Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo (born May 24, 1965) is an American actor known for his roles as

E. Honda , more commonly known as E. Honda, is a fictional character created by Capcom for the ''Street Fighter'' series of fighting games. Introduced in ''Street Fighter II'' as part of the starting lineup, he has appeared in ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'', ' ...

in Universal Pictures ''

Street Fighter , commonly abbreviated as ''SF'' or スト (''Suto''), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six ...

'' and Manumana in the Paramount Pictures film '' Necessary Roughness''. He also played custodian Yoshi Nakamura in the Disney TV show

Kickin It ''Kickin' It'' is an American comedy television series created by Jim O'Doherty that aired on Disney XD from June 13, 2011 to March 25, 2015. The series stars Leo Howard, Dylan Riley Snyder, Mateo Arias, Olivia Holt, Alex Christian Jones, an ...

. He is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

for the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC Wes ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah ...

Early years

Tuiasosopo attended Taper Avenue Elementary and

Phineas Banning High School Phineas Banning High School is located in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, and is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. History Banning High School was renamed in honor of General Phineas Banning when a ne ...

in the Wilmington section of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. He lettered in both football as an offensive/defensive lineman and on the track team as a

shot-put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

ter. He accepted a football scholarship from

Professional football

Tuiasosopo was signed as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who i ...

by the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

after the

1987 NFL Draft The 1987 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 28–29, 1987, at the Marriot Ma ...

. He was waived on August 1. After the players went on a strike on the third week of the 1987 season, those games were canceled (reducing the 16-game season to 15) and the NFL decided that the games would be played with replacement players. In September, he was signed to be a part of the

replacement team. He started 3 games at center and was released after the strike ended. On March 7, 1988, he was re-signed by the

. He was cut before the season started. On July 29, 1989, he was signed by the

. He was released before the start of the season.

Acting

Tuiasosopo is perhaps best known for playing the role of

in the live action movie ''

'' along with

Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the ag ...

and

Raúl Juliá Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994) was a Puerto Rican actor. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he took an interest in acting while still in school and pursued the career upon completion of his studies. After ...

. His first

motion picture A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

film role was Manumana "the Slender", the committed and respectful center on the fictional reconstructed Texas State "Fighting Armadillos" football team in the 1991 film '' Necessary Roughness''. Tuiasosopo took a leave of absence from

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it ...

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

for the film. Shortly afterwards, he co-starred in his first television series with original television

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...

Adam West as the strong-armed detective Al Hamoki for the

Fox network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...

called ''

Danger Theatre ''Danger Theatre'' is an American half-hour comedy anthology series for television, produced by Universal Television and originally aired on the American Fox network from July 7 to August 22, 1993. Each half-hour-long show consisted of two comed ...

''. Tuiasosopo had another film role as Willie Dumaine in '' 12 Rounds'' along with WWE wrestler

John Cena John Felix Anthony Cena ( ; born April 23, 1977) is an American part-time professional wrestler, actor, and former rapper. He is currently signed to WWE. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is tied ...

. He also had a part in the '' NCIS'' season 10 episode "Hereafter" as Charles Kang / Chucky Bang. He also played in the Disney TV show

as a custodian and an ex-sumo wrestler named Yoshi Nakamura.

Filmography

Personal life

Tuiasosopo was born and raised in

San Pedro, Los Angeles, California San Pedro ( ; Spanish: "St. Peter") is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located wi ...

. His father was

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

(27 years) and U.S. Postal Service retired Manavaalofa Petelo "Sgt. Pete" Tuiasosopo (1935–2008) of

Fagatogo, American Samoa Fagatogo is the downtown area of Pago Pago (the territorial capital of American Samoa).Grabowski, John F. (1992). ''U.S. Territories and Possessions (State Report Series)''. Chelsea House Pub. Page 51. . Located in the low grounds at the foot of M ...

and mother

Registered Nurse A registered nurse (RN) is a nurse who has graduated or successfully passed a nursing program from a recognized nursing school and met the requirements outlined by a country, state, province or similar government-authorized licensing body to o ...

(30 years) retired Silaulala "Sheila" Lealoa Alofaituli (1927–2007) of Vatia, American Samoa. He is one of seven children: Brother Andrew Tuiasosopo (Carson, California) and sisters Jean Redondo (Long Beach, California), Aavonda Gonzales (San Pedro, California), Aaleslie Speake (deceased), Aaona Speake (deceased) and Adaline Aure (Bellingham, Washington). Tuiasosopo's uncle is Bob Apisa. His cousins are

Manu Tuiasosopo Manu'ula Asovalu Tuiasosopo (born August 30, 1957) is a former American football defensive tackle. He was the 18th overall selection of the 1979 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football ...

, John Tautolo and Terry Tautolo. His second cousin is

Marques Tuiasosopo Marques Tavita Tuiasosopo (born March 22, 1979) is an American football coach and former player. He played professionally as a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons with the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets. Tuia ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tuiasosopo, Peter 1965 births Living people Actors of Samoan descent 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American male film actors American male television actors American people of Samoan descent Male actors from Los Angeles People from San Pedro, Los Angeles Players of American football from American Samoa American sportspeople of Samoan descent American football centers Utah State Aggies football players Los Angeles Rams players National Football League replacement players Players of American football from Los Angeles