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Pat Morita Picture

PAT MORITA

FAN PAGE

 

Common misspelling: Pat Moritta, Pat Morrita, Pat Moreta; also known as Noriyuki "Pat" Morita

 

Given Name

Date of Birth

Birth Place

Noriyuki Morita

b. June 28, 1932

d. Nov. 24, 2005

Isleton, California

Table of Contents

Biography News Websites Discography Filmography Books Posters Other Items

PAT MORITA BIOGRAPHY

The following biography is from Wikipedia.org “The Free Encyclopedia.”

 

Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (June 28, 1932 – November 24, 2005) was a Japanese-American actor best known for the roles of Arnold on the TV show Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the movie The Karate Kid, for which he was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.

 

****

 

Early life

Born in Isleton, California, the son of an itinerant fruit worker, Morita developed spinal tuberculosis at age two and spent the bulk of the next nine years in Northern California hospitals, including the Shriners Hospital in San Francisco. He was for long periods wrapped in a full body cast and was told he would never walk. The boy, often alone and isolated, made sock puppets to entertain himself.

 

After a surgeon fused four vertebrae in his spine, Noriyuki finally learned to walk again at age 11. By then, his Japanese American family had been sent to an internment camp to be detained for the duration of World War II. The boy was transported from the hospital directly to the camp in Arizona to join them.

 

For a time after the war, the family operated Ariake Chop Suey, a restaurant in Sacramento, California. Teenage "Nori" would entertain customers with jokes and serve as master of ceremonies for group dinners.

 

Noriyuki graduated from Armijo High School in Fairfield, California and shortly thereafter moved back to the Sacramento area, where he took a job with Aerojet-General, an aerospace company that designed and manufactured rocket engines, including those for the US Navy's UGM-27 Polaris.

 

It was only after working his way up to head of a computer operations department that Morita, by now a husband and father, and also seriously overweight, decided he had taken the wrong life path. He quit and became a standup comedian. Often billed as "the Hip Nip" in his standup act, he became a member of the Los Angeles improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings.

 

Television and movie career

His first movie role was as a sterotypical henchman in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Later, a recurring role as a Korean Captain Sam Pak on the sitcom M*A*S*H helped advance the comedian's acting career.

 

He had a recurring role on the show Happy Days as Matsumoto "Arnold" Takahashi, owner of the diner Arnold's. After the first season (1975-1976), he left the popular show to star in his own sitcom called Mr. T and Tina as an inventor named Taro Takahashi. The sitcom was placed on Saturday nights by ABC and was quickly cancelled after a month in the fall of 1976. Morita eventually returned to Happy Days, reprising his role in the 1982-1983 season.

 

Morita gained worldwide fame playing wise karate teacher Kesuke Miyagi who taught young "Daniel-san" in The Karate Kid. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as well as a Golden Globe and reprised his role as the sensei Mr. Miyagi in three sequels. Morita never formally practiced a martial art and most of his karate scenes were performed by stunt double (and noted shito-ryu karate-ka) Fumio Demura. Although he had been using the name "Pat Morita" for years, producer Jerry Weintraub suggested that Pat be billed with his given name to sound more ethnic (see [[1]]).

 

Morita went on to star as the title character in the ABC detective show Ohara (1987-1988) and wrote and starred in the World War II romance film Captive Hearts (1987).

 

Like many Asian American actors, Morita spoke English with a perfect American accent although he was frequently typecasted with a Japanese or Korean accent.

 

Death

Morita died on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2005, at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, of natural causes at age 73. Morita will be buried at Palm Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery. He is survived by his second wife, actress Evelyn Guerrero, and three daughters from a previous marriage to his first wife, Yuki. Yuki and their three daughters were with him at the time of his death.

 

****

 

The above biography has been copied in part or in whole from an article on Wikipedia.org "The Free Encyclopedia."  It has been modified under the NGU Free Document License Section 5 in the following manner: (1) All links within the article have been removed, including text links such as "[#]"; (2) The "[Edit]" text and link have been removed [if you would like to update the article, you may do so from the original page]; (3) the table of Contents links and text have been removed; and (4) all of the sections of the original article have not been copied. All of the above text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Document License.

URL of Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Morita

Date Article Copied: November 28, 2005

We will try to replace this article with an original biography in the near future, but we hope this will be of help to our visitors in the mean time.

PAT MORITA NEWS

 

Pat Morita News Resources

ContactMusic.com

FindArticles.com

Google.com

Topix.net

PAT MORITA WEBSITES

For information about submitting a site, or about how these websites are ranked, please CLICK HERE.

Pat Morita Official Website: N/A

Pat Morita Fan Sites:

Rating: Highest = 4 J's

Celebrity & Commercial Sites:

Rating: Highest = 4 J's

If you have a Pat Morita Fan site you would like to add, just CLICK HERE.

JJJ ½ IMDB.com

JJ ½ MSN.com

JJ ½ www.PopStarsPlus.com

JJ ½ Pat Morita on TVGuide.com

JJ Wikipedia.org

J ¾ TV.com

J ½ FactBites.com

J ½ InfoPlease.com

J ½ The-Numbers.com

J ½ TV-Now.com

J ¼ CelebrityStorm.com

J ¼ FindAGrave.com

J ¼ Hollywood.com

J ¼ RottenTomatoes.com

J Everything2.com

J NNDB.com

J NYTimes.com

¾ FactMonster.com

½ CelebMatch.com

Pat Morita Articles and Interviews

Pat Morita Pictures (pics, photos, photographs, images, gallery, etc.)

Google.com

IMDb.com

MolstadConsulting.com

Newsday

SitcomsOnline.com

Movies.Yahoo.com

WireImage.com

Pat Morita Multimedia (Downloads, Wallpaper, Videos, Screen Savers, etc.)

Not available at this time.

 

Pat Morita Song Lyrics

Not available at this time.

Pat Morita Quotations

Not available at this time.

   

Pat Morita Links Pages

Celebrity-Link.com

Clago.com

MenCelebs.com

Pat Morita Related Websites

Karate Kid (IMDB.com)

 

PAT MORITA DISCOGRAPHY: ALBUMS, SINGLES, COMPILATIONS, BOXED SETS, ETC.

If you are interested in writing album reviews, CLICK HERE.

Not available at this time.

PAT MORITA ON VIDEO, A FILMOGRAPHY

If you are interested in writing movie reviews, CLICK HERE.

Year

1967 1968 1969 1972 1972
      Selection N/A   Selection N/A

Title

Thoroughly Modern Millie The Shakiest Gun in the West The Queen and I (TV series) Evil Roy Slade (TV movie) A Very Missing Person (TV movie)

Role

Oriental #2 Wong Barney Cook Turhan Delmar Faulkenstein

Year

1972 1972 1972 1972 1973
  Selection N/A       Selection N/A

Title

Every Little Crook and Nanny Where Does It Hurt? Columbo: Étude in Black (TV movie) Cancel My Reservation Brock's Last Case (TV movie)

Role

Nonaka Nishimoto The House Boy Yamamoto Sam Wong

Year

1973 1973 1974 1975 1975-1976, 1982-1983
  Selection N/A Selection N/A      

Title

The Barbara Eden Show (TV special) Cops (TV movie) Punch and Jody (TV movie) Kill My Wife Please (I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now) Happy Days (TV series)

Role

various Captain Irving Ho Takahasi uncredited Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi

Year

1976 1976 1976 1977 1978
  Selection N/A   Selection N/A Selection N/A  

Title

Farewell to Manzanar (TV movie) The Battle of Midway Mr. T and Tina (TV series) Blansky's Beauties (TV series) Miles the Angel (Human Feelings) (TV movie)

Role

Zenahiro Rear Adm. Ryunosuke Kusaka Taro Takahashi Arnold Waiter

Year

1980 1980 1981 1982 1982
           

Title

The Day the World Ended (When Time Ran Out) For the Love of It (TV movie) Full Moon High Slapstick (Of Another Kind) Savannah Smiles

Role

Sam Ishihara Silversmith Ah Fong Father Ohara

Year

1982 1984 1984 1984 1985
        Selection N/A Selection N/A

Title

Jimmy the Kid The Karate Kid Night Patrol The Vegas Strip War (TV movie) Blind Alleys (TV movie)

Role

Maurice Mr. Kesuke Miyagi Rape Victim Yip Tak Kenji Sato

Year

1985 1985 1986 1986 1986
    Selection N/A Selection N/A    

Title

Amos (TV movie) Alice in Wonderland (TV movie) What Has Four Wheels and Flies (TV movie) The Karate Kid, Part II Babes in Toyland (TV movie)

Role

Tommy Tanaka Horse Cameo Mr. Miyagi The Toymaster

Year

1987 1987-1988 1989 1989 1990
    Selection N/A      

Title

Captive Hearts Ohara (TV series) Collision Course The Karate Kid, Part III Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (TV movie)

Role

Fukushima Lt. Ohara Investigator Fujitsuka Natsuo Mr. Miyagi Yoodo Toda

Year

1991 1991 1991 1991 1991
          Selection N/A

Title

Lena's Holiday Goodbye Paradise Do or Die Big Bird in Japan (TV special) Strawberry Road (Sutoroberi rodo)

Role

Fred Ben "Kane" Kaneshiro Narrator (1 segment) Old Man's brother

Year

1992 1992 1992 1992 1992
  Selection N/A       Selection N/A

Title

Great Conquest: The Romance of 3 Kingdoms (Sangokushi) Miracle Beach Honeymoon in Vegas Mastergate (TV movie) Choose Your Own Adventure: The Case of the Silk King (TV movie)

Role

Narrator Gus Mahi Mahi Kevin Naito Cameo

Year

1993 1993 1993 1993 1994
  Selection N/A Selection N/A     Selection N/A

Title

Living and Working in Space: The Countdown Has Begun (video) Extralarge: Ninja Shadow (TV movie) Auntie Lee's Meat Pies Even Cowgirls Get the Blues Greyhounds (TV movie)

Role

Cap cameo Chief Koal The Chink Akira Mochizuki

Year

1994 1995 1995 1995 1995
    Selection N/A Selection N/A    

Title

The Next Karate Kid Asian Connection: Road to Mandalay (TV movie) The Misery Brothers Deliver Us From Evil (Captured Alive) Hart to Hart: Secrets of the Hart (TV movie)

Role

Mr. Kesuke Miyagi Y.C. Kung Judge Sam Kashawahara Ling Goldberg

Year

1995 1995 1995 1996 1996
      Selection N/A    

Title

Timemaster American Ninja 5 Lamb Chop's Special Chanukah (TV special) Earth Minus Zero Bloodsport 2

Role

Isaiah Master Tetsu Pat Dr. Mobius Jefferson David Leung

Year

1996 1996 1996 1997 1998
  Selection N/A        

Title

The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo (TV series) Spy Hard Reggie's Prayer Bloodsport III Adventures with Kanga Roddy (TV series)

Role

Grandpa (Mike) Woo Brian, Waiter in Restaurant Principal Leung Uncle Pat

Year

1998 1998 1999 1999 1999
    Selection N/A   Selection N/A  

Title

Mulan Reflections on Ice: Michelle Kwan Skates to the Music of Disney's "Mulan" (TV special) I'll Remember April Gone to Maui (TV movie) King Cobra (Anaconda 2)

Role

The Emperor of China (voice) Emperor & Narrator Abe Tanaka Mr Ono Nick Hashimoto

Year

2000 2000 2000 2000 2001
  Selection N/A   Selection N/A Selection N/A  

Title

Coyote Moon (video) Hammerlock Brother Talk to Taka House of Luk

Role

Jubal Early uncredited uncredited Taka Kwang Luk

Year

2001 2001 2001 2001 2002
           

Title

The Boys of Sunset Ridge The Center of the World Shadow Fury Hwasan Highschool (Whasango) The Stoneman

Role

Charlie Watanabe Taxi Driver Dr. Oh cameo Prof. Stevens

Year

2002 2003 2003 2003 2003
    Selection N/A     Selection N/A

Title

The Biggest Fan Cats and Mice High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story (Stuey) Rice Girl Spymate

Role

Richard Limp Unagi Mr. Leo Peter Ong Kiro

Year

2004 2004 2004 2004 2004
  Selection N/A Selection N/A Selection N/A    

Title

18 Fingers of Death! Miss Castaway and the Island Girls The Karate Dog Elvis Has Left the Building Mulan II (video)

Role

Mr. Lee

Mr. Yogi

Chin Li Man in Turban The Emperor (voice)

Year

2005 2005 2005 Coming 2006 Coming 2006
  Selection N/A Selection N/A   Selection N/A Selection N/A

Title

The Number One Girl (video) Genghis Khan Down and Derby Angst American Fusion

Role

Mr. Sakata Emperor Wei Wong Ono Yakimoto Tom Lao Dong

Year

Coming 2006        
  Selection N/A        

Title

Princess        

Role

Guard        

PAT MORITA BOOKS & MAGAZINES

           
The Karate Kid Part II          

PAT MORITA POSTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

 

PAT MORITA PRODUCTS & OTHER ITEMS

Selection N/A

PAT MORITA AUCTION ITEMS

 
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