Morita Mitsugi (1896-1985) was a Japanese character actor in Hollywood at a time when stereotyping was the order of the day and difficult to resist.
Morita left Japan when he was eighteen and worked at a variety of jobs in the United States and Canada. Some sources claim he appeared in silent films, but the first appearance cited by the AFI catalogue is in 1933. He had a prominent role in Nagana (1933). In fact, it is understood that he was originally slated to play the Japanese research scientist Noguchi Hideo in a biopic, but the idea was dropped. Instead, he played second fiddle to Melvyn Douglas in a story about the fight to cure sleeping sickness.
After that, Mikita was restricted to playing uncredited supporting roles, frequently as butlers, valets and assorted servants. He vigorously rejected a featured role in Marie Galante (1934) because he believed it showed Japan in a bad light.
Morita was a gifted actor, and his brief appearances in films such as Front Page Woman (1935) and It Couldn’t Have Happened (1936) were singled out for mention by some reviewers. In even the smallest role, he would fight against the stereotype, for example, when engaging in jujitsu with Cary Grant in The Awful Truth (1937).
Miki Morita appeared as a florist in Going Hollywood at MGM.
