I was quite saddened to find that he died recently. My father met him on the set of Karate Kid II when it filmed in Hawaii and he said he was quite a nice man.
In an odd way I kind of always thought of him as a hero. How many asian males do you see on the entertainment landscape. Just reading about the things he went through in his life, makes me respect him even more.
He was more than Mr. Miyagi, in a lot of ways it was an example of how he used Asian sterotypes to his advantage toget out there.
Just think about when he got there on TV and movies, there really weren't people preceding him. Perhaps they were but none that i am aware of.

I remember seeing a movie with him and Jay Leno. It was a really bad version of Rush Hour kind of. It was in the 80's.

People don't live forever, but his work definetly leaves its mark for this little asian boy.