The Big Picture
- Patti Yasutake, known for her role on Star Trek: The Next Generation, has passed away at 70 after a battle with cancer.
- She began acting with East West Players & had a successful career in TV, film, and stage.
- Yasutake recently starred on the acclaimed Netflix series Beef.
Patti Yasutake, known for her roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Beef, has died of cancer. News of Yasutake’s passing was reported to Deadline by Yasutake’s longtime friend and agent, Kyle Fritz. Yasutake as 70.
Born in Los Angeles on September 6, 1953, Yasutake graduated with honors from UCLA’s theater program, and began acting with the East West Players, an Asian-American theater group co-founded by, among others, veteran actors Mako and James Hong. She made her TV debut on a 1985 episode of the William Shatner cop show T.J. Hooker, and hit the big screen a year later in the Michael Keaton comedy Gung Ho, playing the wife of Japanese auto plant manager Gedde Watanabe. Both Yasutake and Watanabe returned for the short-lived TV version of the movie. In 1988, she starred alongside Mako in the film The Wash; her performance was well-received, and she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.
Who Is Nurse Alyssa Ogawa?
One of Yasutake’s best-known roles came about in 1990, when she was cast as a Starfleet nurse on “Future Imperfect”, a fourth-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Typically used to give Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) a sounding board, the character proved popular, and was soon given a name, Alyssa Ogawa; she ultimately appeared in sixteen episodes of the show’s last four seasons. In the seventh season, she was spotlighted on the episode “Lower Decks”, and was part of a multi-episode subplot about her romance and eventual marriage to a fellow crew member, and her subsequent pregnancy. Yasutake reprised the role in two movies with the Next Generation cast; 1994’s Star Trek: Generations and 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact. She also appeared in-character as Ogawa in a 1993 TV commercial for Hallmark’s USS Enterprise Christmas ornament.
Yasutake made a number of TV guest appearances; series she guested on include Grey’s Anatomy, The Closer, Boston Legal, and NCIS: Los Angeles. She also appeared in a number of films, including Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and the Star Trek parody Unbelievable!!!!! alongside a number of other Star Trek alumni. Recently, Yasutake had a prominent role on Netflix’s acclaimed miniseries Beef, starring as Fumi Nakai, the passive-aggressive mother-in-law of Amy (Ali Wong). She was also a prominent stage actor and director.
Yasutake died peacefully at her home, surrounded by family and friends. She is survived by two siblings, Linda Hayashi and Steven Yasutake, and by many nieces and nephews.