Jerry Fujikawa

Hatsuo "Jerry" Fujikawa, born February 18, 1912, in Monterey County, California, was an American actor whose work spanned stage, film, and television across four decades. During the early years of his career, publicity materials identified him as a native of Salinas. He died on April 30, 1983.

Fujikawa's path to the stage was shaped significantly by the upheaval of World War II. At the time of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, he was living in Los Angeles, where his listed occupations included gardener, agricultural worker, and salesman. Following the issuance of Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, he and his family were among the Japanese Americans detained on the West Coast; Fujikawa was held at the Manzanar War Relocation Center. While interned, he volunteered for the United States Army and joined Charlie Company of the 100th Infantry Battalion as a messenger in June 1943. His family relocated to Longmont, Colorado during this period, and his young son Gerald was killed in an automobile accident in Denver on June 5, 1943, the same day his wife and children had planned to meet him before his induction ceremony in Salt Lake City. Fujikawa was wounded on July 9, 1944, near Castellina, Italy, and later participated in operations in France before receiving his discharge on May 17, 1945. His first marriage, to Emily Elizabeth Grinnell, with whom he had a daughter, Tirsa Meiko, and twin sons, Gerald Matsuo and Eugene Takeo, ended after his return from Europe.

Following the war, Fujikawa adopted the stage name Jerry and, in 1953, married Marion "Skeeter" Gates, herself a Broadway actress. The couple remained married until his death and had three children together: Charles, Peter, and Cynthia. That same year marked his Broadway debut, when he appeared as a villager in the original production of The Teahouse of the August Moon. His Broadway career continued with the role of the butler Toy in the comedy The Pleasure of His Company in 1958, and he later played Father Ling in It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman in 1966. Between those Broadway engagements, he appeared in the off-Broadway production Wedding in Japan in 1957.

On screen, Fujikawa appeared in the films Go for Broke! in 1951 and The Journey in 1959. He became particularly recognized as a character actor in television, frequently employing special effects makeup to take on varied roles. His television credits during the early portion of his career included The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, Bachelor Father, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He went on to accumulate seven appearances on M*A*S*H, as well as single roles on Taxi in 1981 and The Winds of War in 1983. In 1976, he held the recurring role of Matsu, uncle to Pat Morita's title character, in the short-lived sitcom Mr. T and Tina. Among his film roles, he is perhaps most widely recognized as the gardener in Roman Polanski's Chinatown.

Fujikawa's life became the subject of a solo theatrical work after his death. Beginning in 1991, his daughter Cynthia researched his biography, a process that led her to reunite in 1993 with her half-sister Tirsa from his first marriage. That research formed the basis of the solo play Old Man River, which was first workshopped in 1995, debuted at the New Victory Theater in 1997, and was filmed in 1998. Director Allan Holzman received an American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for Documentaries in 2000 for his work on the film.