In the early days of his acting career, when most roles offered to Asian-American actors were caricatures or stereotypes, Mako took just such a part and used it to open the doors of Hollywood and Broadway to others.

In the 1966 film "The Sand Pebbles," he played the Chinese character Po-han who spoke pidgin English, called the white sailors in the movie "master," and treated them as such. But through the power of his acting, Mako transformed Po-han and compelled the audience to empathize and identify with the engine-room "coolie."

The portrayal earned Mako an Academy Award nomination, which he used to continue his push for more and better roles for Asian-American actors.

Mako, who in 1965 co-founded the East West Players, the nation's first Asian-American theater company, died Friday of esophageal cancer at his home in Somis, Calif. He was 72.

"What many people say is, 'if it wasn't for Mako, there wouldn't have been Asian-American theater,' " said Tim Dang, current artistic director of East West Players based in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles. "He is revered as sort of the godfather of Asian-American theater."

In an acting career that spanned more than four decades, Mako was a familiar face in film and television. He appeared on such series as "McHale's Navy," "I Spy," "MASH," "Quincy," and "Walker, Texas Ranger." In films, he was a Japanese admiral in "Pearl Harbor" and a Singaporean in "Seven Years in Tibet." He was Akiro the wizard in "Conan the Barbarian" and "Conan the Destroyer" movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In 1976, Mako appeared on Broadway in the Stephen Sondheim musical "Pacific Overtures," playing multiples roles as reciter, shogun, emperor and an American businessman. Set in 1853, the play explores U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's push to open Japan to foreign trade and visitors for the first time in 250 years.

The performance earned Mako a Tony Award nomination for best actor in a musical.

But Mako had a larger view of the possibilities for Asian-American actors.

As artistic director of the East West Players, Mako trained generations of actors and playwrights. He brought to the stage such classics as Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," Chekhov's "Three Sisters," and lesser known contemporary works. He devoted the entire 1981 season to works discussing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The series coincided with the opening of a national discussion on internment reparations. It was a risky endeavor, but Mako said it was crucial.

Although his own career was marked by moments of success, it was also forged by struggle.

"Generally for him it was particularly hard, because he was an immigrant ... there was the linguistic challenge," said George Takei, who played Sulu in "Star Trek." "But he recognized we needed more opportunities to practice our craft."

Mako was born Makoto Iwamatsu in Kobe, Japan, on Dec. 10, 1933. When Mako was 5, his parents left Japan to study art in New York. Mako stayed behind to be raised by his grandparents.

Because his parents lived on the East Coast, they were not interned during World War II. They ended up working for the U.S. Office of War Information and were later granted residency. Mako joined them when he was 15.

A young Mako had a plan to become an architect and enrolled at the Pratt Institute in New York. But that plan changed when a friend asked him to design a set and do lighting for an off-Broadway children's play. Mako was hooked: "That's when the trouble began," he said. "I was out of class so much that I lost my draft deferment."

During his two years in the military, he traveled to Korea and Japan and re-immersed himself in Japanese culture. After his discharge, he moved to California and studied theater at the Pasadena Playhouse.