'Shallow Hal' Actor Joshua Shintani Dies of Pneumonia at Age 32 [VIDEO]

Joshua Shintani starred as the Hawaiian man who played his ukulele while sitting next to Jason Alexander on a bench in the film Shallow Hal. Shintani was reportedly taken to the emergency room by his mother early last week in Kauai, Hawaii, but had advanced pneumonia and died on Wednesday at the age of 32.

He became well-known in Hawaii after appearing in the film with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black. In the movie, Black is hypnotized to only see a physical representation of a someone's inner beauty and not just their appearance.

Shintani had a cameo in the movie as a character named Li'iBoy, who sits on a bench next to actor Jason Alexander and plays "Never Forget Where I'm From" on the ukulele.

Director Peter Farrelly of There's Something About Mary was reportedly on vacation in Hawaii when he stumbled upon Joshua, who was playing his ukulele outside a public library. He was a senior attending Waimea High School at the time.

Shintani recalled in 2002, "This red rental car comes by and the man driving passed me and stared at me and gave me this look, his mouth was open. All of a sudden he turns around and stops at the corner where I was at and he asked me to come over, and asked me if I want to be in a movie. And I was like, what?"

Farrelly asked for Shintani's phone number and he rushed home to tell his family the exciting news. He said, "Nobody believed me and they were like 'right'".

Shintani added that The Farrellys told him to "be myself" in front the camera.

The following fall, the Farrellys flew Shintani to the premiere of Shallow Hal in Los Angeles, giving the young actor a chance to have a limo ride and walk down the red carpet.