George Takei

Posted by

Monica Aksamit

–

June 2, 2020

George Takei, He is one of the popular actor who played a role of Lieutenant Sulu in ‘Star Trek’ television series and movies and have strong presence in Social Media as well.

Who Is George Takei?

He started his career as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu for three years of Star Trek Series and later on he worked the same role for next six movies. He was also involved with gay rights and Japanese American groups. He is also very active on Socail Media Channels and very popular on Social Media Presence. He was born in Los Angeles, California on April 20, 1937. He enrolled himself at the University of California at Berkeley to study architecture after World War II. Takei had many relatives living in Japan at the time of World War II and One of the Aunt and infant cousin were living in Hiroshima unfortunatily there were killed in II World war Nuclear Attack. After that Takei and his family left Tule interment without having bank account, home or any family business and they were also unable to find any house so they started living on Los Angelese Skid row for the next five year’s. In Los Angels he attended Mount Vernon Junior High School and then enrolled in University of California where he initially enrolled himself to studied architecture but he got transferred to University of California, Los Angeles for Bachelor of Arts in theater in 1960 and then in 1964 for Master of Arts.

Career

When he was in college, Takei saw a job ads for Asian Voice-over actors for the English version of the Japanese monster movie Rodan (1956) and after that he got more work related to voice-over and he also involve in small parts in television programs such as perry Mason and the film name Ice Palace (1960). In 1966 when he worked as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek and become prominent figure on TV as Asian American. In 1969 when Star Trek were canceled his worked stopped. but he continuously working as regular TV appearances till 1970s on some of the popular programs such as The Six Million Dollar Man and Hawaii Five-O, and He also were providing voice of Sulu for the Star Trek animated series. When The Motion Picture decided to create the sequels of Star Treak as in 5 Sequels in 12 years where he meet with his old castmatest of Sar Trek and worked in the movie. In 1998s his voice-over added in the Disney animated feature Mulan (1998) and episodes of The Simpsons. He also become the guest on the Howard Stern Show. He were alos involved in a project which was very closed to him where he took star role in the Movie Allegiance it was the movie based on World War II internment of Japanese Americans which was released on September 2012 at San Diego’s Old Globe Theater.

Politics

In 1973 he loss his bid for a seat on the the Los Angeles City Council but he remained a busy man, he joined the board of directors for the Southern California Transit District from 1973 to 1984. He also served in the board of Japan-United States Friendship Commission for President Bill Clinton and got the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette by his Majesty the Emperor of Japan in 2004. Now he is also a chairman of a renowned theater named East West Players and served as a board of trusteess in Japanese American National Museum. In 2008 he married his long time partner Brad Altman after announcement of his homosexuality to Frontiers magazine.