Mako Iwamatsu, sometimes simply known as Mako, was a Japanese-American actor, whose Disney roles were Oomiak in The Island at the Top of the World, Kenji in The Ugly Dachshund, Isoroku Yamamoto in Pearl Harbor, Mr. Sakamoto in Taking Care of Business, and Master Offay in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!.
Mako was born in Kobe, Japan. In 1939, his parents, who were political dissidents, moved to the U.S., leaving Mako in the care of his grandmother. After the war, his parents were able to arrange for him to join them in 1949. He enlisted in the military in the 1950s and became a naturalized American citizen in 1956. When Mako first joined his parents in the United States, he studied architecture. During his military service, he discovered his theatrical talent and trained at the Pasadena Community Playhouse.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Po-Han in Robert Wise's The Sand Pebbles. His other film credits included Never So Few, The Hawaiians, The Killer Elite, Highlander III: The Sorcerer, Rising Sun, Pacific Heights, RoboCop 3, Seven Years in Tibet, and as Akiro the Wizard in Conan the Barbarian and its sequel Conan the Destroyer. He was also part of the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's 1976 Broadway musical Pacific Overtures, which earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Additionally, he was known for voicing Splinter in the 2007 Warner Bros. computer-animated film TMNT (one of his final film roles before his death).
Mako's television credits included McHale's Navy, M*A*S*H, Kung Fu, Ironside, The Incredible Hulk, Magnum, P.I., Columbo, Walker, Texas Ranger, The Green Hornet, Monk, and Charmed; but his most well-known roles are the voices of Aku in Samurai Jack and Iroh in the first two seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Following his death in 2006, these two roles have been taken over by voice actor Greg Baldwin.
