Here's what we were able to verify about their marriage and his life.
Evelyn (Evie) Louise Guerrero was born on February 24, 1949 in East Los Angeles, California.
Noriyuki Pat Morita was born on June 28, 1932 in Isleton, California.
Source: Almanac of Famous People, 8th ed. Gale Group, 2003.
According to his wife, Evelyn, Morita's death at age 73 at his home in Las Vegas, on November 24, 2005, was due to natural causes.
Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Las Vegas planned memorial services for Pat Morita. Pat will be buried at Palm Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery in Las Vegas.
Evelyn and Pat first met when she was 15 years old because Evelyn's mother and Pat had the same manager, Sally Marr. Pat and Evelyn met again years later.
Residence:
Pat and Evelyn lived in Las Vegas, just 5 minutes from the strip. Although they gave up their Ala Moana apartment in Waikiki, they still loved Hawaii.Pat had spinal tuberculosis since the age of two. He was hospitalized for nine years at the Weimar Joint Sanatorium in Colfax, California. Pat was bedridden in a body-cast from his shoulders to his knees and unable to walk.He was transferred to the Shriner's Hospital in San Francisco where he received surgery to fuse four vertebrae in his spine. After having the surgery, Pat proved the earlier doctors wrong by walking out of the hospital when he was 11 years old.
Later in the war, Pat's family was transferred to the Tule Lake Internment Camp in California.
Early in his life, Pat Morita worked as a part-time fruit picker and in his family's Sacramento Chinese restaurant, the "Ariake Chop Suey" as an emcee for large parties. Later, he worked as a data processor for the State of California and at Aerojet-General Corporation near Sacramento.
Evelyn is an actress.
Pat and Evelyn did not have any children. Pat had three daughters from his previous marriages:
- Erin Morita was born around 1964. Her mother is Pat Morita's first wife.
- Aly Morita. Her mother is Yuki Morita.
- Tia Morita. Her mother is Yuki Morita.
Previous Marriages:
Pat Morita had two previous marriages:- Pat's first marriage was soon after he finished high school. They had one daughter and were married for 14 years before they divorced. Apparently his decision to quit his job and become a stand-up comedian destroyed his first marriage.
- Pat married Yuki in 1970. They had two daughters. The couple had to deal with several setbacks during their marriage. First, their $300,000, uninsured, Tarzana, California home was badly damaged in a mudslide. They and their daughters escaped with just the clothes they were wearing.
Second, Tia, their youngest daughter, was diagnosed with a kidney disease.
Third, in 1980, Pat and Yuki separated, and Pat moved to Hawaii. In 1982, they reunited, but later divorced.
Yuki, a community organizer, married Cedric Scott after her divorce from Pat. She and Cedric had a daughter, LaGloria Scott.
Interests:
Pat enjoys singing the National Anthem publicly and massage therapy.
Quotes:
Pat, on love: "I don’t know of any other creature, outside of pure animal lust, that falls in love and has their heart broken and falls in love again.”Source: A Conversation with Pat Morita
Pat, on deciding to be a comedian: "It was absolutely nutty, against the grain of the family, every wrong you could have picked."
Source: Detroit Free Press Interview, 01/01/1988
Charles Goodin, on Pat's first marriage: "So, despite having a good job with security, a four-bedroom home and a wife, child, mother-in-law and three household pets depending on him, he decided that he wanted something more out of life."
Source: Furyu.com
