Connect
To Top

10. Pat Morita Had to Come Up With an Accent

Pat Morita, who played Arnold the diner owner, was born in California and as American as they come, but the producers wanted him to have an accent on the show. He went with an exaggerated Chinese Pidgin English dialect, and then was told it didn’t work since he was Japanese-American. He came up with the idea that the character had a Japanese father and Chinese mother which saved him. You may also know him as Mr. Miyagi from the original Karate Kid movies.

Pat Morita Arnold from Happy Days
sitcomsonline.com

More in TV