Pearl Harbor, Memoirs of a Geisha, and many role. Lets make sure that this screen legend doesn't fade away from our memories.



Mako: Samurai Jack

 

Samurai Jack a tale of a samurai from feudal Japan whose empire is destroyed by the dark creature known as Aku. He manages to escape through time and now travels in order to defeat his greatest enemy.

Samurai Jack was created by Genndy Tartakovsky and aired on Cartoon Network. Jack was voiced by Phil LaMarr while Aku was voiced by Mako.

 

 

Aku is a the main antagonist on the show as you can see but by no means is he a simple villain. His whole character is very interesting to watch and serves as the direct opposite of Jack. His deep voice helps with making this character excellent, this voice belongs to Mako. Mako was wonderful, he was able to project his voice well and even could act out his character. Without Aku there would be no Samurai Jack, so lets thank him for making Cartoon network a hit show and making our viewing habits a bit better.

There would be no other actor that I could envision for this role, Mako did a wonderful job and leaves us with an everlasting character known as Aku.

The Slanted Screen

A brief of Americans of Asian descent in American film and television. There are many in depth interviews from some of the more famous American actors of Asian descent like Mako, Daniel Dae Kim, Bobby Lee, Jason Scott Lee, etc. Its a really nice Look into the lives and concerns that these actors have.
Mako appears several times, he appears to be the wise old man in the documentary as I am certain he was the oldest one interviewed. He was probably the most respected actor in this documentary as well.
I feel like this film is slight outdated plus they did not mention anything about female actors but chose to only highlight the men.

If you want to know of the history and struggle of these actors then watch this documentary.

Mako Iwamatsu

Born: Kobe, Japan

Died: Somis, California

 

Mako Iwamastsu known simply as Mako was the son of famous children book Illustrators. His parents left Japan before WWII and Mako would join them when he was 18 years old. He joined the US Army and through this he discovered a love of acting. So he gave up the idea to be an architect instead to be an actor. His first role was in 1959 in a movie called Never So Few. Mako was a lover of the theater, tired of the roles that Asians were given he started his own theater group called East West Players with a few other people.

In 1962 he made his first television show appearance on the Lloyd Bridges Show, he would go on to make appearances in TV shows like McHale's Navy, M*A*S*H, The Incredible Hulk, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., etc. He also chose to do voice acting his credits include Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, What's New Scooby Doo, Duck Dodgers, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, etc.  

Mako earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role in 1966's The Sand Pebbles. He played a Chinese man who spoke broken English. The critics hail his performance as expanding the roles that Asians could do in American film. 

Sadly he passed away after a long battle with cancer. Hollywood gave him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 

Mako was born in Japan, but he became an American citizen. He fought to open doors for more Americans of Asian descent to have more roles on American film. He lived and died as an American actor we should honor his memory and continue to fight for the equal rights of our Invisible American brothers. 

 

Selected Film Appearances

The Sand Pebbles

Conan the Barbarian

Robocop 3

Highlander 3

Crying Freeman

Pearl Habor

Bulletproof Monk

Memoirs of a Geisha

 

Selected Television Appearances

McHale's Navy

I Dream of Jeannie

The Green Hornet

Kung Fu

M*A*S*H

Columbo

The Incredible Hulk

Frasier

Samurai Jack

Avatar: The Last Airbender

 

 

 

 

Introduction

My name for this is Seul, I decided to start a blog about American actors with Asian heritage. Why? Because I can. Just joking but not really. I started this blog because I want to expose a different kind of American actor that we tend to forget about. Now I am not Asian but I take an Asian Experience In America class. So I am learning a lot of things that I did not know about Americans of Asian descent. Now I can't change America drastically as I am just a civilian nor I am in the film business so I can't help cast Americans with Asian descent into better roles. What I can do is try to expose these American actors the best I can.
      We may not have the same racial background but we are two important things: we are Americans and we are human.

So every week I'll highlight one actor or actress then review a few of their movies/television shows.