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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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| Born | Toshiyuki Sakata (1920-07-01)July 1, 1920 Holualoa, Hawaii, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Died | July 29, 1982(1982-07-29) (aged 62) | ||||||||||||||
| Professional wrestling career | |||||||||||||||
| Ring name(s) | Tosh Togo Tosh Tojo Harold Sakata Mr. Sakata Toska Sakata | ||||||||||||||
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Billed weight | 220 lb (100 kg)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Billed from | Honolulu, Hawaii Tokyo, Japan Yokohama, Japan Osaka, Japan | ||||||||||||||
| Trained by | Tsutao Higami Ben Sherman | ||||||||||||||
| Debut | c. 1949[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Retired | c. 1975 | ||||||||||||||
| Sports career | |||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Toshiyuki Sakata (坂田 敏行,Sakata Toshiyuki; July 1, 1920 – July 29, 1982), known asHarold Sakata, was an AmericanOlympic weightlifter,professional wrestler, andfilm actor. He won a silver medal at the1948 Summer Olympics inLondon in weightlifting, and later became a popular professional wrestler under thering nameTosh Togo, wrestling primarily for variousNational Wrestling Alliance territories as a tag team withGreat Togo.
Sakata also wrestled in Japan for theJapanese Wrestling Association between 1955 and 1957, and was an early mentor and sometimes-tag-partner toRikidōzan.[3] On the basis of his wrestling work, he was cast in theJames Bond filmGoldfinger (1964) as the villainOddjob, a role he would be closely associated with for the rest of his life.[4]
Toshiyuki Sakata was born on July 1, 1920, inHolualoa,Hawaii, toJapanese-American parents who worked at aKona coffee farm. His father Risaburo wasissei (first-generation), and his mother Matsue wasnisei (second generation). He had ten siblings, six brothers and four sisters. He adopted the more Western name "Harold" as a teenager.
In 1936, Sakata dropped out of school to help work the family's coffee farm. The following year, he started paid employment at a sugar plantation located about 75 miles away from his home, after which he went to the island ofLanai to work on a pineapple plantation. He then moved toMaui to do more agricultural work, and in 1938 he ended up inHonolulu, where he lived for much of his adult life.
DuringWorld War II, he served in theU.S. Army with the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion, and was briefly deployed to Hawaii.
At the age of eighteen, Sakata weighed only 113 lb (8 st 1 lb) (51 kg) at a height of 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m). Wishing to "look as good as the other guys", he started lifting weights. Because allYMCA facilities were racially segregated at the time, he trained primarily at the all-Asian Nu'uanu YMCA. Among his lifting partners was futureAmateur Athletic Union (AAU) championEmerick Ishikawa.
After about a year of serious training Sakata had gained about twenty pounds. Inspired by this success he started entering local lifting contests and in 1941 he won the Territorial light-heavyweight championship. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor stopped travel to the mainland but over the next two years Sakata won several more Oahu championships; in June 1943, at 165 pounds, he was pressing 250, snatching 240, and clean and jerking 310, for a total of 800 pounds.
Following his military discharge, Sakata remained in Honolulu, and becamede facto leader of a group of local lifters includingRichard Tomita.
During a tournament held at the Nuuanu YMCA in November 1946, Sakata set a Hawaiian record in both the snatch and the clean-and-jerk, plus an unofficial world record in the press. The same year he also won the Mr. Hawaii physique title.[5] Henry Koizumi, athletic director of the tournament, suggested that Sakata and his partner Richard Tom organize a weightlifting team. The goal was to place well in theUSA Weightlifting National Championships, which were held inDallas, Texas, in June 1947. Sakata placed first in the 181-pound class with a total lift of 800 pounds. Tom meanwhile placed first in the 123-pound division with a total lift of 610 pounds.
Sakata subsequently qualified for United States'1948 London Summer Olympic team, lifting a total of 380 kg in the light-heavyweight division and winning asilver medal behindStanley Stanczyk, against whom he later competed in the US Senior National Championships.
In 1949, Sakata retired from weightlifting and began training inprofessional wrestling. His instructors were Tetsuro Higami and Ben Sherman. He initially wrestled as "the Human Tank, Mr. Sakata", drawing on his World War II service and Olympic accolades to play aface, though he later adopted his more well-knownheel gimmick of Tosh Togo.
Under the Togo gimmick, Sakata wrestled acrossHawaii and later toured mainland America andCanada, mostly on the West Coast and in thePacific Northwest, which had a large Japanese immigrant population he proved popular with. He briefly formed a tag-team withFrank Stojack during a tour ofWashington state, and also tagged with Tor Yamato during a Midwestern tour.
In July 1951,NWA Hawaii promoter Al Karasick invited Sakata to join a special overseas tour toJapan, sponsored by a TokyoShriners chapter as a charity venture for a children's hospital. Sakata and several other wrestlers flew toTokyo, where they held a series of shows at the Metropolitan Memorial Hall andRyōgoku Kokugikan. One such show was historically significant for being the professional wrestling debut ofRikidōzan, a Korean-born sumotori who became one of the most popular and influential figures in Japanese professional wrestling history, nicknamed "the Father of Puroresu".
According to the official website of the city ofMinato, Rikidōzan was introduced to professional wrestling while visiting a gym inShiba where Sakata and his colleagueBobby Bruns were training for an upcoming match. Bruns became Rikidōzan's first ever opponent. He joined Sakata and Bruns in their tour of Japan, wrestling a series of matches across the country in which Rikidōzan soundly beat his foreign opponents, among them retired heavyweight boxerJoe Louis, helping to establish his popular reputation.
The tour lasted until January 1952, at which point most of the wrestlers returned to America. Sakata remained for another few months, during which time he met and married his wife. He was grantedpermanent residency in Japan and lived there with his family for some time, but eventually moved back to America due to the constant back-and-forth travel.
Sakata returned to America in 1952, and had his first televised match on May 26 on a card that included former judokaMasahiko Kimura andKinji Shibuya. It was during this period that Sakata adopted thering name Tosh Togo – Tosh was a shortened form of his given name "Toshiyuki" and Togo was derived from early 20th-century Japanese admiralTōgō Heihachirō.
Sakata was billed as thekayfabe brother ofGreat Togo, as well asMasutatsu Oyama as "Mas Togo" andjudoka Kokichi Endo as "Ko Togo". As a tag team, Sakata and Great Togo held theNWA Canadian Open Tag Team Championship.[6] Sakata also tagged with Rikidōzan (with whom he unsuccessfully challenged for the inauguralAll Asia Tag Team Championship againstKing Kong Czaja andTiger Joginder Singh) andKing Curtis Iaukea (with whom he won theNWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship). He also held theNWA Texas Heavyweight Championship, theWWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship, and theNWA World Tag Team Championship (withRed Berry).
Bond producersHarry Saltzman andAlbert R. Broccoli took notice of Sakata because of his heavy build—he stood 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) in height and weighed 284 pounds (129 kg)—which, when coupled with his intimidating gaze, made him the perfect choice for the part ofOddjob. Another story, told by directorGuy Hamilton, stated that he'd first seen Sakata wrestling inAustralia.
Sakata had never acted before, besides pro wrestling, but the film character was to be mute (other than a few uttered grunts) and would require little theatrical skill. Before Sakata had secured the role of Oddjob, another former wrestler, British actorMilton Reid, had auditioned for the role.[7] Reid allegedly challenged Sakata to ashoot wrestling contest and suggested that the winner ought to get the role. However, given that Reid had been inDr. No (playing one of the titular villain's guards) and that his character had been killed off, the producers decided to go with Sakata and the wrestling match did not take place.[8][9]
As Oddjob, he was a bodyguard to Bond villainAuric Goldfinger, and hissharpened, steel-brimmed bowler hat became a famous and much-parodied trademark of the Bond series.[10] While filming Oddjob's death scene, in which the character is electrocuted, Sakata's hand was badly burnt by the effect, but he held on until he heard director Guy Hamilton call "Cut".[8]
Sakata appeared in several other movies in similar roles and took on "Oddjob" as an informal middle name (in the filmsMako: The Jaws of Death (1976) andThe Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977), he was credited as Harold "Oddjob" Sakata).[8]
With time, Sakata's acting skills developed. He co-starred oppositeWilliam Shatner in the movieImpulse (1974), in which he played the character Karate Pete.[8] He also guest starred on aGilligan's Island episode asRory Calhoun's henchman,[8] and an episode ofThe Rockford Files. In 1971, Sakata was a regular on the short-lived TV series,Sarge, starringGeorge Kennedy and made a guest appearance onLaugh In, Season 5, Episode 7. In 1979 he was a regular onHighcliffe Manor. In 1977 he appeared in Quincy M.E. season 3 episode 10 " Touch of Death", portraying a Kung Fu Sensei master. He also played a gangster in the 1966 film, "The Poppy is also a Flower".
Sakata appeared as Oddjob in a series ofTV commercials forVicks Formula 44cough syrup in the 1970s. The advertisement commonly showed Oddjob with a nasty cough, which results in him demolishing everything around him as his spasms make him inadvertently lash out, frightening his wife as his condition deteriorates. She grabs a bottle of Vicks Formula 44 and gives Oddjob a spoonful of the cough syrup, which cures his cough; the two bow to each other, and then the wife looks past Oddjob to take in the destruction he has caused. This was occasionally followed by an add-on for a cough drop version of the syrup, which Oddjob ingests before he is claimed by a coughing fit in an extremely crowded space. At least one domestic and one outdoor version of this commercial are known.[8] Sakata made an appearance onThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on which he parodied the commercial by destroying Carson's set.[8]
Sakata had two children, born in 1954 and 1957. He only married once, and divorced his wife due to the strain placed on their relationship by his constant travel.
Sakata died of liver cancer four weeks after his 62nd birthday, on July 29, 1982, at St. Francis Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.[2] Five months beforehand, Sakata had made one final public appearance at the54th Academy Awards. Sakata briefly appeared on stage in his Oddjob attire[11] duringSheena Easton's musical performance[12] of "For Your Eyes Only".
Japanese professional wrestlerKeiji Muto plays Sakata in the 2004 filmRikidōzan.
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