Dennis Haskins

Dennis Haskins played "Mr. Belding" on the TV shows "Good Morning Miss Bliss," "Saved By The Bell," and "Saved By The Bell: The New Class" between 1987 and 2000. Here's a picture of Dennis Haskins from his early days on Saved By The Bell:When Saved By The Bell went off the air in 2000 Haskins struggled to find acting work and he undoubtedly felt pigeon-holed in his role as Mr. Belding. In an

Michael Oliver

Michael Oliver is the first washed up celebrity I will review. You may remember Oliver as the child actor who played "Junior" in the early 90s movies "Problem Child" and "Problem Child 2." This is a picture of Oliver from his Problem Child days:I would have thought that Oliver would have parlayed his early starring roles into other movie roles or perhaps even a recurring role on a sitcom. However

Hello

Welcome to Washed Up Celebrities! I intend to post information on celebrities who used to be popular but are now completely washed-up! Enjoy and be sure to leave comments if there's someone you want to be profiled.

Index of Washed Up Celebrities

Alley, Kirstie
Angeles, Jack

Beckham, Brice
Berry, Chuck
Bialik, Mayim
Bonaduce, Danny
Bonsall, Brian
Brancato, Lillo
Bridges, Todd
Brissette, Tiffany
Bryan, Zachary Ty
Burke, Chris

Call, Brandon
Canseco, Jose
Carrot Top (Scott Thompson)
Clay, Andrew Dice
Coleman, Gary
Cooksey, Danny
Creel, Leanna
Culkin, Macaulay

Diamond, Dustin
- The Early Years
- 2000 - Present
- 2007 Celebrity Fit Club

Yakuza Tattoos

It's usual within yakuza circuits to tattoo themselves, usually is it their clan's badges that they have all over their body. The origin of the yakuza tattoo comes from the Bakuto. They usually tattooed a black ring around the arm for each crime they committed. Finally it became a symbol of strength. It can take over 100 hours to do an entire back tattoo. The tattoo was to illustrate you were unwilling to accommodate yourself to societies rules and norms. Now is it to illustrate your clan affiliations.

Kodama – The Peace Maker

The man who brought peace between many of the yakuza factions was named Yoshio Kodama.

Kodama was in jail for the early part of the occupation, placed in the same section as cabinet officers, military, and ultranationalists. He himself was part of the ultranationalist group Kenkoku-kai (Association of the Founding of the Nation). In the late 1930's and early 1940's he worked as an espionage agent for the Japanese government, touring East Asia. He worked on a major operation to obtain strategic materiel needed for the Japanese war effort.

By the end of the war, he had obtained the rank of rear admiral (an impressive feat at the age of thirty-four), and was advisor to the prime minister. He was rounded up with other government officials in 1946 and placed in Sugamo Prison to await trial. The occupation forces saw Kodama as a high security risk, should he ever be released, due to his fanatacism with the ultranationalists.

Kodama had made a deal with the occupation forces G-2 section, and upon his release, was working for the intelligence branch of G-2. He was the principal go-between for G-2 and the yakuza by 1950. (Kaplan, p63-9)

In the early 60's, Kodama wanted the yakuza gangs, who were now fighting one another, to join together into one giant coalition. He deplored the warfare, seeing it as a threat to anticommunist unity. He used many of his connections to secure a truce between the gangs. He made a fast alliance between Kazuo Taoka, oyabun of the Yamaguchi-gumi faction, and Hisayuki Machii, a Korean crimeboss in charge of Tosei-kai.

The alliance broke the Kanto-kai faction for good. Kodama continued to use his influence to mediate the alliance between the Inagawa-kai and its Kanto allies and Yamaguchi-gumi. The truce that Kodama had envisioned was now at hand.
Yoshio Kodama was then referred to as the Japanese underworld's visionary godfather

Organizations like Yakuza

Italy has the La Cosa Nostra.
America has the Mafia.
The Irish and Jews have their own crime organizations in America.
Southeast Asia has the Triads.
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have the Tong.