Gedde Watanabe
Gary "Gedde" Watanabe (born June 26, 1955) is an American actor and comedian. He is perhaps best known for voicing the character of Ling in the 1998 animated film "Mulan" and its 2004 sequel, "Mulan II" as well as playing Long Duk Dong in the 1984 film "Sixteen Candles", and as Nurse Yoshi Takata in the NBC medical drama "ER" from 1997 to 2003. Early life and education. Watanabe was born and raised in Ogden, Utah in a Japanese-American family. His mother, who had been previously interned during World War II, worked as a seamstress at the  Utah Tailoring Company. He performed in several dramatic productions in high school, both acting and singing. After graduation, Watanabe relocated to San Francisco, where he worked as a street musician while honing his acting skills. Career. In 1976, Watanabe's first role was as a member of the original Broadway cast of "Pacific Overtures", originating the roles of Priest, Girl, and The Boy. He has since appeared in a number of films and television series, the first of which was "The Long Island Four" in 1980. Many of his roles are caricatured East Asians with heavy accents, though he himself  does not speak Japanese. He had a starring role in both the film "Gung Ho" and its television spinoff. In the 1989 movie "UHF" starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, Watanabe co-starred as Kuni, a karate instructor and abusive host of a TV game show called "Wheel of Fish". He later reprised this role on the "Weird Al Show". Watanabe appeared on "Sesame Street" from 1988 to 1991 as Hiroshi and had a recurring role as gay nurse Yoshi Takata on the television drama from 1997 to 2003. During the nineties, Watanabe studied acting at Theater Theater in Hollywood, California, with  Chris Aable who introduced him to fellow actors Jon Cedar and Steve Burton. He voiced various Japanese characters on the animated television comedy "The Simpsons". In 1998, he voiced Ling in the Disney animated film "Mulan" and reprised this role for the 2004 direct-to-video sequel, "Mulan II" and the 2005 video game "Kingdom Hearts II".