Gedde Watanabe

Gedde Watanabe
Born	Gary Watanabe June 26, 1955 (1955-06-26) Ogden, Utah, USA
Occupation	Actor

Gedde Watanabe (born Gary Watanabe, June 26, 1955, Ogden, Utah) is an American theatre, film, and television actor.

He was in several dramatic productions in high school, both acting and singing. After graduation, Watanabe left Ogden for San Francisco, where he hoped to make his living as a street musician while honing his acting skills.

Career

He appeared on Broadway in 1976 in Pacific Overtures, originating the role of the Boy in a Tree, and has appeared in a number of films and television shows. Watanabe appeared on Sesame Street for some years and had a recurring role on ER from 1998 to 2002. In 1998 he was the voice for Ling in the Disney film Mulan and reprised the role for the 2004 direct-to-video sequel, Mulan II.

Watanabe's acting parts have been mostly caricatured East Asians with heavy accents (he does not speak Japanese). Jason Buchanan wrote for Allmovie, "The character that Gedde Watanabe is most remembered for is no doubt Long Duk Dong, the clumsy foreign exchange student in Sixteen Candles whose drunken fall from a tree and laughable bastardization of the English language had ninth-graders of the day rolling in theater aisles." Watanabe's role of Long Duk Dong was decried by Asian-American groups as "stereotypical, racist and part of a long history of Hollywood's offensive depictions of Asian men."

"I was making people laugh. I didn't realize how it was going to affect people," Watanabe said in retrospect. "It took me a while to understand that. In fact, I was working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I was accosted a couple of times by a couple of women who were just really irate and angry. They asked, 'How could you do a role like that?' But it's funny, too, because at the same time I laugh at the character. It's an odd animal."

He had a starring role in both the film and ABC-TV versions of Gung Ho. The television series was scheduled against the hit show Dallas and was quickly canceled. Watanabe has provided the voice for Japanese characters on TV's The Simpsons. From 1996 to 2003 he made occasional appearances as gay nurse Yosh Takata on the television drama ER. He appeared in the film That Thing You Do as a photographer working for studio boss Sol Siler.

Watanabe co-starred as Kuni, a karate instructor, in the 1989 movie UHF starring "Weird Al" Yankovic. He played the abusive host of a TV game show called Wheel of Fish, a cross between Wheel of Fortune and Let's Make a Deal. Watanabe reprised this role on the Weird Al Show.

Filmography

Movies

• The Long Island Four (1980)
• Sixteen Candles (1984) as Long Duk Dong
• Volunteers (1985) as At Toon
• Gung Ho (1986) as Oishi Kazuhiro
• Vamp (1986) as Duncan
• The Spring (1989) as Matty
• UHF (1989) as Kuni
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) as Mr. Katsuji
• Boys on the Side (1995) as Steve
• Perfect Alibi (1995) as Det. Onoda
• That Thing You Do (1996) as Play-Tone Photographer
• Psycho Sushi (1997) as Yoshi
• Nick and Jane (1997) as Enzo
• Booty Call (1997) as Chan
• Mulan (1998) as Ling (voice)
• Armageddon (1998) as Asian Tourist (uncredited)
• Frank In Five (1999) as Waiter
• Guinevere (1999) as Ed
• EDtv (1999) as Greg
• Thank You, Good Night (2001) as Cafe Owner
• Slackers (2002) as Japanese Proctor
• On The Couch (2004) as Charlie
• Alfie (2004) as Wing
• Mulan II (2004) as Ling (voice)
• Two For The Money (2005) as Milton
• Fortune Hunters (2007) as Mr. Yu
• Sunny & Share Love You (2007) as Eliza's Dad, The Doctor
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) as Hotel Manager
• The Onion Movie (2008)
• Not Forgotten (2009) as Agent Nakamura
• Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword (2009) as Kenji

Television

• Gung Ho (1986) as Kaz Kazuhiro
• Sesame Street (1969) episodes in (1988), as Hiroshi
• Booker (1986) "Someone Stole Lucille" episode, as Max
• On the Television (1990) "Babe Watch" and "My Five Dads" episodes, Various
• Grand (1990) "An Obtuse Triangle" episode, as Taki Mifune
• Down Home (1990) as Tran
• Murphy Brown (1988) "The Bitch's Back" episode, as Guru Prem
• Newhart (1990) "The Last Newhart" episode, as Mr. Takadachi
• Duckman (1994) "The Mallardian Candidate" (1996) episode
• Seinfeld (1996) "The Checks" episode, as Mr. Oh
• Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (1997) "The Little Mermaid" episode, as Nuri
• The Weird Al Show (1997) "Back to School" episode, as Kuni
• Rugrats (1998) "Chuckie's Duckling/A Dog's Life" episode, as Kangaroo (voice)
• Home Improvement (1999) "Home Alone" episode, as Nobo Nakamura
• The Simpsons (1989) "In Marge We Trust" (1997) episode, as Factory Foreman (voice), "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" (1999) episode, as Japanese Father (voice)
• Secret Agent Man (2000) "Uncle S.A.M." episode, as Ling
• Batman Beyond (1999) "Revenant" (1999) episode, as Principal Nakamura, "Untouchable" (2000) episode, as Dr. Suzuki
• L.A. Law: The Movie (2002) as Cyril
• My Wife And Kids (2002) "Diary Of A Mad Teen" episode, as Dr. Phil Ling
• What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2003) "Lights! Camera! Mayhem!" episode, as Vincent Wong (voice)
• ER (1997) as Nurse Yosh Takata
• Mulan II (2004) as Ling
• Everwood (2005) "Oh, The Places You'll Go" episode, as Art
• Model Family (2006) as Terrence
• Kim Possible (2002) "Attack Of The Killer Bebes" (2002) and "Graduation: Part I" (2007) episodes, as Prof. Bob Chen

Video games

• Kingdom Hearts II (2005) as Ling

External links

• Gedde Watanabe at the Internet Movie Database
• Gedde Watanabe at the Internet Broadway Database