Biography: Makoto Iwamatsu

Makoto Iwamatsu was a Japanese-American actor, credited in almost all of his acting roles as simply Mako. Makoto Iwamatsu was born in Kobe, Japan, to Tomoe Sasako and Atsushi Iwamatsu, two well-known children’s book authors and artists. He enlisted in the military in the 1950s and 1956. He became a fledged American citizen. He discovered his theatrical skills while serving in the armed forces and received training at the Pasadena Community Playhouse.

Mako made his film debut in the film Never So Few (1959). For his act as engine-room worker Po-Han in the movie The Sand Pebbles, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (1966). In the epic film The Hawaiians, he played a Chinese contract laborer named Mun Ki (1970) starring Charlton Heston and Tina Chen; Oomiak, the Inuit guide, in Disney’s The Island at the Top of the World (1974); Yuen Chung in the film The Killer Elite (1975) directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring James Caan, Robert Duvall, and the famous martial artist Takayuki Kubota; the sorcerer Nakano in Highlander III: The Sorcerer; Jackie Chan’s uncle/sifu in Chan’s first American movie The Big Brawl (1980); the wizard Akiro opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the two Conan movies Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer; the confidant to Chuck Norris’ rogue cop in the thriller An Eye for an Eye (1982); the Japanese spy in the comedy Under the Rainbow.

In 1990, he had a minor role in the psychological thriller Pacific Heights along with Matthew Modine, Melanie Griffith, and Michael Keaton; Yoshida-san in Rising Sun; Mr. Lee in Sidekicks; Kanemitsu in RoboCop 3 (1993); and Kungo Tsarong in Seven Years in Tibet (1997).

He also appeared in some Japanese television dramas and films, such as Masahiro Shinoda’s Owls’ Castle and Takashi Miike’s The Bird People in China.

Mako was cast as the historic Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in the epic drama Pearl Harbor (2001). He also had a role in Bulletproof Monk (2003). In 2005, Mako had a cameo role in Memoirs of a Geisha. Mako’s last leading role was in the film Cages (2005), written and directed by Graham Streeter.

Mako’s Broadway career included creating the roles of the Reciter. In the original 1976 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical Pacific Overtures, he played the Shogun and the Chicago-based innovator of the rickshaw, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. Mako’s landlords at the time, both Jerry Orbach and George Rose from the revival of My Fair Lady was nominated for their roles in Chicago; however, both were defeated by George Rose from the revival of My Fair Lady.

Mako debuted with the East-West Players, directing the show’s production and a performance at the San Jose Civic Light Opera in 1991. He also made a brief appearance in the drama Shimada in 1992. Mako died of esophageal cancer on July 21, 2006, in Somis, California, at the age of 72.