|
He's known as Captain Sulu, Heroes' Kaito
Nakamura, a finalist on the reality TV show “I'm a
Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!”, the lovable gay announcer
on the Howard Stern show, and many many more. George Takei
is a man of many faces. In his long life, he has made it in
Hollywood and society, but Mr. Takei wasn't always in the
spotlight. He grew up from very rough beginnings and had to
fight every step of the way to get to where he is today.
This is his story.
Barbed wire fences and guns were Takei's
earliest memories of his childhood as his family lived in
the Japanese American internment camp at Tule Lake. To the
young George Takei, the experience of living in an
internment camp wasn't as traumatizing to him as it was for
his parents. It was all he knew. It was only after they had
left the camp that the traumatizing events happened. Growing
up in an internment camp, Mr. Takei thought that was the
norm of life. It was the outside world that seemed strange
to him.
He experienced first hand the racist
sentiments that existed at the time and even worse, saw the
toll that it took on his family. Prior to the war, his
parents had lived in a middle class neighborhood in Los
Angeles. After the camp their living conditions were in deep
contrast. George remembered growing up at Tule Lake, where
the stench of urine and errant feces were common as he
walked down the street of his neighborhood. Before being
interned his father, a learned man with a college degree,
had run a successful business. After the war his father was
turned away from all jobs that he was qualified for and thus
worked as a dishwasher. It was clear that even though the
war was over, there was still much anti-Japanese sentiment.
During his own college years, Takei went to
UC Berkley to study architecture but soon that was about to
change. During the summer time, George had been sitting
around when his father looked in the newspaper and found a
job for George. This job lead to him doing the dubbing for
the now classic movie, Rodan - from the many different male
characters to the screaming hordes of Tokyo, George was the
man behind those voices. It was then, at this job, where
George caught his first acting bug.
After completing the job, Mr. Takei went back
to his father stating that he no longer wanted to do
architecture, that acting was his one true passion. His
plans were to stop attending school in California and study
acting in New York, an idea his father opposed. His father
doubted the practicality that he would ever be successful
with an acting career stating that not all who wanted to be
actors became successful. And to add to it, not that many
people were accepting of an Asian American.
However, George was determined to pursue his acting career,
and seeing how stubborn he was, his father decided to give
him a choice. Either go study acting in New York without any
support from his parents, or study acting in UCLA with the
financial support from his family. Those were the two
options. Thus, George attended UCLA and appeared in
different films.
After completing his degree at UCLA he went
to a program at England's Stanford-Upon-Avon Institute, then
back to California to appear in the musical “Fly Blackbird!”
The production eventually moved to New York. He was later
replaced and took odd jobs before his return to his role at
the end of its run. Getting little work in New York, he
returned to UCLA to get his masters degree while also
getting parts in TV shows and feature films.
It was at this time that Gene Roddenberry was interested in
having a multi-racial cast in his show, Star Trek. From that
point on, Takei was Mr. Sulu. During that time he also
appeared in the movie, “The Green Berets” with legendary
actor John Wayne.
After many years in Star Trek, with a huge fan following,
the show was canceled, but it was clear that Star Trek was
huge and it became a big part of Mr. Takei's career. He
appeared in Star Trek movies, TV shows, and conventions.
But acting wasn't the only interest of his. He ran for city
council in Los Angeles, though he lost by a small margin.
Mayor Tom Bradley appointed him to the board of directors of
the Southern California Rapid Transit District where he
served for a number of years and helped with the plans for a
subway system.
In 1986, George Takei was immortalized on the Hollywood
Boulevard Walk of Fame, and once again in 1991 as his hand
print and signature were cemented in Roman's Chinese
Theater. George Takei went on to appear in various theater
productions in the 1990's and was involved in many Asian
American and gay organizations. In October 2005, George
Takei officially revealed that he is a gay Japanese
American. Although it was his public "coming out", it was
not his private one. He had been in a gay relationship for
many years with his partner Brad Altman and his mother knew
about.
It was shortly afterwards that Takei began to pique public
interest again as he took an on an opportunity that many did
not see coming. On January 9th, 2006, many Howard
Stern fans, to their surprise, were greeted by the show's
new official announcer, George Takei. Since his appearance
on the show he has shed much light on the gay equality
agenda as well as the struggles that Asian Americans have to
go through in society. Takei credits his appearance on the
Howard Stern Show for making Hollywood have a renewed
interest in him. This was evident as Mr. Takei makes a
memorable appearance as Kaito Nakamura, Hiro's father on the
hit NBC show Heroes, as well as many other parts in
different movies. He was even the headline guest at Stony
Brook's I-CON 25 in 2006.
Last year when California legalized gay marriage for a short
period of time, on Sept. 14th, 2008, George Takei married
his partner of 21 years, Brad Altman. They have just
completed an 8 minute interview film in which they talk
about their life together.
Check it all out on his official website:
http://www.georgetakei.com/
|
