Tony-Nominated Pacific Overtures Star Mako Dies at 72

Mako, who earned a Tony Award nomination for creating the role of the Reciter in the original production of Pacific Overtures and who was also an Academy Award nominee, passed away on July 21st at the age of 72.  He died of esophageal cancer in his Ventura County, CA home.

Born on December 10th, 1933 in Kobe Japan, Mako--who was born Makoto Iwamatsu--was the son of parents who studied art in the United States (he was raised by his grandparents).  Joining his parents in America, he gave up his architectural studies in order to join the U.S. Army.  Performing in shows for his fellow soldiers, he decided to switch his career goal from architect to actor and upon the end of the war, started acting with the Pasadena Community Playhouse in CA.

In addition to playing the Reciter (as well as the Shogun, Emperor and American businessman Jonathan Goble) in the 1976 Stephen Sondheim-John Weidman musical Pacific Overtures (in which he memorably sang "The Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea"), Mako appeared on Broadway in the 1992 play Shimada, which also featured Ellen Burstyn, Ben Gazzara, and Estelle Parsons.  Off-Broadway, he appeared in Yellow Fever and FOB, and also co-founded Los Angeles' East-West Players theatre company, for which he was the artistic director from 1965 to 1989.  The company is known as the first Asian-American theatre company to have been formed in the United States.

He appeared in over 135 films and TV shows, and received an Oscar nomination for his performance as Po-han in the 1966 Robert Wise film The Sand Pebbles.  Other screen credits included Prisoners, The Bushido Blade, The Green Hornet, Conan The Destroyer, The Wash, Silent Assassins, Pacific Heights, Nightingale, Sidekicks, Robocop 3, Red Sun Rising, Rugrats in Paris, Pearl Harbor and the recent blockbuster Memoirs of a Geisha.  TV credits included "Wonder Woman," "M.A.S.H," "The Facts of Life," "Frasier," "7th Heaven," "Walker, Texas Ranger," "Charmed" and "The West Wing."

He is survived by wife Shizuko Hoshi and daughters Sala and Mimosa.