James Susumu Ishida (born July 29, 1943) is an American retired actor.
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Early life
Ishida was born in Stockton, California, the son of Japanese American parents James Takeshi Ishida (May 19, 1917 – January 24, 1980) and the late Sachiko "Sue" Ishida (May 31, 1920 – August 25, 2010). Ishida, who was also raised in the nearby town of Lodi, and his family were internees at a Japanese American internment camp in Rohwer, Arkansas for about a year during World War II, then released shortly after the conflict ended in 1945. Ishida's mother Sue served for many years in the Lodi Unified School District as a teacher, librarian, and culminating and as the Coordinator of the Instructional Materials Center there in 1982.
He studied acting under Stella Adler, Darryl Hickman, Milton Katselas, and Lilyan Chauvin.
Career
Ishida portrayed T. Fujitsu, Marty McFly's boss in 2015 in Back to the Future Part II in 1989, and his most recent role was in 2005, when he had a part in the television movie Reading Room. Ishida had a recurring role on DYNASTY, as Alexis Colby Dexter’s butler. He has had guest parts in such TV shows as Nurses (1992), Baywatch (1992), Knots Landing (1989), The A-Team (1986), Trapper John, M.D. (1984), and The Rockford Files (1977). Ishida got his start in television in appearances on the hit CBS-TV show Hawaii Five-O, appearing in three episodes in different parts from 1973 to 1975. Ishida also appeared in a part as a Bali Majestic Guest in the Ken Kwapis directed film Dunston Checks In in 1996.
On stage, Ishida was a member of the East West Players, appearing in productions of Philip Kan Gotanda's The Dream of Kitamura (winning a Drama-Logue Award), Wakako Yamauchi's Not a Through Street, a Hawaiian-set reinterpretation of Twelfth Night, and the musical Pacific Overtures. He co-starred, opposite John Goodman, in War Babies at the La Jolla Playhouse and in Lisa Loomer's The Waiting Room at the Mark Taper Forum.
Filmography
Video games
RAMA (1996), based on the books of Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee. Ishida played the role of Shigeru Takagishi.