Iranian- American Shaun Toub as General Iroh in Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender"
Although no actual "Persians" were cast in any lead roles in "Prince of Persia" (maybe that is why the movie was a box-office dud!), a new popular Hollywood movie released this week uses an Iranian - American in one of its main positive roles. Shaun Toub is cast as General Iroh, the wise and thoughtful uncle of Prince Zuko in "The Last Airbender," the Hollywood live-action film adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon animated television series. Shaun is seen with a make up artist behind the stage (picture), and also in the trailer below (Minute 1:01, seen as Uncle Iroh). Written and directed by famed Indian-American filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Airbender also stars Dev Patel, best known for his role as the male lead character Jamal Malik in the multiple Academy Award-winning film, Slumdog Millionaire.
Shaun Toub who is of Persian Jewish background was born in Tehran and raised in Manchester, England. He later moved to America to attend school. In Toub's words: "I met a theatrical agent when I was doing real estate sales in Los Angeles. I was in my 20s, and I was leasing his agency some space and said how I wanted to act. One day he asked me to read a script, while we celebrated the deal. So I did, and he said, 'You (bleep)! You've been yanking my chain! And you've never had any training?' I said I had very little." Toub was signed up after that.
He has received accolades for several of his appearances in over 100 television episodes including Seinfeld, the Sopranos, ER, Just Shoot Me, Sliders, Nash Bridges, JAG, The Bold and the Beautiful, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Married... with Children, Lost, etc. He is perhaps best known for his role as Farhad in the 2004 movie Crash (by Iranian American director Bab Yari), as Rahim Khan in The Kite Runner, and as Yinsen in Iron Man.
According to the NYLA online magazine, Toub threw out the first pitch of the May 17th Major League Baseball game between the host Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros. For those unnfamiliar with the significance of such an honor, the throwing of the ceremonial "first ball" is a longstanding baseball tradition usually accorded to a notable person in the home team’s city or state, and sometimes, a national figure such as an actor or the U.S. President, Vice President or other dignitary. Notable figures who preceded Toub include fellow actor Matthew McConaughey, who exhibited his pitching prowess at a Dodgers game last season.
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