Published at: Nov. 25, 2005, 9:04 a.m. CST by staff
Hey folks. Quint here with some extremely bogus news for you folks as you get home from the first big Holiday rush or awaken from your Turkey induced comas. Not more than 30 minutes ago the news went out across the AP wire that Pat Morita had died and within minutes "Murrow" had alerted me to this sad news. He died yesterday of natural causes.
For a kid in the '80s, the first two KARATE KID films mean a lot to me. Sure, it's easy to go back now and look on them more cynically (especially the sequel), but I would be lying if I said I didn't have one of those spinny-hand drums specifically because I saw it in KARATE KID 2. Morita's Mr. Miyagi is an iconic film character, played with great power and wisdom by Mr. Morita. I knew Miyagi before I saw Happy Days, so he'll always be Mr. Miyagi to me, personally, although I always did love seeing him bring the funny as Arnold.
Reading up on Morita, I was surprised to find that he survived spinal TB in his childhood only to be sent to a Japanese internment camp in Arizona during WW2. Crazy... I never would have thought.
My thoughts are with Mr. Morita's friends, family and fans.
