Brian Tochi (born Brian Keith Tochihara) is an American actor. During the late 1960s through much of the 1970s, he was one of the most widely seen East Asian child actors working in U.S. television, appearing in various TV series and nearly a hundred advertisements. He is best known for his characters Toshiro Takashi from the Revenge of the Nerds film franchise, Cadet (later Lieutenant) Tomoko Nogata from the third and fourth films in the Police Academy film series, and as the voice of Leonardo in the first three live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. He is also known as Brian Keith Tochi.
Early life
Tochi was born in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of Joe Isao Tochihara (A.K.A. ‘Tochi’), a Beverly Hills celebrity hair salon owner, and Jane Yaeko (née Harada), both Japanese, and both of whom were forcibly interned during World War II. While Tochi was still young, the family moved from Los Angeles to Orange County, California, where he divided his education between local public schools and studio tutors (for child actors) on movie studio lots. After graduation from high school, Tochi also attended U.S.C., UCLA, and U.C.I.
Tochi’s introduction into the entertainment industry came as a toddler. His father’s beauty salon, Tochi Coiffure of Beverly Hills, was a popular haunt for many famous clients, including Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, Petula Clark and Patty Duke. One of his father’s customers, a top child agent, spotted the young Tochi running around the salon, and quickly signed to represent him.
Being of Japanese descent, Tochi has frequently played characters who are Japanese, Chinese, or of other East Asian genes, adopting the appropriate accent as needed. (His primary language is English, and his off-stage speech is "fluent American".)
Career
As a child actor
A beginning role for Tochi was a guest-starring appearance in the short-lived television series He & She (1967–68, with Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss) as their newly adopted son. Produced by Leonard Stern and cowritten by Chris Hayward and Allan Burns, it also starred Jack Cassidy as an egomaniacal actor, Kenneth Mars, and Hamilton Camp. That same year saw Tochi appearing in "And the Children Shall Lead", a third-season episode of Star Trek. Other roles followed, including guest appearances on such popular shows as The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family and Adam-12.
Tochi's debut as a series regular was as Yul Brynner's oldest son and heir Crown Prince Chulalongkorn in Anna and the King on CBS. It was based on the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I and also starred Samantha Eggar and Keye Luke. Although the series was short-lived, Tochi and Brynner remained friends until Brynner's death in 1985. Concurrent with the series, Tochi was cast with fellow actor Luke in his first animated television series The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan; also in the series was a young Jodie Foster, who voiced one of the Chan sisters.
After both series ended, guest-starring roles followed, including The Streets of San Francisco with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas; and Kung Fu, with David Carradine, who made his directing debut on the episode, "The Demon God" (which was Tochi's largest guest role of three Kung Fu episodes he appeared in). Tochi also played an undercover informant who was beaten and killed in a gritty two-part episode of Police Story on NBC. He played another character that nearly died on the Robert Young medical drama Marcus Welby, M.D..
Young adulthood in theater
During the mid-1970s, Tochi spent time in the theatre, this time reprising his role as Crown Prince Chulalongkorn in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera's revival of the musical The King and I at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. There he co-starred with actor Ricardo Montalbán, as the King of Siam, to which they would later accompany the show as it went on tour.