If you thought you knew who you were your entire life, how would you feel if you suddenly found out it was all a lie?
Actor and stand-up comic Fred Armisen, currently of “Portlandia” and formerly of “Saturday Night Live,” was stunned to learn that he is in fact one-quarter Korean — not Japanese, as he had initially believed.
Armisen’s grandfather Masami Kuni was a famous dancer and choreographer in Japan during the 1930s and ’40s. In an episode on the fourth season of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” he learned that his grandfather may have lived a double life, as a secret agent for Japan while under the guise of a performer for the Nazis.
Through further research, they found Masami Kuni wasn’t Masami Kuni at all. In fact, his original name is Pak Yeong-In, a Korean who went to school in Japan and took on a stage name, most likely to pass as Japanese during ethnic divides of the time.
“Well, that changes everything,” Armisen remarked. “I’m a quarter Korean? You have to understand that I tell people, that I have interviews where I tell people that I’m a quarter Japanese…I’m not Japanese at all.”
“I have so many phone calls to make,” Armisen said.
