Yuki Shimoda

Though he played almost exclusively Asian--predominately Japanese--characters throughout more than 20 years in film and television acting, Yuki Shimoda was actually born in Sacramento. The first-generation American performed on Broadway over much of the 1950s, eventually taking his role in the hit comedy "Auntie Mame" to the big screen as his 1958 film debut. For the next two decades, Shimoda appeared primarily either in B-movies or in smaller roles in bigger-budget films. In the mid-'70s, he took to figures of authority, including a role as an officer in the Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda-starring World War II drama, "Midway." Shimoda had an especially solid year in 1980, when he co-starred with fellow first-generation Japanese-American Pat Morita in the Japanese immigrant drama "Hito Hata: Raise the Banner," followed by a key supporting role in the Disney family adventure "The Last Flight of Noah's Ark," starring Elliott Gould and Rick Schroder. On TV, Shimoda was more prone to stereotypical Asian parts, whether as an "Oriental Man" on the sitcom"Gomer Pyle, United StatesM.C." in 1965, or as Cho Pak on three episodes of the military comedy "M*A*S*H." Arguably his best role came as one of the stars of the 1976 TV-movie "Farewell to Manzanar," an Emmy-nominated drama about a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II. In 1981, his last year of life, Shimoda had a key supporting role in the Bryan Brown-starring Australian mini-series, "A Town Like Alice," another production set during World War II. Shimoda passed away from cancer at age 59.