LOS ANGELES — Actor Pat Morita, best known for helping teach a boy martial-arts mastery through household chores as the wise Mr. Miyagi in "The Karate Kid," has died. He was 73.

There were conflicting reports about the cause of death. His daughter Aly Morita said he died Thursday of heart failure at a Las Vegas hospital; longtime manager Arnold Soloway said the actor died of kidney failure at a hospital while awaiting a transplant.

A former Honolulu resident, Morita made his mark locally as First Hawaiian Bank's "Yes!" man, and more recently in Honolulu-born director Lane Nishikawa's "Only the Brave," a film about the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II.

Morita's wife of 12 years, Evelyn, said in a statement that her husband, who first rose to fame with a role on the "Happy Days" TV show, had "dedicated his entire life to acting and comedy."

His role in the 1984 film defined his career. As Kesuke Miyagi, the mentor to Ralph Macchio's "Daniel-san," he taught karate while trying to catch flies with chopsticks and offering such advice as "wax on, wax off" to help Daniel improve his karate hand movements while doing his chores.

A generation of young fans mimicked Morita's famous "crane kick" technique from the finale of the movie, which surprised many by grossing $91 million and establishing a popular franchise.

"It was both my honor and privilege to have worked with him and create a bit of cinema magic together," Macchio said in a statement. "My life is all the richer for having known him. I will miss his genuine friendship."

"Forever my Sensei," Macchio added.

The role earned Morita an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, but he lost to Haing S. Ngor, who appeared in "The Killing Fields."

In a 1986 interview, Morita said he was billed as Noriyuki (Pat) Morita in the film because producer Jerry Weintraub wanted him to sound more ethnic. He said he used the billing because it was "the only name my parents gave me."

For years, Morita played small and sometimes demeaning roles in such films as "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and TV series such as "The Odd Couple" and "Green Acres." His first breakthrough came with "Happy Days," and he followed with his own brief series, "Mr. T and Tina."

"The Karate Kid" led to three sequels, the last of which, 1994's "The Next Karate Kid," paired him with a young Hilary Swank.

Morita was prolific outside of the "Karate Kid" series as well, appearing in "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Spy Hard," "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and "The Center of the World." He also provided the voice for the Chinese emperor in the Disney movie "Mulan" in 1998.

The younger of two children of migrant fruit pickers, Noriyuki Morita was born in Isleton, Calif., in 1932. He contracted spinal tuberculosis when he was 2 and spent the next nine years in a sanitarium near Sacramento. It was there he got the name "Pat."

Released from the facility after undergoing extensive spinal surgery and learning how to walk, the 11-year-old Morita found himself in the relocation camp at Gila River, Ariz., joining his family and thousands of other Japanese-Americans rounded up after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. His family was later sent to the camp at Tule Lake in Northern California.

"One day I was an invalid," he recalled in 1989. "The next day I was public enemy No. 1, being escorted to an internment camp by an FBI agent wearing a piece."

After the war, Morita graduated from high school and worked picking fruit before settling with his family in Sacramento, where they opened a Chinese restaurant that did well until Morita's father was killed in a hit-and-run accident.

Because prospects for a Japanese-American standup comic seemed poor, Morita found steady work in computers at Aerojet General. But at age 30 he entered show business full time.

"Only in America could you get away with the kind of comedy I did," he said. "If I tried it in Japan before the war, it would have been considered blasphemy, and I would have ended in leg irons."

He opened for top name acts like Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis and Diana Ross and the Supremes and eventually became a headliner in Las Vegas showrooms and at Playboy Clubs. His family said he took pride that he appeared with Redd Foxx at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Morita starred in "Ohara," an ABC detective show, for a couple of seasons in the late 1980s.

In September, he was inducted into the Japanese American Hall of Fame in San Francisco.

A friend of Morita's had urged him to write his memoirs, "But it takes so much discipline," he told The Advertiser in 2002.

Morita was to be buried at Palm Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery.

He is survived by his wife and three daughters from two previous marriages.