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Cancer Kills Mako at the Age of 72

According to entertainment magazines, an Oscar nominee Japanese-American actor Mako, has died last Friday at the age of 72. Mako`s birth name was Makoto Iwamatsu, and he was well-known among both Japanese and American audiences. He died in his home in California, after suffering from esophageal cancer. The actor, who was born in Japan, came to the United States after World War II to join his parents, who had been in the country at the war`s outbreak and remained all during it.

He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1956. He had a long career on Broadway and in Hollywood. Among others, he was nominated for a best supporting actor Academy Award for playing a Chinese laborer in "The Sand Pebbles," which was set during the U.S. military presence in China in 1926 and looked at the troubled relationship between villagers and foreigners. His leading role in Stephen Sondheim`s "Pacific Overtures" earned him a Tony Award nomination in 1976, the highest award for Broadway Theater.

Throughout the years of his long entertainment career, Mako performed in many films and TV shows, and used his popularity to push for greater and more varied roles for Asian-American actors in Hollywood. In 1965 he helped start the Los Angeles-based East West Players, which established itself as among the top Asian-American theater troupes in the United States. Mako left a wife, two children and grandchildren, who will miss him deeply, as well as the entertainment fans.