Scarface actor and former anchorman Mario Machado has died. He was 78.
Machado’s daughter explained that her father died of complications from pneumonia . He was at the Los Angeles convalescent facility West Hills when he passed on May 4.
Mario Jose de Souza Machado was born on April 22, 1935 in Shanghai. His mother was Chinese-Portuguese and his father was Portuguese. He got his start in the business in 1967 when he accepted a position at KHJ-TV as an on-air news reporter.
Mario Machado became Los Angeles’ first Chinese-American newscaster in 1970 . The anchor held a number of positions over the course of his career. In addition to reporting the news, Machado was a TV show host, a soccer commentator, and a producer. He spent several years at KCBS-TV Channel 2 and its predecessor KNXT.
While folks who live in the Los Angeles area probably remember Machado from his days at the news desk, he also appeared in a number of high-profile Hollywood films. Fans of director Paul Verhoeven’s classic action flick Robocop probably remember him best as news anchor Casey Wong. Machado would later return for both sequels.
His other screen credits include Brian DePalma’s Scarface , Oh, God! , and Rocky III . In almost every instance, Machado played a news anchor, a television reporter, or an interviewer. This extended to his body of work on the small screen as well.
Before he made the jump to feature films, Mario Machado cut his teeth on a vast number of television shows and made-for-TV movies. The newscaster appeared in such notable programs as The Brady Bunch , Police Story , Quincy M.E. , and The Rockford Files , among many others.
Although many of Mario Machado’s fans may not be overly familiar with his career as a television news anchor, there are quite a few of us who will always remember his friendly face from many of our favorite films.
[Image via Wikimedia Commons ]
