| Takayo Fischer | |
| Birth Name: | Takayo Doris Tsubouchi |
| Birth Date: | 1932 |
| Years Active: | 1979–present |
Takayo Fischer (née Tsubouchi; born 1932) is an American stage, film and television actress, as well as voice-over actress.
Fischer is the youngest of four daughters of Issei (Japanese immigrants) Chukuro, a farm laborer, and Kinko Tsubouchi.[1] During World War II, at age 10, she and her family were forcibly removed from the West Coast following the signing of Executive Order 9066. They spent time in the Fresno Assembly Center before being relocated to Jerome and Rohwer incarceration camps.[2]
After their release, the Tsubouchi family went to Chicago, Illinois, where, as a young adult, Tsubouchi won the crown of "Miss Nisei Queen." She graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago in 1950 and attended Rollins College from 1951 to 1953, where she was a cheerleader and member of Phi Beta, a performing arts fraternity.[3] She resides in Los Angeles.
In 1980, she married Sy Fischer, an entertainment executive and long-time agent at Hanna-Barbera.
Fischer appeared in the stage production of The World of Suzie Wong in New York in 1958. She won a Drama-Logue Award for ensemble performance for Tea at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. She has also appeared in many productions with East West Players in Los Angeles, including Into The Woods. Fischer was an honoree at East West Players' 2019 gala for her work in raising "the visibility of the Asian Pacific American (APA) community through [her] craft."[4] She toured the U.S. and Europe in The Peony Pavilion in 1997.
Fischer has appeared in many big-budget films, including Moneyball, (2007) as Mistress Ching, The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) as Mrs. Chu, Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and War of the Worlds (2005). She has also worked on many independent Asian American films including Americanese (2009), Only the Brave (2005), (2004) and Strawberry Fields (1997).
Fischer has had numerous guest-starring roles on network television including FX's It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia as a North Korean bar owner named Mr. Kim, and Mimi Kishi on Netflix and Walden Media’s “The Baby-Sitter’s Club” She is sometimes credited as "Takayo Doran".
Fischer has also done voices in several animated series. Some of her well-known roles included Mister T, Battle of the Planets, Rubik the Amazing Cube, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Saturday Supercade, The Flintstone Kids, , Batman Beyond, The All-New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, The Karate Kid, Capitol Critters, The Centurions, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, The Heathcliff and Dingbat Show, Super Friends, Thundarr the Barbarian, Rambo, Wildfire, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited, The Wild Thornberrys, and Justice League.
She also reprised her role as Mistress Ching in the video game version of .
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Beverly Hills, 90210 | Driving Tester | Episode: "Leading from the Heart" | |
| 1992 | Dr. Wu (voice) | Episode: "Dreams in Darkness"[5] | ||
| 1994 | Baby Brokers | Emily Weiss | Television film | |
| 2000 | The Wild Thornberrys | Red Panda (voice) | Episode: "Happy Campers" | |
| 2001 | Batman Beyond | Kairi Tanaga (voice) | Episode: "Curse of the Kobra" | |
| 2005 | Teen Titans | Chu-hui (voice) | Episode: "The Quest" | |
| 2005 | Justice League Unlimited | Mairzey (voice) | Episode: "I Am Legion" | |
| 2006–2008 | Lo, Li (voice) | 4 episodes | ||
| 2007 | It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia | Mr. Kim | Episode: "The Gang Solves the North Korea Situation" | |
| 2011 | Silent but Deadly | Wang | Television film | |
| 2020–2021 | The Baby-Sitters Club | Mimi Yamamoto | 7 episodes |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Dad | Jake's Nurse | ||
| 1990 | Pacific Heights | Bank Teller | ||
| 1991 | Showdown in Little Tokyo | Mama Yamaguchi | ||
| 1995 | The Dangerous | Mrs. Seki | ||
| 1997 | Strawberry Fields | Takayo | ||
| 2005 | War of the Worlds | Older Woman | ||
| 2005 | Memoirs of a Geisha | Tanizato Teahouse Owner | ||
| 2006 | Only the Brave | Mrs. Nakajo | ||
| 2006 | Americanese | Keiko Crane | ||
| 2007 | Mistress Ching | |||
| 2008 | The Pursuit of Happyness | Mrs. Chu | ||
| 2008 | Uncross the Stars | Tina | ||
| 2008 | Immigrants | Japanese Woman (voice) | English dub | |
| 2009 | Love 10 to 1 | Grandma | ||
| 2011 | Moneyball | Suzanne | ||
| 2012 | Model Minority | Reiko Tanaka | ||
| 2013 | Cavemen | Japanese Woman | ||
| 2016 | The Watcher | Gladys |