Longtime entertainer and Hawaiian recording artist Jeff Apaka dies at 75

Jeff Apaka — son of 20th-century Hawaiian music superstar Alfred Apaka, and a Hawaiian recording artist and showroom entertainer in his own right — died Sunday after a long battle with cancer. He was 75.

Born Jeffrey Aholo Apaka as his father was on the verge of stardom, Apaka spent his earliest years in Honolulu, then lived in Los Angeles when his father’s career was taking off nationally. His parents divorced when he was in the fourth grade, and he returned to Honolulu with his mother. His father returned to Hawaii as headliner and entertainment director of Kaiser’s Hawaiian Village (now the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort).

A few years later, Apaka was attending the San Rafael Military Academy in San Rafael, Calif., when his father died of a heart attack while playing handball on Oahu. Apaka eventually graduated from Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles, and from there went to New York to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Fordham University.

In 1968, after several years working in showrooms on the mainland, Apaka was invited to return home and headline the Monarch Room of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. His Waikiki debut at the Royal Hawaiian would be the first entry in what would become a lengthy resume as a showroom headliner, recording artist, show producer, entertainment director of a cruise ship and guardian of his father’s legacy.

Among his career highlights was a four-year headliner engagement from 1979 to 1983 at the Maui Surf Hotel in Kaanapali. In 2012, more than a generation later, he entertained international audiences Sunday afternoons at the Hilton Hawaiian Village; he was there for five years.

In the 1980s, Apaka stepped away from his career for several years to be a caregiver for his maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather. For more than 25 years, his day job was the director of community relations at the Waikiki Community Center.

Apaka’s final public appearance in December brought him full circle as a 2021 recipient of the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in the Monarch Room at the Royal Hawaiian. Apaka’s award made him a second-generation HARA lifetime achievement award recipient — his father had received the award in 1997.

Speaking from his wheelchair, Apaka recalled several moments from his eventful life, thanked HARA for the recognition, and thanked the audience for being there.

Memorial plans are pending.