Mr Miyagi's Obituary

Metropolis has a nice obituary on the late Mr Miyagi who passed away last month. No, not him. Actor Pat Morita well known for his role as Mr Miyagi in the Karate Kid was one of my heroes during my teenage years. I remember using his famous "crane kick" technique numerous times when I was practicing martial arts and once in a fight. Well guess who won? The crane kick, of course! From Metropolis:

In Happy Days, Morita was balding, graying and goateed. In The Karate Kid, he was bald, gray and goateed. In Stars & Stripes, though, he was 35, clean-shaven, dark-haired and beatnik cool in a fishing hat, mock turtleneck and lit cigarette—he couldn’t have accessorized better if he’d brought Sammy Davis Jr. along for the photo shoot.

Since when did Morita get so, in a word (mine), cool? About the same time I recognized he wasn’t just a face, an actor or an icon.

The truth is, up until the day I wrote his obituary, Pat Morita was one of those people about whom I never imagined writing an obituary, chiefly because I never imagined Pat Morita dying. Dying means he would have lived, as a living, breathing person. Dying means he would have been mortal, no matter how many years he carried on henceforth in the cable universe. Above all, dying means he would have been human.