Obituary: Mako Iwamatsu

* Mako Iwamatsu, actor. Died aged 72.

Mako, the Japan-born actor who used his Oscar nomination for the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles to push for better roles for Asian American actors, has died aged 72. Mako, whose birth name was Makoto Iwamatsu, died of esophageal cancer. He helped to found East West Players, an Asian American theatre company, in 1965. In an acting career that spanned more than four decades, Mako was a familiar face in film and television, sometimes playing roles that stereotyped Asians. His TV roles included appearances on I Spy, MASH, and Walker, Texas Ranger. In films, he was a Japanese admiral in 2001's Pearl Harbor and played Akiro the wizard in Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer. Mako used the prominence the Oscar nomination gave him to address the dearth of parts for Asian Americans. He immigrated to New York when 15. He served for two years in the US military before moving to California to study at the Pasadena Playhouse.

- AGENCIES