Nobu McCarthy

Nobu McCarthy, who passed away in 2002, deserves more recognition than she gets as a pioneering Asian actress in mid-century Hollywood. Younger audiences may know her as Mr. Miyagi's love interest in The Karate Kid Part II, but her Independent Spirit Award nomination for The Wash shows the depth she reached when finally given a real role. Born in Ottawa to a Japanese mother, she navigated an industry that offered Asian women almost nothing but stereotypes, and she later led East West Players, nurturing the next generation. I think her behind-the-scenes work building Asian American theatre may outlast even her film credits. A quietly important figure.

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Name (English)

Nobu McCarthy

Name (Japanese)

ノブ・マッカーシー

Reading

のぶ・まっかーしー

Born

November 13, 1934 – April 6, 2002

Origin

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Occupation

model / actor / television actor / film actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Dog

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobu%20McCarthy
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8E%E3%83%96%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%83%83%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3546332

Tags

• Ontario
• model
• actor
• television actor

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.