Makoto Iwamatsu

 "I was a very happy child, so to speak. But since we didn't have video games or television, and very little radio, in terms of a form of entertainment, I used to read a lot and I would draw a lot, and those two things used to occupy my time."

Makoto Iwamatsu was born in Japan, and was living there with his grandparents while his parents studied art in the United States, when Japan and the U.S. went to war in 1941. His parents remained in the U.S., working for the Office of War Information, and, at the cessation of the conflict, were granted U.S. residency by Congress. Mako joined his parents in New York and studied architecture. He entered the U.S. Army in the early 1950s and acted in shows for military personnel, discovering a talent and love for the theatre. He abandoned his plans to become an architect and instead enrolled at the famed Pasadena Community Playhouse in California. Following his studies there, he appeared in many stage productions and on television.

In 1966, he won an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his first film role, as the coolie Po-Han in "The Sand Pebbles" (1966). For years, director Robert Wise had wanted to make "The Sand Pebbles," but the film companies were reluctant to finance it. "The Sand Pebbles" was eventually paid for, but because its production required extensive location scouting and pre-production work, as well as being monsoon-affected in Taipei, its producer and director Wise realized that it would be over a year before principal photography could begin. At the insistence of the film company, Wise agreed to direct a "fill-in" project, which turned out to be "The Sound of Music" (1965).

Wise was so proud of this movie that he held yearly parties with surviving cast members to celebrate it.