George Shibata (November 14, 1926 in Garland, Utah – May 20, 1987 in Huntington Beach, California) was an American actor and the first Asian American graduate of the United States Military Academy, Class of 1951.
Biography[]
He enlisted in the US Army in 1945 and volunteered to be a paratrooper, but the war ended before he could be sent to active service. He served with the army of occupation in Germany for 18 months.[1]
Shibata became the first Nisei appointed to West Point through the sponsorship of Sen. Elbert D. Thomas. He was commissioned in the United States Air Force in 1951.[2] During the Korean War he flew an F-86 Sabre out of Taegu Air Force Base.
He resigned his First Lieutenant's commission in 1955 to attend the University of California, Los Angeles earning a Bachelor of Laws.[3]
He made his film debut in Pork Chop Hill (1959) a Korean War film about his classmate Joseph G. Clemons, who was also a 1951 West Point graduate. This came about when Clemons accidentally bumped into his old friend Shibata at a drugstore when Clemons was in California acting as a technical adviser for the forthcoming film. He convinced Shibata to try out for the role of the Hawaii born Japanese-American Executive Officer, Lt. Tsugio Ohashi when Hollywood was having a problem casting the role.[4] During the production Clemons decided to play a joke on his Air Force pilot classmate whose accommodations during the war were more comfortable than Clemons' by ensuring that Shibata wore the only actual flak jacket in the film; the other cast members wearing foam rubber reproductions.
Shibata's film career was short as he preferred being a lawyer in California to acting.
Partial filmography[]
- Pork Chop Hill (1959) - Lt. Tsugio Ohashi
- Hell to Eternity (1960) - Kaz Une
- The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1960) - Capt. Shigetsu
- The Ugly American (1963) - Munsang
- Around the World Under the Sea (1966) - Prof. Uji Hamaru
- The Mystery of the Chinese Junk (1966) (television pilot) - Ben Foy (final film role)
Notes[]
- ↑ p.30 Crompton, Bob IOC Visits Father's Homeland as a Soldier; He's Just as Confused as Anyone The Ogden Standard-Examiner 19 June 1955
- ↑ http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/ethnic_cultures/the_peoples_of_utah/japaneselifeinutah.html
- ↑ http://defender.west-point.org/service/display.mhtml?u=18313&i=3808
- ↑ pp. 77-78 Rubin, Steven Jay Combat Films: American Realism, 1945-2010, 2nd edition McFarland, 1 Jan 1981
External links[]
- George Shibata at the Internet Movie Database
- Find a Grave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=92340500
The original article can be found at George Shibata and the edit history here.