I would like to mention the recent passing of Mako (full name: Makoto Iwamatsu), the Japanese-American actor who was 72 years old. Born in Japan, he came to the U.S. after WWII. He served in the military (I have an uncle who remembers working with Mako in the service) and became an American citizen in the 1950s. During a career which spanned five decades, he appeared in numerous films, TV shows, and plays, and did a number of anime and cartoon voice-overs. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Sand Pebbles and a Tony for Best Lead Actor in a Musical for his performance in Pacific Overtures. He also co-founded The East-West Players, the influential West Coast Asian-American theatrical group. For those of us old enough to have seen him through the breadth and width of a distinguished career, he was a marvelous actor and a wonderful representative for Asian-Americans.

Mako Iwamatsu will be missed greatly. Rest In Peace.

If you ever get a chance buy/rent "Sand Peebles" Steve McQueen was also nominated for an Oscar. And Mako was superb.

Next weekend (August 6), there's supposed to be a special segment dedicated to Mako on JATV News (KSCI/LA-18) at 7:30PM, right before the Dotch Cooking Show....

Anyone catch that special segment they had for Mako on the JATV news?

It was a nice tribute to the Oscar-nominated character actor.

Mako had a sister Momo Yashima. She's had a pretty fair career herself: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0946579/