Goro Suzuki was born at sea on a ship traveling in the Pacific Ocean from the United States to Japan on Oct. 28, 1917. He adopted the name Jack Soo and became an actor and singer. Soo was best known for his role as the dour-faced, coffee-making Detective Nick Yemana on the ABC television sitcom Barney Miller.
Soo’s role in Barney Miller earned him praise for how it often played against stereotypes of Asian Americans by emphasizing his character’s wholly American background. However, Soo’s career extended beyond his most famous role and saw him perform in various television shows and movies.
As per IMDb, Soo’s television credits comprised a 1962 appearance on The Jack Benny Program, 34 episodes of Valentine’s Day in 1964, one episode of The Wackiest Ship in the Army in 1965, one episode of Summer Fun in 1966, two episodes of Julia in 1968 and 1971, the 1969 television movie The Monk, a 1970 episode of Hawaii Five-O, a 1971 episode of The Name of the Game, two 1971 episodes of The Jimmy Stewart Show, a 1972 episode of The Odd Couple, two episodes of M*A*S*H in 1972 and 1975, the 1973 television movie She Lives!, three episodes of Ironside in 1974, three episodes of Police Story in 1974 and 1975, an episode of Police Woman in 1975, 101 episodes of Barney Miller between 1975 and 1979, and an episode of Busting Loose in 1977.
His movie credits are Flower Drum Song (1961), Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963), The Oscar (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), The Green Berets (1968), and Return from Witch Mountain (1978).
Sadly, at the age of 61, on Jan. 11, 1979, in Los Angeles, California, Soo passed away. But what happened to cause his death at what was undoubtedly an unfortunately young age?
How did Jack Soo die?
As per The New York Times, Jack Soo died from cancer of the esophagus at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center.
He had been fighting the disease for a year and had undergone surgery to remove a tumor. He had been moved to UCLA six weeks before his passing in the hope that a new treatment, a type of immunotherapy, might have helped him to recover. Sadly, that wasn’t to be the case.
Soo died at the height of his popularity with Barney Miller. During his illness, his character’s in-universe absence was explained as an appendicitis attack, which resulted in him being in a hospital in New York City.
His final appearance on Barney Miller came in the Nov. 9, 1978 episode “The Vandal,” where he aptly delivered the final line, “…I have nothing to add.”
May Jack Soo rest in eternal peace.
