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July 1, 1920 – July 29, 1982, known as Harold Sakata, was an American Olympic weightlifter, professional wrestler, and film actor. He won a silver medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London in weightlifting, and later became a popular professional wrestler under the ring name Tosh Togo, wrestling primarily for various National Wrestling Alliance territories as a tag team with Great Togo.
Sakata also wrestled in Japan for the Japanese Wrestling Association between 1955 and 1957, and was an early mentor and sometimes-tag-partner to Rikidōzan. On the basis of his wrestling work, he was cast in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964) as the villain Oddjob, a role he would be closely associated with for the rest of his life.
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 of Lanai to work on a pineapple plantation. He then moved to Maui to do more agricultural work, and in 1938 he ended up in Honolulu, where he lived for much of his adult life.
During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army with the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion, and was briefly deployed to Hawaii.
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 became de facto leader of a group of local lifters including Richard 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. 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 the USA Weightlifting National Championships, which were held in Dallas, 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 a Olympic medal behind Stanley Stanczyk, against whom he later competed in the US Senior National Championships.
Under the Togo gimmick, Sakata wrestled across Hawaii and later toured mainland America and Canada, mostly on the West Coast and in the Pacific Northwest, which had a large Japanese immigrant population he proved popular with. He briefly formed a tag-team with Frank Stojack during a tour of Washington state, and also tagged with Tor Yamato during a Midwestern tour.
According to the official website of the city of Minato, Rikidōzan was introduced to professional wrestling while visiting a gym in Shiba where Sakata and his colleague Bobby 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 boxer Joe 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 granted permanent 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 was billed as the kayfabe brother of Kazuo Okamura, as well as Masutatsu Oyama as "Mas Togo" and Kokichi Endo as "Ko Togo". As a tag team, Sakata and Great Togo held the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Championship. Sakata also tagged with Rikidōzan (with whom he unsuccessfully challenged for the inaugural All Asia Tag Team Championship against Emile Czaja and Tiger Joginder Singh) and King Curtis Iaukea (with whom he won the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship). He also held the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship, the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship, and the NWA World Tag Team Championship (with Red Berry).
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 actor Milton Reid, had auditioned for the role. Milton Reid – Dr No. Guard – James Bond 007 Reid allegedly challenged Sakata to a shoot wrestling contest and suggested that the winner ought to get the role. However, given that Reid had been in Dr. 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.Reid later played an Oddjob-esque character in the 1977 Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me.
As Oddjob, he was a bodyguard to Bond villain Auric Goldfinger, and his sharpened, steel-brimmed bowler hat became a famous and much-parodied trademark of the Bond series. 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".
Sakata appeared in several other movies in similar roles and took on "Oddjob" as an informal middle name (in the films (1976) and The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977), he was credited as Harold "Oddjob" Sakata).
With time, Sakata's acting skills developed. He co-starred opposite William Shatner in the movie Impulse (1974), in which he played the character Karate Pete. He also guest starred on a Gilligan's Island episode as Rory Calhoun's henchman, and an episode of The Rockford Files. In 1971, Sakata was a regular on the short-lived TV series, Sarge, starring George Kennedy and made a guest appearance on Laugh In, Season 5, Episode 7. In 1979 he was a regular on Highcliffe 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 of for Vicks Formula 44 cough 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. Sakata made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on which he parodied the commercial by destroying Carson's set.
Personal life
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.
Death
Sakata died of liver cancer four weeks after his 62nd birthday, on July 29, 1982, at St. Francis Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Five months beforehand, Sakata had made one final public appearance at the 54th Academy Awards. Sakata briefly appeared on stage in his Oddjob attire during Sheena Easton's musical performance of "For Your Eyes Only".
Championships and accomplishments
(2026). 9780969816157, Archeus Communications. ISBN 9780969816157
Filmography
Feature films
Television
In popular culture
Japanese professional wrestler Keiji Muto plays Sakata in the 2004 film Rikidōzan.
External links
Categories: 1920 Births, 1982 Deaths, 20th-century American Male Actors, 20th-century Male Professional Wrestlers, 20th-century American Professional Wrestlers, 20th-century American Sportsmen, American Expatriates In Japan, American Male Actors Of Japanese Descent, American Male Film Actors, American Male Professional Wrestlers, American Male Weightlifters, American Military Personnel Of Japanese Descent, American People Of Japanese Descent, Sportspeople Of Japanese Descent, Deaths From Cancer In Hawaii, Deaths From Liver Cancer In The United States, Faux Japanese Professional Wrestlers, Male Actors From Hawaii, Medalists At The 1948 Summer Olympics, Military Personnel From Hawaii, Nwa Canadian Open Tag Team Champions, Nwa Texas Heavyweight Champions, Olympic Silver Medalists For The United States In Weightlifting, Olympic Weightlifters For The United States, People From Hawaii, Professional Wrestlers From Hawaii, Sportspeople From Hawaii, United States Army Personnel Of World War Ii, Weightlifters At The 1948 Summer Olympics, Wwc Puerto Rico Champions, People From Hawaii Of Japanese Descent, Nwa World Tag Team Champions
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