Pat Morita

Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (born June 28, 1932 in Isleton, California) is an actor best known for the roles of Arnold on the TV show Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the movie The Karate Kid, for which he was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.

Early life

Morita, the son of an itinerant fruit worker, developed spinal tuberculosis at age two and spent the bulk of the next nine years in Northern California hospitals, including the Shriners Hospital in San Francisco. He was for long periods wrapped in a full body cast and was told he would never walk. The boy, often alone and isolated, made sock puppets to entertain himself.

Related Topics:
Northern California - Shriners - San Francisco

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After a surgeon fused four vertebrae in his spine, Noriyuki finally learned to walk again at age 11. By then, his Japanese-American family had been sent to an internment camp to be detained for the duration of World War II. The boy was transported from the hospital directly to the camp in Arizona to join them.

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For a time after the war, the family operated Ariake Chop Suey, a restaurant in Sacramento, California. Teenage "Nori" would entertain customers with jokes and serve as master of ceremonies for group dinners.

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Noriyuki graduated from high school in Fairfield, California and shortly thereafter moved back to the Sacramento area, where he took a job with an aerospace company. The firm designed and manufactured rocket engines.

Related Topics:
Fairfield, California - Aerospace - Rocket

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