Spy Hard
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Rick Friedberg
Leslie Nielsen
Andy Griffith
Charles Durning
Marcia Gay Harden
Michael Lee Gogin
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Fearless, sophisticated and debonair, Agent WD-40, a.k.a. Steele--Dick Steele, was The Agency's star spy until he left after his true love, a fellow agent, literally slipped through his fingers during a battle with the evil General Rancor, Steele's longtime nemesis. Steele is lured back to active service when he receives an urgent message from The Agency's Director. General Rancor, the megalomaniacal madman presumed dead after losing two limbs in an explosive altercation with Steele fifteen years earlier, is alive! He's mad as hell--armless--but still dangerous, and Steele is the only man who can get a leg up on him and stop his diabolical scheme for global power. Steele is joined in his pursuit of Rancor by the beautiful, mysterious Agent 3.14, and together they elude Rancor's henchmen, escape speeding vehicles, avoid booby traps and thwart kidnap attempts (and have time for a little dining and dancing) as they make their way to General Rancor's lair.
Cast
Leslie Nielsen
Andy Griffith
Charles Durning
Marcia Gay Harden
Michael Lee Gogin
William Barillaro
Pat Morita
Gary Owens
Tata Vega
Eddie Deezen
Gayle Obodzinski
Bruce Gray
Katherine Moffat
Thuy Trang
Robert Culp
Diane Klimaszewski
Alexandra Paul
Ron Morgan
Mason Gamble
Sally Stevens
Alex Trebek
Wayne Cotter
Brad Grunberg
Tina Arning
Austin Kottke
Curtis Armstrong
Nicollette Sheridan
Joey Dente
Dr. Joyce Brothers
Stephanie Romanov
Airick Kredell
Julia Waters
Jeanie Long
John Kassir
Joanne Nerlino
Pee Wee Piamonti
Hollis Hill
John Ales
Andrew Christian English
Carlos Lauchu
Bruno Marcotulli
Michael Leahs
Angela Visser
Fran Montano
Maria Del Rey
Reid Worthington
Kelly Lange
Paul Eliopoulos
Linda Harmon
Ray Charles
Roger Clinton
Julie Brown
Elya Baskin
Jeff Sanders
Clyde Kusatsu
Tara Leon
Tyler Patton
Elaine Klimaszewski
Mil Nicholson
Shari Shattuck
Jeannine Wagner
Esau Mcknight
Rick Cramer
Carl Ciarfalio
Michael Berryman
Keith Campbell
Julie Payne
Thom Sharp
Carol Lombard
Barry Bostwick
Billie Barnu
Stephen Burrows
Pat Tanzillo
Robert Guillaume
Valentino Johnson
Darlene Koldenhoven
Brian Howe
Desiree More
Maxi Anderson
Elizabeth Kaitan
Brad Garrett
Hulk Hogan
Nia James
Crew
Jeremy Aiello
Laura Albert
Janice Alexander
Howard Allen
Michael Allen
Ernie Alvarez
Allan Apone
Rick Baca
Noella Barb
Bruce Barbour
Perry Barndt
Peter J. Barnett
William H Battersby
Scott Beebe
Ingrid Behrens
Javier Bennassar
Larry E Benson
Steven R Benson
Suzanne M Benson
Earl L Benton
Tricia Bercsi
Erik Betts
Ernie Bishop
Scott Blake
Fred Blau
Bob Bornstein
Mary Boss
Ted R Boyse
Leonard Bram
David Brenner
Corey C. Bronson
Tom Bronson
Bill Brown
Bob F Brown
Jophery Brown
Kim Burke
Kim Burke
Kimberly Burns
Kimberly Burns
Dick Butler
Robert Calvert
Mike Cameron
Keith Campbell
Ron Campbell
Christopher Caso
Mike Cassidy
Mark Chadwick
Fern Champion
Hank Chang
Richard E. Chapla
Ken Chase
E.c. Chen
Dick Chudnow
Colleen Cole
Donald D Coleman
Gil Combs
Norm Compton
Bill Conti
Benjamin Cook
Tino Coutreras
William Creber
Louis Creveling
David Crone
David Crone
Gary Dahlquist
Tracy Keehn Dashnaw
Jan M Davis
Suzanne Davis
Christopher A. Debiec
Linda Demarco
Michael Desilva
Tammy Dickson
Barney Dogette
Mark Dornfeld
Doug Draizin
Jennifer Draizin
Georgia Durante
William J Durrell
Allen Easton
Allen Easton
Lanier Edwards
Paul J Elliott
Jeannie Epper
Tony Eppers
Terry Erickson
Mary Erstad
Jack Eskew
John R Fifer
Eddie Fiola
Bobby J Foxworth
Charles W Francis
Jason Friedberg
Jason Friedberg
Rick Friedberg
Rick Friedberg
Cormac Funge
Frank Gaeta
Richie Gaona
Scott Garcia
Jason George
Thomas Gerard
Gregory M Gerlich
Danielle Ghent
Mickey Gilbert
Tom Giordano
Patrick Giraudi
Stuart Goetz
Jarek Gorczycki
Matthew Gordy
Laura Gorman
Marilyn Graf
David Grant
Joe Greblo
Marion Green
Melanie Grefe
Allison Gross
Lizzie Harding-wilkins
Catherine Harper
Barbara Harris
Jimmie Haskell
Christie Hayes
Steve Heinke
Hollis Hill
Haleen Holt
Dean Hovey
Frederick Howard
Jeff Imada
Ashley Irwin
Timothy C Jackson
Loren Janes
Stephen Jay
Anna-carin Jean
Ken S Johnson
Matt D Johnston
Thomas Jones
Lee Joyner
Nathan Kaproff
Gary L Karas
Maria Kelly
Pat Kenly
Ossama Khuluki
Nancy A King
Henry Kingi
Henry M. Kingi Jr.
Laura Kirrin
Robert L Knott
Jeffrey Konvitz
Randy Lamb
Maurice Larson
Michael Leahs
John R. Leonetti
Fred M. Lerner
Jason A Levine
Paul Lewis
Ron Licari
Paul Longstaffe
Derek Marcil
Stephen A Marinaccio
Elliot Marks
G M J Marvis
Mary Mastro
Dan Mccann
Lisa Mccullough
Chris Mcgeary
David Melhase
David Melhase
Theresa Repola Mohammed
Wayne Montanio
Larry Nicholas
Leslie Nielsen
John Nuno
Alan Oliney
Bobby Ore
Mark Paladini
Jim Palmer
Holly Pendergast
Manny Perry
David Peterson
Sarah Pierce
Ron Quigley
Ray Quiroz
Corky Randall
David Rawley
Craig Reed
Stephen M Rickert
J.p. Romano
David Ronne
Scott Ronnow
Wally Rose
Chad Rosen
Robert L. Rosen
Benjamin Rosenberg
Debbie Lynn Ross
John Ross
Richard J. Rossi
Robert Ryan
Timothy P Ryan
Earl Sampson
Gary Sampson
Rafael Sanchez
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Pat Morita (1932-2005)
He was born Noriyuki Morita on June 28, 1932 in Isleton, California. The son of migrant fruit pickers, he contracted spinal tuberculosis when he was two and spent the next nine years in a sanitarium run by Catholic priests near Sacramento. He was renamed Pat, and after several spinal surgical procedures and learning how to walk, the 11-year-old Morita was sent to an internment camp at Gila River, Arizona, joining his family and thousands of other Japanese-Americans who were shamefully imprisoned by the U.S. government after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
His family was released after the war, and Morita graduated from high school in Fairfield, California in 1950. He worked in his family's Chinese restaurant in Sacramento until his father was killed in a hit-and-run accident. He eventually found work as a data processor for the Department of Motor Vehicles and then Aerojet General Corporation before he decided to try his hand at stand-up comedy.
He relocated to San Francisco in 1962, where at first, there was some hesitation from clubs to book a Japanese-American comic, but Morita's enthusiasm soon warmed them over, and he was becoming something of a regional hit in all the Bay Area. His breakthrough came in 1964 when he was booked on ABC's The Hollywood Palace. The image of a small, unassuming Asian with the broad mannerisms and delivery of a modern American was something new in its day. He was a hit, and soon found more bookings on the show. And after he earned the nickname "the hip nip," he quickly began headlining clubs in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Morita's stage and television success eventually led him to films. He made his movie debut as "Oriental #2," the henchman to Beatrice Lilly in the Julie Andrew's musical Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Although his role, complete with thick coke-bottle glasses and gaping overbite, was a little hard to watch, it was the best he could do at the time. Subsequent parts, as in Don Knott's dreadful The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968); and Bob Hope's lamentable final film Cancel My Reservations (1972); were simply variations of the same stereotype.
However, television was far kinder to Morita. After some popular guest appearances in the early '70s on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Morita landed some semi-regular work. First, as the wisecracking, cigar chomping Captain Sam Pack on M.A.S.H. and as Ah Chew, the deadpan neighbor of Fred and Lamont Sanford in Sanford & Son. His success in these roles led to his first regular gig, as Arnold Takahashi in Happy Days. His stint as the owner of the soda shop where Ritchie Cunningham and the Fonz hung out for endless hours may have been short lived (just two seasons 1974-76), but it was Morita's first successful stab at pop immortality.
He left Happy Days to star in his own show, the critically savaged culture clash sitcom Mr. T and Tina that was canceled after just five episodes. Despite that setback, Morita rebounded that same year with his first dramatic performance, and a fine one at that, when he portrayed a Japanese-American internment camp survivor in the moving made for television drama Farewell to Manzanar (1976). After a few more guest appearances on hit shows (Magnum P.I., The Love Boat etc.), Morita found the goldmine and added new life to his career when he took the role of Miyagi in The Karate Kid (1984). Playing opposite Ralph Macchio, the young man who becomes his martial arts pupil, Morita was both touching and wise, and the warm bond he created with Macchio during the course of the film really proved that he had some serious acting chops. The flick was the surprise box-office hit of 1984, and Morita's career, if briefly, opened up to new possibilities.
He scored two parts in television specials that were notable in that his race was never referenced: first as the horse in Alice in Wonderland (1985); and as the toymaster in Babes in Toyland (1986). He also landed a detective show (with of course, comic undertones) that ran for two seasons Ohara (1987-89); nailed some funny lines in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992); was the sole saving grace of Gus Van Zandt's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993); and starred in all of the sequels to The Karate Kid: The Karate Kid, Part II (1986), The Karate Kid, Part III (1989), and The Next Karate Kid (1994). Granted, it is arguable that Morita's career never truly blossomed out of the "wise old Asian man" caricature. But give the man his due, when it came to infusing such parts with sly wit and sheer charm, nobody did it better. Morita is survived by his wife, Evelyn; daughters, Erin, Aly and Tia; his brother, Harry, and two grandchildren.
by Michael T. Toole
Pat Morita (1932-2005)
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States Summer May 24, 1996
Released in United States on Video November 5, 1996
Completed shooting November 30, 1995.
Began shooting September 6, 1995.
Released in United States Summer May 24, 1996
Released in United States on Video November 5, 1996