Pat Morita

The Boy Who Learned to Walk in a Concentration Camp

Noriyuki Morita spent much of his childhood encased in a plaster cast that covered him from his shoulders to his feet. Doctors diagnosed him with spinal tuberculosis at age two and assured his family he would never be able to stand. But after experimental surgery at the Shriners Hospital in San Francisco and a decade of forced bed rest, the boy who had only seen the world through a window stepped outside just in time to be escorted by the army to an internment camp in Arizona.

That confinement during World War II forged the character of a man who learned to observe before speaking. Young Morita soon understood that humor was the only tool capable of breaking down the barbed-wire walls surrounding his family.

And the gamble paid off.

After the war ended, he worked at the family restaurant called Ariake Chop Suey in Sacramento. There he discovered he could make customers laugh while serving plates of noodles, and so The Hip Nip was born, the stage name under which he toured the grittiest comedy clubs in California during the 1960s. His humor was sharp and played on the racial prejudices of an America that still didn't know where to place a Japanese man born on American soil.

Hollywood's Systematic Rejection

His move into television was a direct result of his talent for improvisation. But the role that brought him national visibility was Matsuo Arnold Takahashi on Happy Days in the mid-1970s. It was a comfortable character that provided him with steady income and a face the general public could recognize.

When director John G. Avildsen proposed Morita for the role of Keisuke Miyagi in The Karate Kid, producer Jerry Weintraub flatly refused. He didn't want a television comedian for a role that demanded gravitas. Morita had to audition five times to prove that his real pain outweighed any acting technique learned on sitcom sets.

The drunk scene where Miyagi mourns the death of his wife and son in a concentration camp while wearing his military uniform convinced the entire crew. It wasn't fiction. It was Morita's own biography poured into a screenplay about martial arts.

In 1985, he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

He was the first Asian American to earn that nomination.

The Price of Late Fame

The massive success of the franchise came at too high a price for his mental health. Morita spent the 1990s trying to escape the shadow of the perfect mentor, but the industry only offered him variations on the same archetype. He starred in the series Ohara in 1987, playing a detective who used meditation to solve crimes, though audiences turned their backs on the show after two seasons.

He still lent his voice to the Emperor in the Disney film Mulan in 1998. His deep voice brought a natural authority to a character who sought to break away from the stereotypes of animated films of the era. But the reality is that the major studio system never knew what to do with him once the martial arts craze fell out of fashion.

His career faded into a flood of direct-to-video productions and brief cameos on series such as Baywatch and The Hughleys. Alcoholism began taking an obvious toll on his final roles, and those close to him spoke of a depression that was never properly treated.

He died at his home in Las Vegas on November 24, 2005 from kidney failure. His death certificate states that he died at age 73.