Clyde Kusatsu

Clyde Kusatsu — Biography

With more than 300 film and television productions to his name since 1970, Clyde Kusatsu ranks among Hollywood's most prolific Asian American character actors, and he has worked alongside everyone from Toshiro Mifune to Glenn Close. Beyond acting he has long been active in the performers' union SAG-AFTRA, and he is now Secretary of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.

He began acting at ʻIolani School in Honolulu, studied theatre at Northwestern University, graduating in 1970, and in 1972 joined East West Players, the oldest Asian American theatre company in Los Angeles. His first television roles were in episodes of Kung Fu and M*A*S*H; guest parts in All in the Family and Magnum, P.I. followed, and he became a regular in Bring 'Em Back Alive and Island Son. On film he has taken supporting roles in Black Sunday, In the Line of Fire, Paradise Road, American Pie and The Interpreter, and he appeared in HBO's And the Band Played On (1993) and in Rising Sun. Later credits include NCIS, Chuck and Hawaii Five-0, and since 2021 a recurring role on Days of Our Lives.

After SAG and AFTRA merged, he became the first elected President of the SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Local in 2013, and he was elected National Vice President Los Angeles four times, serving until 2021.