Modified On November 25, 2005
AP is reporting that Pat Morita is dead at the age of 73. Morita was a standup comic before he was Mr. Miyagi. It was 1962– a simpler time– so Morita billed himself as “The Hip Nip” and nobody batted an eye.
After the war, Morita’s family tried to repair their finances by operating a Sacramento restaurant. It was there that Morita first tried his comedy on patrons.
Because prospects for a Japanese-American standup comic seemed poor, Morita found steady work in computers at Aerojet General. But at age 30 he entered show business full time.
“Only in America could you get away with the kind of comedy I did,” he commented. “If I tried it in Japan before the war, it would have been considered blasphemy, and I would have ended in leg irons.”