By Josh Katzowitz, WCI Content Director

The vast majority of the modern world knows Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid movies. The more I watch the original and the two sequels (I’m purely a Ralph Macchio/Billy Zabka/Martin Kove guy), the more convinced I am that Morita was a brilliant actor.

The heavy Japanese accent Morita portrays was a fake (it’s still a little jarring to hear the Californian speak in his normal voice during interviews), and his performance as he drunkenly mourned his dead wife and son in the original Karate Kid movie should have won him an Oscar (he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1985 but lost to Haing S. Ngor for The Killing Fields).

While the racial stereotype comedy that he portrayed in the TV series Happy Days and Sanford and Son hasn’t aged particularly well, there’s no doubt Morita was a

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