Clyde Kusatsu
Clyde Kusatsu | |
---|---|
Born | Honolulu, Hawaii,[1] U.S. |
September 13, 1948
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1974-2013 |
Spouse(s) | Gayle Kusatsu (?-present) |
Children | 2 |
Website | clydekusatsu.com |
Clyde Kusatsu (born September 13, 1948) is an American actor of Japanese descent.[1]
Life and career
Kusatsu was born on September 13, 1948 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and raised there, where he attended 'Iolani School. Kusatsu began acting in Honolulu summer stock, and after studying theatre at Northwestern University, started to make his mark on the small screen in the mid-1970s. With his quiet, wry line delivery, Kusatsu made a memorably clever and hilarious sparring partner for Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) on several episodes of All in the Family as the Reverend Chong, refusing to baptize Archie's grandson without the permission of the boy's parents. During this period Kusatsu also worked with the Asian American theatre group East West Players in Los Angeles.
Kusatsu was subsequently a regular on several series, but neither the adventure Bring 'Em Back Alive[1] (1982–83) nor the Hawaiian-set medical drama Island Son (1989–90) (in which he played one of Richard Chamberlain's colleagues) lasted very long. His many television movies have included the film adaptation of Farewell to Manzanar (1976), about Japanese American internment during World War II. (Kusatsu also guest-starred on an episode of Lou Grant on Japanese internment in the U.S.); Other television films and mini-series have been "And The Sea Will Tell", and "American Tragedy" playing Judge Lance Ito. He had a memorable role in the "Baa Baa Black Sheep" episode "Prisoners of War" as a downed Japanese fighter pilot in the Pacific (1976); Golden Land (1988), a Hollywood-set drama based on a William Faulkner story; and the AIDS drama And the Band Played On (1993). Kustatsu also made several guest appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Starfleet Vice Admiral Nakamura, appeared in four M*A*S*H episodes, the Rockford Files episode "New Life Old Dragons" in 1977 and later starred in the short-lived A.B.C. series All American Girl (1994–1995), the first Asian American family sitcom in the U.S. He also guest starred in several episodes of the 1990s ABC situation comedy Family Matters as Principal Shimata, the usual foil of that series' main protagonist Steve Urkel.
Feature roles, beginning with Midway (1976), have generally been small, but in the 1990s Kusatsu had roles in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993, as a history teacher) and In the Line of Fire (1993, as a Secret Service agent). He appeared as a high school English teacher in American Pie[2] (1999). Other recent films have been Shopgirl as Mr. Agasa, and in Sydney Pollack's The Interpreter (2005) as Lee Wu, head of security for the United Nations Headquarters. He played the recurring role of Dr. Dennis Okamura[citation needed] on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless.[2] Kusatsu starred in Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) as Mr. Lee. He is also one of the most recognizable actors in the TV and movie industry whenever an ethnic character is needed. Few people may not realize Kusatsu appeared as three different characters in the Magnum, p.i. series, including playing the Vietnamese character who severely wounded the Thomas Magnum character (Tom Selleck) in the series from the 1980s.
Selected filmography
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- Midway (1976)
- Alex & the Gypsy (1976)
- Black Sunday (1977)
- The Choirboys (1977)
- Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
- Dr. Strange (1978)
- The Frisco Kid (1979)
- Meteor (1979)
- ...All the Marbles (1981)
- The Challenge (1982)
- Volunteers (1985)
- Shanghai Surprise (1986)
- Turner & Hooch (1989)
- Wired (1989)
- Bird on a Wire (1990)
- The Perfect Weapon (1991)
- Pizza Man (1991)
- Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
- Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
- Made in America (1993)
- In the Line of Fire (1993)
- Rising Sun (1993)
- Dream Lover (1993)
- Top Dog (1995)
- Spy Hard (1996)
- Paradise Road (1997)
- American Pie (1999)
- Gas (2004)
- Paparazzi (2004)
- Pretty Persuasion (2005)
- The Interpreter (2005)
- Shopgirl (2005)
References
External links
- Clyde Kusatsu at the Internet Movie Database
- Official website
- Clyde Kusatsu 2008 interview on Asiance Magazine online
- Clyde Kusatsu 2013 interview with BlankmanInc
- Articles with hCards
- Articles with unsourced statements from January 2015
- Pages using div col with unknown parameters
- Official website not in Wikidata
- 1948 births
- American male film actors
- American male television actors
- American male voice actors
- American people of Japanese descent
- Living people
- Northwestern University School of Communication alumni
- Male actors from Honolulu, Hawaii
- Male actors from Hawaii
- Male actors of Japanese descent