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Clyde Kusatsu

American actor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clyde Kusatsu
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Clyde Kusatsu is an American actor. A prolific character actor, he has appeared in over 300 film and television productions since his debut in 1970.[1] He is the Secretary of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, after previously serving as the first elected President of the SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Local and was four times elected the National Vice President Los Angeles, from 2013 through 2021.[2]

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Early life and education

Kusatsu attended ʻIolani School where he began acting and in Honolulu summer stock. He attended Northwestern University as a theater major, during which time he was the only Asian-American student enrolled at the school. He graduated in 1970, and in 1972 then joined the East West Players, the oldest Asian-American theater company in Los Angeles.

Career

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After several years of stage acting, Kusatsu got his first TV roles in five episodes of Kung Fu and four episodes of M*A*S*H, in which he played three different roles. Kusatsu later played the recurring role of Rev. Chong on three episodes of All in the Family and appeared as four different characters on Magnum, P.I., including two episodes as HPD Detective Gordon Katsumoto and a guest role as the Vietnamese Colonel who severely wounds Thomas Magnum.

Kusatsu has been a regular on several television shows, including the adventure series Bring 'Em Back Alive (1982–83), and the Hawaii-set medical drama Island Son (1989–90), playing Dr. Kenji Fushida, the best friend of the main character. His many television movies have included: the CBS Movie of the Week Dr. Strange (1978), in which he played the Marvel Comics character Wong; the film adaptation of Farewell to Manzanar (1976), about Japanese-American internment during World War II; HBO's AIDS docudrama And the Band Played On (1993); and American Tragedy playing famed O.J. Simpson trial Judge Lance Ito. Kusatsu had recurring roles as Vice Admiral Nakamura on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Principal Shimata in several episodes of the 1990s ABC sitcom Family Matters, and co-starred in Margaret Cho's short-lived ABC series All American Girl (1994–1995), the first Asian-American family sitcom in the U.S., as Cho's character's father.

He has worked with Japanese film icon Toshiro Mifune in Midway (1976), John Frankenheimer's Black Sunday (1977), and The Challenge (1982). Kusatsu had supporting roles in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993), In the Line of Fire (1993), American Pie (1999), Shopgirl, and Sydney Pollack's The Interpreter (both 2005) as Lee Wu, chief of security for the United Nations Headquarters. He had a key supporting role opposite Glenn Close in Bruce Beresford's World War II drama Paradise Road (1997).

He has appeared in several soap operas, including the recurring role of Dr. Dennis Okamura on The Young and the Restless and guest appearances on The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital, and Days of Our Lives. Since 2021, he has appeared in a recurring role on Days Of Our Lives, as DiMera Enterprises board member Wei Shin.

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Labor activities

In 2012 the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Actors (AFTRA), the two labor unions for actors, merged into SAG-AFTRA, and in 2013 Kusatsu became the first elected President of the new SAG-AFTRA Local in Los Angeles. He was also elected the first National Vice President Los Angeles and was re-elected to that office four times, until 2021 when Michelle Hurd was elected to the position.[3] He remains a vocal supporter of union issues, particularly those related to the Film and Television industries. His roles during this period included a part in The Grinder and the father-in-law of Ken Jeong's character in Dr. Ken, and in film, commercials, and voice-over animation, such as The Grocer in Curious George, Netflix' Blue Eye Samurai and Phaeton on AMC+. Kusatsu guest-starred on the second season of Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story. He was Grandpa Ted in Season 2 of Netflix' Never Have I Ever, and was in episodes of Young Rock, Days of Our Lives, and The United States of Al. In 2024 he was a recurring guest on "A Man On The Inside" starring Ted Danson on Netflix.

Personal life

Kusatsu has been married to his wife, Gayle (nee Shuffler), since 1976. They have two sons, Kevin and Andrew, and two grandsons.[citation needed]

Filmography

Film

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Television

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References

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