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Gedde Watanabe (born Gary Watanabe, June 26, 1955, Ogden, Utah) is an American theatre, film, and television actor. He was in several dramatic productions in high school, both acting and singing. After graduation, Watanabe left Ogden for San Francisco, where he hoped to make his living as a street musician while honing his acting skills. He appeared on Broadway in 1976 in Pacific Overtures, originating the role of the Boy in a Tree, and has appeared in a number of films and television shows. Watanabe appeared on Sesame Street for some years and had a recurring role on ER from 1998 to 2002.... MORE

Gedde Watanabe (born Gary Watanabe, June 26, 1955, Ogden, Utah) is an American theatre, film, and television actor. He was in several dramatic productions in high school, both acting and singing. After graduation, Watanabe left Ogden for San Francisco, where he hoped to make his living as a street musician while honing his acting skills. He appeared on Broadway in 1976 in Pacific Overtures, originating the role of the Boy in a Tree, and has appeared in a number of films and television shows. Watanabe appeared on Sesame Street for some years and had a recurring role on ER from 1998 to 2002. In 1998 he was the voice for Ling in the Disney film Mulan and reprised the role for the 2004 direct-to-video sequel, Mulan II. Watanabe's acting parts have been mostly caricatured East Asians with heavy accents (he does not speak Japanese). Jason Buchanan wrote for Allmovie, "The character that Gedde Watanabe is most remembered for is no doubt Long Duk Dong, the clumsy foreign exchange student in Sixteen Candles whose drunken fall from a tree and laughable bastardization of the English language had ninth-graders of the day rolling in theater aisles." Watanabe's role of Long Duk Dong was decried LESS