He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as engine-room worker Po-Han in the film The Sand Pebbles (1966). Mako's first film role was in Never So Few (1959). It was during his military service that Mako discovered his theatrical talent he then trained at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. He was in Korea and Japan with the Special Services division performing in plays for his fellow soldiers. Mako later enlisted in the United States Army in November 1953 and served until October 1955. His parents were able to arrange for him to join them in 1949, after which he studied architecture. Office of War Information and were later granted residency. Because his parents lived on the East Coast, they were not interned during the Second World War instead they opted to work for the U.S. In 1939, his parents, who were political dissidents, moved to the United States, leaving Mako in the care of his grandmother. Mako was born Makoto Iwamatsu in Kobe, Japan, the son of children's authors and illustrators Tomoe Sasako and Atsushi Iwamatsu. He died on July 21, 2006, at the age of 72 from esophageal cancer. Later in his career, he became well known for his voice acting roles, including Aku in the first four seasons of Samurai Jack (2001–2004), and Iroh in the first two seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender ( 2005– 2006). He was also one of the founding members of East West Players. He was part of the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's 1976 Broadway musical Pacific Overtures, which earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. Other various roles included Oomiak "The Fearless One" in The Island at the Top of the World (1974), Akiro the Wizard in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Conan the Destroyer (1984), and Kungo Tsarong in Seven Years in Tibet (1997). His role as Po-Han (his second credited role on film) in The Sand Pebbles (1966) saw him nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Makoto Iwamatsu ( 岩松 信, Iwamatsu Makoto, Decem– July 21, 2006) was a Japanese-American actor, credited mononymously in almost all of his acting roles as simply Mako.
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