well, I just got the news that the actor, Mako, died last Friday, July 21.
You can read the obit in the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-mako23jul23,0,2606807,print.story?coll=la-home-obituaries
I remember Mako, a little. I met him, 2 or 3 times. Gave him a ride, once, in DC.
First saw him, when he came out from California, to promote a community screening of the film, Hito Hata. He starred in that film, that was the first feature length depiction of the the effects of Japanese American internment.
I seem to recall, that the film was an odd length. The filmmakers, Steve Tatsukawa and Duane Kubo, kept flying from LA to DC to negotiate with PBS to try to get it shown on public television. (You know, I'm not even sure if it was called PBS at the time. I do know that it was the national educational tv network.)
Anyhow, the filmmakers didn't want to edit it down to broadcast hour length (57 min?), so it didn't get on the air. (Not sure if it eventually did.)
Posted by raacluse at July 24, 2006 08:31 PM