Yuki Shimoda
Encyclopedia
Yuki Shimoda was an American
actor
best known for his starring role as Ko Wakatsuki in the NBC
movie of the week, Farewell to Manzanar
in 1976. He also co-starred in a 1960s television series, Johnny Midnight (39 episodes), with Edmond O'Brien
. He was a star of the silver screen
, early television and the stage. His Broadway theater stage credits include Auntie Mame
with Rosalind Russell
, nominated for eight Tony Awards and winner of three Tonys, and Pacific Overtures
, a Stephen Sondheim
Broadway musical directed by Harold Prince nominated for ten Tony Awards.
, California
on August 10, 1921.
His father was Chojiro Shimoda, who emigrated from the town of Shimoda
in Kumamoto prefecture
on the island of Kyūshū
in Japan
. Chojiro left Japan in his early teens, because he did not want to be a sweet potato
farmer on the family farm and was tired of eating sweet potatoes every day. Shimoda's mother was Kikuyo (Nakamura) Shimoda, also from Kumamoto prefecture. Kikuyo, which means chrysanthemum, was born to an influential, wealthy, noble samurai
family; her father was a doctor. She left Japan to have freedom as a modern, Asian American
woman and to marry for love rather than marry by arrangement (omiai
).
Shimoda was the oldest of three children. His younger brothers were Noboru "Dave" Shimoda, who lived to the age of 82, and James Shimoda, who died as a child of a bacteria
l infection
before the age of antibiotics. Shimoda always had an interest in dancing and acting. As a child he insisted on being called Fred, because he wanted to be like Fred Astaire
. In Sacramento, he worked in the family businesses, which included a restaurant, pool hall
and boarding house
. His parents' restaurant employed a Filipino
cook and friend named Felix, who was killed in World War II by the Japanese. This hardened his intense feelings of being an American. His parents were hard working and affluent even during the Great Depression
; Shimoda's father owned a Cadillac
limousine
that he bought from the Japanese government in a time when many people still owned horses. As a child, Shimoda enjoyed being taken on aimless rides with the family in that big car. Shimoda worked hard in his adolescence to help his parents, but he made time to dance and act. His intense drive and determination helped him overcome what he lacked in natural ability. Once, in a sewing
class in high school, he clumsily sewed his finger with a sewing machine. He studied ballet
, as well as kendo
and judo
which helped him become more graceful. Shimoda did ballroom dancing with several women dance partners.
Shimoda attended Sacramento High School. Studying an American curriculum by day, Shimoda filled his evenings and Saturdays attending Japanese language school. Yuki and Noboru were also Boy Scouts. Shimoda's studies at Sacramento Junior College (now known as Sacramento City College
) were interrupted when, along with over 100,000 other Japanese American
Issei
, Nisei
, Kibei
Nisei and Sansei
his family was relocated to a Japanese American internment
camp after the entry of the United States into World War II
per Executive Order 9066
. His parents (Issei, or first generation immigrants to America from Japan) were incarcerated without a trial and for no just cause. He spent the duration of World War II in the Tule Lake War Relocation Center
in northern California. Shimoda made the best of the incarceration by entertaining his fellow internees with his acting, dancing and singing abilities. Once he dressed like Carmen Miranda
complete with fruit on his head to dance and sing to the delight of the camp audience. Seeing his parents lose all their hard-earned possessions and being incarcerated in a concentration camp was particularly hard for a Nisei like Shimoda, because he had been raised as an American.
Shimoda and Noboru tried to volunteer for the United States Army after the bombing of Pearl Harbor
. The recruiting officer laughed them out of the office by calling them the enemy. Shimoda was eventually classified 4F or ineligible for the draft due to a congenital heart murmur
. As a child his parents were told that he would not live to adulthood due to his bad heart.
His brother, Noboru, went on to volunteer and serve with the regular United States Army
at the end of World War II during the occupation of Japan after his release from the relocation center. He later fought in the Korean War
earning the rank of Master Sergeant
. Noboru served with the United States Army Military Intelligence, the Office of Strategic Services
for the Allied Interpretation and Translation Service of the United States Army (ATIS); the United States Army Signal Corps
; and the Military Police
. Noboru was honorably discharged in 1952 and brought his Japanese war bride, Chieko Furusawa, of Yokohama
, back to Chicago, Illinois to become a naturalized American citizen. Noboru picked Chicago
, because Shimoda and his parents lived there for a while after being released from Tule Lake.
Shimoda left the concentration camp alone and was one of the first to leave. Evacuees were not allowed to go back to the West Coast at first and Shimoda was informed by officials at Tule Lake that Chicago was receptive to Japanese American resettlers, because Irish American
politicians there — being victims of discrimination themselves — understood the predicament of the evacuees. Shimoda lived in Chicago for several years and graduated with a degree in accounting from Northwestern University
. He worked at the University of Chicago and taught a Japanese language class.
He studied improvisational acting with the Compass Players
, who sprung from the University of Chicago
, a precursor of the Second City. He spent many hours at the Buddhist Temple of Chicago, then known as the Uptown Buddhist Church, with his friend, the Reverend Gyomay Kubose
, discussing life and his purpose on this earth. He felt his purpose was to hone his acting skills on a daily basis so that his next performance would be the best he could deliver. As Shimoda learned in the Boy Scouts, he wanted to always "Be Prepared
." He felt that by giving his all to what he believed in — changing the world for the better through his acting — he was not just spinning his wheels on earth. Many Asian American
actors as Beulah Quo, the co-founder of East West Players, with Mako Iwamatsu considered him to be an actor's actor, which she stated in the documentary movie "Yuki Shimoda: Asian American Actor". Shimoda never married and did not have any children; the family name is carried on through Noboru's only son, Thomas Edward Shimoda, a practicing dentist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois, former Assistant State's Attorney of Cook County, Illinois
, and a graduate of The Players Workshop
of The Second City
.
with Caesar Romero and Yvonne Craig (Batgirl) to A movies as Midway
with Charlton Heston
, Eddie Albert
, Henry Fonda
, James Colburn, Glenn Ford
, Toshirō Mifune
, Robert Mitchum
, Cliff Robertson
, Robert Wagner
, James Shigeta
and Noriyuki "Pat" Morita
. He also was in the martial arts movie The Octagon
with Chuck Norris
. In the Disney movie The Last Flight of Noah's Ark with Elliot Gould and Rick Schroder
, Shimoda's character was one of two Japanese soldiers on a deserted Pacific island decades after the end of World War II, who do not know the war is over. Walt Disney Pictures
allowed more character development of the Japanese soldiers to not only entertain the audience, but to show how the Japanese soldiers and the Americans could work together to get off the island. Shimoda enjoyed meaty roles like this that entertained and educated the audience.
Shimoda's favorite movie, Farewell to Manzanar
was later bought by Walt Disney Pictures to televise on the Disney Channel
. Farewell to Manzanar was a National Broadcasting Company, NBC
, television movie
that stars an all Japanese American cast and presents the story of the relocation of Japanese Americans into American style concentration camps. Both Farewell to Manzanar and The Last Flight of Noah's Ark are similar, because they present Japanese and Japanese Americans as real people that audiences get to know. Shimoda acted in MacArthur with Gregory Peck
and in The Horizontal Lieutenant with Jim Hutton
, Paula Prentiss
, Jim Backus
and Miyoshi Umeki
.
Shimoda had numerous television
credits. The miniseries A Town Like Alice
was broadcast internationally and in the United States on the Public Broadcasting System's (PBS
) Masterpiece Theater. A Town Like Alice was the first non-British
production to air in the United States on Masterpiece Theater. In the television miniseries, The Immigrants Shimoda played the part of Chinese American
immigrant Feng Wo. He guest starred on popular television shows of the 1960s and '70s as Adventures in Paradise, The Big Valley, Hawaiian Eye, The Andy Griffith Show, McHale's Navy, Mr. Ed, Peter Gunn, Love American Style, Wonder Woman, Hawaii Five-O, Sanford and Son, M.A.S.H. and Quincy, M.E. On Quincy, M.E., Shimoda starred as Dr. Hiro, a forensic medical examiner in the episode, "Has Anybody Here Seen Quincy?" that did not include star Jack Klugman
. Shimoda was considered for a spin-off of Quincy, M.E., where he would be a coroner like Thomas Noguchi
, M.D. the Los Angeles County coroner to many newsworthy deaths.
Shimoda filled in time between engagements with television commercial work, such as the Chrysler ad of the 1970s where Mr. T (Toyota) and Mr. D (Datsun - Nissan) admire a Dodge Colt and say, "Very nice, Mr. D." "I thought it was one of yours, Mr. T."
There were movie roles that got away. Shimoda got the lead role as Inuk in The Savage Innocents but was replaced by the Mexican American
actor, Anthony Quinn
. At the time, Shimoda was told that the reason he was fired as the leading man was because he was not realistic in the part of an Eskimo
and that the part must be played by an Eskimo; discrimination that he fought against during his career was more likely the reason. It was too great a financial risk to have a Japanese American male actor take the lead role in the 1961 movie. World War II was too fresh in many people's minds and many people still did not differentiate between the former Japanese enemy and patriotic American citizens of Japanese ancestry. The United States of America was not yet ready for another Sessue Hayakawa
, a Hollywood leading man from 1914 into the 1920s and the 1930s. Shimoda, like Hayakawa later in his career, took roles as the Japanese enemy.
Shimoda preferred to act as the honorable Japanese soldier or sailor like Dr. Matsumo, the good Japanese military physician, in Seven Women from Hell
. Dr. Matsumo helped seven American women escape from a Japanese prison camp but was shot and killed by Japanese soldiers. The movie tried to show that there were good Japanese, too. According to the plot, Dr. Matsumo studied in the United States and says that he has family in a camp for Japanese in Utah. Richard Loo, a Chinese American, was also in Seven Women from Hell playing the stereotypical Japanese villain role he excelled in during the 1940s. This movie was released in 1961 and shows the humane side of the former enemy. Shimoda played schlock Japanese villain roles, too, but was happy to be choosier later in his career and avoid stereotypical roles for roles that portrayed Japanese
and Asian people
with human frailties and strengths.
Shimoda's Broadway
career started when he moved to New York
from Chicago
to get more roles as an actor and dancer on stage. At first he worked as a waiter during the day and as a dancer at night. He found it difficult to find continual work as a dancer. He did find a job coaching Caucasian actors to act as more realistic "Orientals" in the 1950s. Ultimately he was hired as one of the first Asian American actors on Broadway. From 1953 to 1956, Shimoda acted in the Teahouse of the August Moon
. Shimoda got his big break when he landed the part of Ito in the Broadway hit Auntie Mame. From 1956 to 1958 he starred opposite Rosalind Russell
. After the play finished on Broadway, he moved to Los Angeles
to do the 1958 Hollywood movie version to recreate his starring role.
His income from his acting career plus the knowledge he gained from the accounting degree he earned from Northwestern University allowed him to live a comfortable lifestyle. Some joked that Shimoda, being Japanese, probably had a Caucasian gardener, when many in southern California had a Japanese garden
er; in actuality he enjoyed working in his own garden. Others say that he was short-tempered, because of his frustration at not becoming a household name. He finally felt he made it when his name was on a TV Guide
crossword puzzle. In fact, he was an out-going, kind person with many friends in "the business" and many not in the Hollywood crowd. He was also a dog lover, who enjoyed driving his favorite dog, a collie named Saigon, in his convertible 1962 British Sunbeam Alpine
with his Steve McQueen
sunglasses around the Hollywood Hills
. He devoted his free time to help young actors in the East West Players
, a Los Angeles-based Asian American theatre
group and, in turn, East West Players helped him to hone his own skills.
district, J-Town
, of Los Angeles
at the Nishihongwanji Buddhist Temple. They have since been moved to Sacramento, California so, he could rest with his family in their hometown.
A 30-minute documentary film of his life was made and released in 1985 by Visual Communications (VC)
of Los Angeles: Yuki Shimoda: Asian American Actor. It includes clips of an interview with him before his passing.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
best known for his starring role as Ko Wakatsuki in the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
movie of the week, Farewell to Manzanar
Farewell to Manzanar
Farewell to Manzanar is a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. It was adapted in the form of a television movie in 1976 starring Yuki Shimoda, Nobu McCarthy, Pat Morita, and Mako....
in 1976. He also co-starred in a 1960s television series, Johnny Midnight (39 episodes), with Edmond O'Brien
Edmond O'Brien
Edmond O'Brien was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A. and his Oscar winning role in The Barefoot Contessa...
. He was a star of the silver screen
Silver screen
A silver screen, also known as a silver lenticular screen, is a type of projection screen that was popular in the early years of the motion picture industry and passed into popular usage as a metonym for the cinema industry...
, early television and the stage. His Broadway theater stage credits include Auntie Mame
Auntie Mame
Auntie Mame is a 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis that chronicles the madcap adventures of a boy, Patrick, growing up as the ward of his deceased father's eccentric sister, Mame Dennis. The book is a work of fiction inspired by the author's eccentric aunt, Marion Tanner, whose life and outlook in many...
with Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
, nominated for eight Tony Awards and winner of three Tonys, and Pacific Overtures
Pacific Overtures
Pacific Overtures is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a libretto by John Weidman, and additional material by Hugh Wheeler. The musical is set in 1853 Japan and follows the difficult Westernization of Japan, through the lives of two friends caught in the change...
, a Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
Broadway musical directed by Harold Prince nominated for ten Tony Awards.
Early life
Yuki Shimoda was born Yukio Shimoda in SacramentoSacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
on August 10, 1921.
His father was Chojiro Shimoda, who emigrated from the town of Shimoda
Shimoda
Shimoda can mean:* Places in Japan:** Shimoda, Shizuoka, a city in Shizuoka Prefecture** Shimoda, Aomori, a town in Aomori Prefecture* Treaty of Shimoda , between Japan and Russia* Shimoda Toyomatsu, an early Japanese Scouting notable...
in Kumamoto prefecture
Kumamoto Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyushu Island. The capital is the city of Kumamoto.- History :Historically the area was called Higo Province; and the province was renamed Kumamoto during the Meiji Restoration. The creation of prefectures was part of the abolition of the feudal system...
on the island of Kyūshū
Kyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Chojiro left Japan in his early teens, because he did not want to be a sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
farmer on the family farm and was tired of eating sweet potatoes every day. Shimoda's mother was Kikuyo (Nakamura) Shimoda, also from Kumamoto prefecture. Kikuyo, which means chrysanthemum, was born to an influential, wealthy, noble samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
family; her father was a doctor. She left Japan to have freedom as a modern, Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
woman and to marry for love rather than marry by arrangement (omiai
Omiai
or is a Japanese traditional custom in which unattached individuals are introduced to each other to consider the possibility of marriage. Since this "Miai" or "Omiai" was sometimes translated as "arranged marriage" in English and other foreign languages, which is a total misnomer, some foreigners...
).
Shimoda was the oldest of three children. His younger brothers were Noboru "Dave" Shimoda, who lived to the age of 82, and James Shimoda, who died as a child of a bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
l infection
Infection
An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...
before the age of antibiotics. Shimoda always had an interest in dancing and acting. As a child he insisted on being called Fred, because he wanted to be like Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
. In Sacramento, he worked in the family businesses, which included a restaurant, pool hall
Pool hall
A billiard/billiards, pool or snooker hall is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards...
and boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
. His parents' restaurant employed a Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
cook and friend named Felix, who was killed in World War II by the Japanese. This hardened his intense feelings of being an American. His parents were hard working and affluent even during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
; Shimoda's father owned a Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
limousine
Limousine
A limousine is a luxury sedan or saloon car, especially one with a lengthened wheelbase or driven by a chauffeur. The chassis of a limousine may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coachbuilder. These are called "stretch" limousines and are traditionally black or white....
that he bought from the Japanese government in a time when many people still owned horses. As a child, Shimoda enjoyed being taken on aimless rides with the family in that big car. Shimoda worked hard in his adolescence to help his parents, but he made time to dance and act. His intense drive and determination helped him overcome what he lacked in natural ability. Once, in a sewing
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...
class in high school, he clumsily sewed his finger with a sewing machine. He studied ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, as well as kendo
Kendo
, meaning "Way of The Sword", is a modern Japanese martial art of sword-fighting based on traditional Japanese swordsmanship, or kenjutsu.Kendo is a physically and mentally challenging activity that combines strong martial arts values with sport-like physical elements.-Practitioners:Practitioners...
and judo
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
which helped him become more graceful. Shimoda did ballroom dancing with several women dance partners.
Shimoda attended Sacramento High School. Studying an American curriculum by day, Shimoda filled his evenings and Saturdays attending Japanese language school. Yuki and Noboru were also Boy Scouts. Shimoda's studies at Sacramento Junior College (now known as Sacramento City College
Sacramento City College
Sacramento City College is a two-year community college located in Sacramento, California. SCC is part of the Los Rios Community College District and had an enrollment of 25,307 in 2009. Sacramento City College is officially accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges , offering...
) were interrupted when, along with over 100,000 other Japanese American
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
Issei
Issei
Issei is a Japanese language term used in countries in North America, South America and Australia to specify the Japanese people first to immigrate. Their children born in the new country are referred to as Nisei , and their grandchildren are Sansei...
, Nisei
Nisei
During the early years of World War II, Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes in the Pacific coast states because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage...
, Kibei
Kibei
Kibei was a term often used in the 1940s to describe Japanese Americans born in the United States who returned to America after receiving their education in Japan.-Sources:...
Nisei and Sansei
Sansei
Sansei is a Japanese language term used in countries in South America, North America and Australia to specify the children of children born to Japanese people in the new country. The Nisei are considered the second generation, grandchildren of the Japanese-born immigrants are called Sansei and...
his family was relocated to a Japanese American internment
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
camp after the entry of the United States into World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
per Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066
United States Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones...
. His parents (Issei, or first generation immigrants to America from Japan) were incarcerated without a trial and for no just cause. He spent the duration of World War II in the Tule Lake War Relocation Center
Tule Lake War Relocation Center
Tule Lake Segregation Center National Monument was an internment camp in the northern California town of Newell near Tule Lake. It was used in the Japanese American internment during World War II. It was the largest and most controversial of the camps, and did not close until after the war, in...
in northern California. Shimoda made the best of the incarceration by entertaining his fellow internees with his acting, dancing and singing abilities. Once he dressed like Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...
complete with fruit on his head to dance and sing to the delight of the camp audience. Seeing his parents lose all their hard-earned possessions and being incarcerated in a concentration camp was particularly hard for a Nisei like Shimoda, because he had been raised as an American.
Shimoda and Noboru tried to volunteer for the United States Army after the bombing of Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
. The recruiting officer laughed them out of the office by calling them the enemy. Shimoda was eventually classified 4F or ineligible for the draft due to a congenital heart murmur
Heart murmur
Murmurs are extra heart sounds that are produced as a result of turbulent blood flow that is sufficient to produce audible noise. Most murmurs can only be heard with the assistance of a stethoscope ....
. As a child his parents were told that he would not live to adulthood due to his bad heart.
His brother, Noboru, went on to volunteer and serve with the regular United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
at the end of World War II during the occupation of Japan after his release from the relocation center. He later fought in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
earning the rank of Master Sergeant
Master Sergeant
A master sergeant is the military rank for a senior non-commissioned officer in some armed forces.-Israel Defense Forces:Rav samal rishoninsignia IDF...
. Noboru served with the United States Army Military Intelligence, the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
for the Allied Interpretation and Translation Service of the United States Army (ATIS); the United States Army Signal Corps
United States Army Signal Corps
The United States Army Signal Corps develops, tests, provides, and manages communications and information systems support for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of United States Army Major Albert J. Myer, and has had an important role from...
; and the Military Police
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
. Noboru was honorably discharged in 1952 and brought his Japanese war bride, Chieko Furusawa, of Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, back to Chicago, Illinois to become a naturalized American citizen. Noboru picked Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, because Shimoda and his parents lived there for a while after being released from Tule Lake.
Shimoda left the concentration camp alone and was one of the first to leave. Evacuees were not allowed to go back to the West Coast at first and Shimoda was informed by officials at Tule Lake that Chicago was receptive to Japanese American resettlers, because Irish American
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
politicians there — being victims of discrimination themselves — understood the predicament of the evacuees. Shimoda lived in Chicago for several years and graduated with a degree in accounting from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
. He worked at the University of Chicago and taught a Japanese language class.
He studied improvisational acting with the Compass Players
Compass Players
The Compass Players was a 1950s cabaret revue show started by alumni, dropouts and hangers-on from the University of Chicago. The troupe was active from 1955-1958 in Chicago and St. Louis...
, who sprung from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, a precursor of the Second City. He spent many hours at the Buddhist Temple of Chicago, then known as the Uptown Buddhist Church, with his friend, the Reverend Gyomay Kubose
Gyomay Kubose
Gyomay Kubose , born Masao Kubose was a Japanese-American Buddhist teacher who founded the Buddhist Temple of Chicago in 1944. Although born in the United States, he spent a large amount of his youth in Japan...
, discussing life and his purpose on this earth. He felt his purpose was to hone his acting skills on a daily basis so that his next performance would be the best he could deliver. As Shimoda learned in the Boy Scouts, he wanted to always "Be Prepared
Be Prepared
The Scout Motto of the Scout Movement, in various languages, has been used by millions of Scouts around the world since 1907. Most of the member organizations of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts share this same motto....
." He felt that by giving his all to what he believed in — changing the world for the better through his acting — he was not just spinning his wheels on earth. Many Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
actors as Beulah Quo, the co-founder of East West Players, with Mako Iwamatsu considered him to be an actor's actor, which she stated in the documentary movie "Yuki Shimoda: Asian American Actor". Shimoda never married and did not have any children; the family name is carried on through Noboru's only son, Thomas Edward Shimoda, a practicing dentist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois, former Assistant State's Attorney of Cook County, Illinois
Cook County, Illinois
Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...
, and a graduate of The Players Workshop
The Players Workshop
Created in 1971 by Josephine Forsberg, The Players Workshop was Chicago's only official school of Improvisation for over a decade. Although it was never officially a part of The Second City cabaret theater, The Players Workshop was often referred to as Players Workshop Of The Second City, due to...
of The Second City
The Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...
.
Career
Shimoda's movie credits from the 1960s and 1970s range from B movies as Seven Women from HellSeven Women from Hell
Seven Women From Hell is a 1961 war drama starring Patricia Owens, Denise Darcel and Cesar Romero about women prisoners in a Japanese World War II prison camp, interned with other prisoners.-Plot:...
with Caesar Romero and Yvonne Craig (Batgirl) to A movies as Midway
Midway (film)
Midway is a 1976 war film directed by Jack Smight and produced byWalter Mirisch from a screenplay by Donald S. Sanford. The music score was by John Williams and the cinematography by Harry Stradling, Jr...
with Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
, Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
, Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, James Colburn, Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...
, Toshirō Mifune
Toshiro Mifune
Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...
, Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
, Cliff Robertson
Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...
, Robert Wagner
Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...
, James Shigeta
James Shigeta
James Shigeta is an American film and television actor. He is also a standards singer, musical theatre and nightclub performer, and recording artist. He is a Nisei or second-generation American of Japanese ancestry.-Early life:...
and Noriyuki "Pat" Morita
Pat Morita
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was an American actor of Japanese descent who was well-known for playing the roles of Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the The Karate Kid movie series, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.-Early life:Pat...
. He also was in the martial arts movie The Octagon
The Octagon (film)
The Octagon is a 1980 action film with Chuck Norris in the leading role. It was directed by Eric Karson and written by Paul Aaron and Leigh Chapman. It was filmed in Los Angeles, California and released on August 14, 1980. It is notable for its inventive use of 'voice over' effects to portray the...
with Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist and actor. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
. In the Disney movie The Last Flight of Noah's Ark with Elliot Gould and Rick Schroder
Rick Schroder
Richard Bartlett "Rick" Schroder, Jr. is an American actor and film director.He debuted in the 1979 hit film The Champ, going on to become a child star on the sitcom Silver Spoons...
, Shimoda's character was one of two Japanese soldiers on a deserted Pacific island decades after the end of World War II, who do not know the war is over. Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
allowed more character development of the Japanese soldiers to not only entertain the audience, but to show how the Japanese soldiers and the Americans could work together to get off the island. Shimoda enjoyed meaty roles like this that entertained and educated the audience.
Shimoda's favorite movie, Farewell to Manzanar
Manzanar
Manzanar is most widely known as the site of one of ten camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in California's Owens Valley between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, it is...
was later bought by Walt Disney Pictures to televise on the Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
. Farewell to Manzanar was a National Broadcasting Company, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
that stars an all Japanese American cast and presents the story of the relocation of Japanese Americans into American style concentration camps. Both Farewell to Manzanar and The Last Flight of Noah's Ark are similar, because they present Japanese and Japanese Americans as real people that audiences get to know. Shimoda acted in MacArthur with Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
and in The Horizontal Lieutenant with Jim Hutton
Jim Hutton
Dana James Hutton , usually credited as Jim Hutton, was an American actor in film and television probably best remembered for his role as Ellery Queen in the 1970s TV series of the same name.-Early life and career:...
, Paula Prentiss
Paula Prentiss
Paula Ragusa , better known by her stage name Paula Prentiss, is an American actress well-known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, What's New Pussycat?, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View and her co-starring role in the television situation...
, Jim Backus
Jim Backus
James Gilmore "Jim" Backus was a radio, television, film, and voice actor. Among his most famous roles are the voice of Mr...
and Miyoshi Umeki
Miyoshi Umeki
was a naturalized American actress and standards singer. She was best known for her roles as Katsumi, the wife of Joe Kelly , in the 1957 film Sayonara, as Mei Li in the 1958 Broadway musical and 1961 film Flower Drum Song, and as Mrs. Livingston, the housekeeper of Bill Bixby's and Brandon Cruz's...
.
Shimoda had numerous television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
credits. The miniseries A Town Like Alice
A Town Like Alice
A Town Like Alice is a novel by the British author Nevil Shute about a young Englishwoman in Malaya during World War II and in outback Australia post-war....
was broadcast internationally and in the United States on the Public Broadcasting System's (PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
) Masterpiece Theater. A Town Like Alice was the first non-British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
production to air in the United States on Masterpiece Theater. In the television miniseries, The Immigrants Shimoda played the part of Chinese American
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
immigrant Feng Wo. He guest starred on popular television shows of the 1960s and '70s as Adventures in Paradise, The Big Valley, Hawaiian Eye, The Andy Griffith Show, McHale's Navy, Mr. Ed, Peter Gunn, Love American Style, Wonder Woman, Hawaii Five-O, Sanford and Son, M.A.S.H. and Quincy, M.E. On Quincy, M.E., Shimoda starred as Dr. Hiro, a forensic medical examiner in the episode, "Has Anybody Here Seen Quincy?" that did not include star Jack Klugman
Jack Klugman
Jacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman is an American stage, film and television actor known for his roles in sitcoms, movies, and television and on Broadway...
. Shimoda was considered for a spin-off of Quincy, M.E., where he would be a coroner like Thomas Noguchi
Thomas Noguchi
is a former Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, who served in that position from 1967 to 1982. Known as the "coroner to the stars", he determined the cause of death in many high profile cases. He is most famous for performing autopsies on Marilyn Monroe, Robert F...
, M.D. the Los Angeles County coroner to many newsworthy deaths.
Shimoda filled in time between engagements with television commercial work, such as the Chrysler ad of the 1970s where Mr. T (Toyota) and Mr. D (Datsun - Nissan) admire a Dodge Colt and say, "Very nice, Mr. D." "I thought it was one of yours, Mr. T."
There were movie roles that got away. Shimoda got the lead role as Inuk in The Savage Innocents but was replaced by the Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
actor, Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
. At the time, Shimoda was told that the reason he was fired as the leading man was because he was not realistic in the part of an Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
and that the part must be played by an Eskimo; discrimination that he fought against during his career was more likely the reason. It was too great a financial risk to have a Japanese American male actor take the lead role in the 1961 movie. World War II was too fresh in many people's minds and many people still did not differentiate between the former Japanese enemy and patriotic American citizens of Japanese ancestry. The United States of America was not yet ready for another Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa
was a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
, a Hollywood leading man from 1914 into the 1920s and the 1930s. Shimoda, like Hayakawa later in his career, took roles as the Japanese enemy.
Shimoda preferred to act as the honorable Japanese soldier or sailor like Dr. Matsumo, the good Japanese military physician, in Seven Women from Hell
Seven Women from Hell
Seven Women From Hell is a 1961 war drama starring Patricia Owens, Denise Darcel and Cesar Romero about women prisoners in a Japanese World War II prison camp, interned with other prisoners.-Plot:...
. Dr. Matsumo helped seven American women escape from a Japanese prison camp but was shot and killed by Japanese soldiers. The movie tried to show that there were good Japanese, too. According to the plot, Dr. Matsumo studied in the United States and says that he has family in a camp for Japanese in Utah. Richard Loo, a Chinese American, was also in Seven Women from Hell playing the stereotypical Japanese villain role he excelled in during the 1940s. This movie was released in 1961 and shows the humane side of the former enemy. Shimoda played schlock Japanese villain roles, too, but was happy to be choosier later in his career and avoid stereotypical roles for roles that portrayed Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
and Asian people
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
with human frailties and strengths.
Shimoda's Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
career started when he moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
to get more roles as an actor and dancer on stage. At first he worked as a waiter during the day and as a dancer at night. He found it difficult to find continual work as a dancer. He did find a job coaching Caucasian actors to act as more realistic "Orientals" in the 1950s. Ultimately he was hired as one of the first Asian American actors on Broadway. From 1953 to 1956, Shimoda acted in the Teahouse of the August Moon
The Teahouse of the August Moon (play)
The Teahouse of the August Moon is a 1953 play written by John Patrick adapted from the 1951 novel by Vern Sneider. It was later adapted for film in 1956, and the 1970 Broadway musical, Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen.-Plot summary:...
. Shimoda got his big break when he landed the part of Ito in the Broadway hit Auntie Mame. From 1956 to 1958 he starred opposite Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
. After the play finished on Broadway, he moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
to do the 1958 Hollywood movie version to recreate his starring role.
His income from his acting career plus the knowledge he gained from the accounting degree he earned from Northwestern University allowed him to live a comfortable lifestyle. Some joked that Shimoda, being Japanese, probably had a Caucasian gardener, when many in southern California had a Japanese garden
Japanese garden
, that is, gardens in traditional Japanese style, can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, and at historical landmarks such as Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and old castles....
er; in actuality he enjoyed working in his own garden. Others say that he was short-tempered, because of his frustration at not becoming a household name. He finally felt he made it when his name was on a TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
crossword puzzle. In fact, he was an out-going, kind person with many friends in "the business" and many not in the Hollywood crowd. He was also a dog lover, who enjoyed driving his favorite dog, a collie named Saigon, in his convertible 1962 British Sunbeam Alpine
Sunbeam Alpine
The Sunbeam Alpine is a sporty two-seat open car from Rootes Group's Sunbeam car marque. The original was launched in 1953 as the first vehicle from Sunbeam-Talbot to bear the Sunbeam name alone since the 1935 takeover of Sunbeam and Talbot by the Rootes Group....
with his Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
sunglasses around the Hollywood Hills
Hollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...
. He devoted his free time to help young actors in the East West Players
East West Players
East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As one of the nation's first Asian American theatre organizations, East West Players today continues to produce works and educational programs that give voice to the Asian Pacific American...
, a Los Angeles-based Asian American theatre
Asian American theatre
Asian American theater is theater written, directed or acted by Asian Americans.- Background :Asian American theater emerged in the 1960s and the 1970s with the foundation of four theatre companies: East West Players in Los Angeles, Asian American Theatre Workshop in San Francisco, Theatrical...
group and, in turn, East West Players helped him to hone his own skills.
Death
He died in Los Angeles of colon cancer that metastasized to his liver on May 21, 1981. He quit smoking cigarettes and social drinking of alcohol in his later years. Yuki Shimoda's ashes were originally in the Little TokyoLittle Tokyo
Little Tokyo may refer to:* Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California* Little Tokyo, Vancouver* Little Tokyo, U.S.A., a 1942 American film* Another term for a Japantown* Shigeri Akabane , Japanese professional wrestler...
district, J-Town
J-Town
J-Town can refer to a number of things, including:* A contraction of Japantown* A nickname given to Joliet, Illinois by residents* A nickname given to Ciudad Juárez...
, of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
at the Nishihongwanji Buddhist Temple. They have since been moved to Sacramento, California so, he could rest with his family in their hometown.
A 30-minute documentary film of his life was made and released in 1985 by Visual Communications (VC)
Visual Communications (VC)
Visual Communications – also known as VC – is a community-based non-profit media arts organization in Los Angeles, dedicated to creating, preserving and presenting Asian Pacific American history and culture through the media arts...
of Los Angeles: Yuki Shimoda: Asian American Actor. It includes clips of an interview with him before his passing.
Broadway stage credits
- Teahouse of the August MoonThe Teahouse of the August Moon (play)The Teahouse of the August Moon is a 1953 play written by John Patrick adapted from the 1951 novel by Vern Sneider. It was later adapted for film in 1956, and the 1970 Broadway musical, Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen.-Plot summary:...
, Martin Beck Theatre, (1953–1956), as Mr. Keora, choreographer - Auntie MameAuntie MameAuntie Mame is a 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis that chronicles the madcap adventures of a boy, Patrick, growing up as the ward of his deceased father's eccentric sister, Mame Dennis. The book is a work of fiction inspired by the author's eccentric aunt, Marion Tanner, whose life and outlook in many...
, Broadhurst TheatreBroadhurst TheatreThe Broadhurst Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 235 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan.It was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, a well-known theatre designer who had been working directly with the Shubert brothers; the Broadhurst opened 27 September 1917...
, (1956–1958), as Ito - Pacific OverturesPacific OverturesPacific Overtures is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a libretto by John Weidman, and additional material by Hugh Wheeler. The musical is set in 1853 Japan and follows the difficult Westernization of Japan, through the lives of two friends caught in the change...
, Winter Garden TheatreWinter Garden TheatreThe Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1634 Broadway in midtown Manhattan.-History:The structure was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt in 1896 to be the American Horse Exchange....
, (1975–1976), as Abe, First Councillor
Filmography
- Auntie MameAuntie Mame (film)Auntie Mame is a 1958 film based on the novel by Patrick Dennis and its theatrical adaptation by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. This film version stars Rosalind Russell and was directed by Morton DaCosta...
(1958) as Ito - Career (1959) as Yosho
- Don't Give Up the ShipDon't Give Up The Ship (film)Don't Give Up the Ship is a comedy directed by Norman Taurog and starring Jerry Lewis. It was filmed from October 21, 1958 to January 30, 1959, and released on July 3, 1959 by Paramount Pictures.-Plot:...
(1959) as Japanese Colonel (uncredited) - Seven Women from Hell (1961) as Dr. Matsumo http://hulu.com/watch/53310/seven-women-from-hell
- A Majority of OneA Majority of One-Plot:The comedy involves Mrs. Jacoby, a Jewish widow from Brooklyn, New York, and Koichi Asano, a millionaire widower from Tokyo. Mrs. Jacoby is sailing to Japan with her daughter and foreign service officer son-in-law who is being posted to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo...
(1961) as Mr. Asano's Secretary - The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962) as Kobayashi
- Once a Thief (1965) as John Ling, Chinese Funeral Director
- Girls Are for Loving (1973) as Ambassador Hahn
- MidwayMidway (film)Midway is a 1976 war film directed by Jack Smight and produced byWalter Mirisch from a screenplay by Donald S. Sanford. The music score was by John Williams and the cinematography by Harry Stradling, Jr...
(1976) as Japanese Naval officer on Hiryu - MacArthurMacArthur (film)MacArthur is a 1977 American biographical war film directed by Joseph Sargent and starring Gregory Peck in the eponymous role as American General Douglas MacArthur.-Plot:...
(1976) as Prime Minister Shidahara - The Last Flight of Noah's ArkThe Last Flight of Noah's ArkThe Last Flight Of Noah's Ark is a Disney film released by Buena Vista Distribution on June 25, 1980. The film stars Elliott Gould, Geneviève Bujold and Ricky Schroder.-Plot:...
(1980) as Hiro - The OctagonThe Octagon (film)The Octagon is a 1980 action film with Chuck Norris in the leading role. It was directed by Eric Karson and written by Paul Aaron and Leigh Chapman. It was filmed in Los Angeles, California and released on August 14, 1980. It is notable for its inventive use of 'voice over' effects to portray the...
(1980) as Katsumo, Seikura's aide - Yuki Shimoda: Asian American Actor (1985) as himself
TV movies and mini-series
- The Impatient Heart (TV movie) (1971)
- Farewell to ManzanarFarewell to ManzanarFarewell to Manzanar is a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. It was adapted in the form of a television movie in 1976 starring Yuki Shimoda, Nobu McCarthy, Pat Morita, and Mako....
(TV movie) (1976) as Ko Wakatsuki - The Immigrants (TV movie) (1978) as Feng Wo
- And the Soul Shall Dance (TV movie) (1978) as Oka
- A Death in Canaan (TV movie) (1978) as Dr Samura
- A Town Like AliceA Town Like AliceA Town Like Alice is a novel by the British author Nevil Shute about a young Englishwoman in Malaya during World War II and in outback Australia post-war....
(TV mini-series) (1981) as Sgt Mifune
TV series
- Adventures in ParadiseAdventures in ParadiseAdventures in Paradise is an American television series which ran on ABC from 1959 until 1962. It starred Gardner McKay as Adam Troy, the captain of the schooner Tiki III which sailed the South Pacific looking for passengers and adventure. The show was created by James Michener...
- Alcoa Premiere
- Baa Baa Black SheepBaa Baa Black Sheep (TV series)Baa Baa Black Sheep is a television series that aired on NBC from 1976 until 1978. Its premise was based on the experiences of United States Marine Corps aviator Pappy Boyington and his World War II "Black Sheep Squadron". The series was created and produced by Stephen J. Cannell...
- CHiPsCHiPsCHiPs is an American television drama series produced by MGM Studios that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to July 17, 1983. CHiPs followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol...
- Follow the SunFollow the Sun (TV series)Follow the Sun is an American drama series which ran for thirty episodes on the ABC television network from September 17, 1961, through April 8, 1962.-Synopsis:...
- Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.The show renders the title as Gomer Pyle - USMC. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy...
- Hallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
- Hawaiian EyeHawaiian EyeHawaiian Eye is an American television series that ran from October 1959 to September 1963 on the American Broadcasting Company television network.-Premise:...
- Here We Go AgainHere We Go Again (TV series)Here We Go Again is a short-lived sitcom that aired on the American Broadcasting Company in 1973. The show, produced by Metromedia/Bobka Productions, ran for 13 episodes.-Premise:...
- IronsideIronside (TV series)Ironside is a Universal television series which ran on NBC from September 14, 1967 to January 16, 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-using Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside. The character's debut was in a TV-movie on March 28, 1967. The original title of the show in the...
- I Spyhttp://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3354525721/
- It Takes a Thiefhttp://imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2451899161/
- Johnny MidnightJohnny Midnight (TV series)Johnny Midnight is an American crime drama that aired for one season in syndicated from January to December 1960. The series stars Edmond O'Brien as the title character.-Synopsis:...
in role of Japanese manservant Uki (1959–1960) - Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders
- Kate Loves a Mystery
- KojakKojakKojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
- Kung FuKung Fu (TV series)Kung Fu is an American television series that starred David Carradine. It was created by Ed Spielman, directed and produced by Jerry Thorpe, and developed by Herman Miller, who was also a writer for, and co-producer of, the series...
- Love American Style
- M*A*S*H
- McHale's NavyMcHale's NavyMcHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...
http://www.hulu.com/watch/390/mchales-navy-the-day-they-captured-santa - Mister EdMister EdOriginally produced in late 1960, Mister Ed is an American television situation comedy produced by Filmways that first aired in syndication from January 5 to July 2, 1961, and then on CBS from October 1, 1961, to February 6, 1966....
http://www.hulu.com/watch/197277/mister-ed-busy-wife - Mrs. Colombo
- Peter GunnPeter GunnPeter Gunn is an American private eye television series which aired on the NBC and later ABC television networks from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator was Blake Edwards...
- Police WomanPolice Woman (TV series)Police Woman is an American television police drama starring Angie Dickinson that ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974, to March 29, 1978.-Synopsis:...
- Quincy, M.E.Quincy, M.E.Quincy, M.E., also called Quincy, is a United States television series from Universal Studios that aired from October 3, 1976, to September 5, 1983, on NBC...
- Salvage 1Salvage 1Salvage 1 is an American science fiction series that aired for 16 episodes on ABC during 1979. The pilot film, Salvage, aired on January 20, 1979 to high ratings....
- Sanford and SonSanford and SonSanford and Son is an American sitcom, based on the BBC's Steptoe and Son, that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977....
- The Andy Griffith ShowThe Andy Griffith ShowThe Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
- The Big ValleyThe Big ValleyThe Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...
http://www.hulu.com/watch/62999/the-big-valley-night-of-the-wolf - The Blue Angels
- The Case of the Dangerous Robin
- The MagicianThe Magician (TV series)The Magician was an American television series that ran during the 1973–1974 season. It starred Bill Bixby as stage illusionist Anthony "Tony" Blake, a playboy philanthropist who used his skills to solve difficult crimes as needed. In the series pilot, the character was instead named Anthony...
- The Tab Hunter Show
- ThrillerThriller (US TV series)Thriller is an anthology television series that aired during the 1960–61 and 1961–62 seasons on NBC. The show featured host Boris Karloff introducing a mix of macabre horror tales and suspense thrillers....
- Wonder WomanWonder WomanWonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....
External links
- http://www.thrillingdetective.com/midnight.html Retrieved on 2008-02-05
- http://www.vconline.org
- http://www.eastwestplayers.org
- http://www.tv.com/yuki-shimoda/person/39518/summary.html
- Yuki imitating Carmen Miranda's "Mama Yo Quiero" while incarcerated in 1942 http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft2t1nb12j/
- Go for Broke - Home of Heroes http://www.homeofheroes.com/wallofhonor/nisei/index.html