87, Tokyo, 14 maart, longontsteking
In het huidige Noord-Korea geboren Japans acteur en zanger, gedeeltelijk opgegroeid in Japans Mantsjoerije. Ster van de Toho Studio met de bijnaam Mr. Handsome, gespecialiseeerd in kaiju of monsterfilms, maar ook in romantische komedies en melodrama’s. Speelde een duiker in Gojira/Godzilla (top-billed; Ishirô Honda, 1954). Ook in vijf vervolgfilms rond het legendarische zeemonster: Mosura tai Gojira/Mothra vs. Godzilla (top-billed; Honda, 1964), Kaiju Daisenso/Invasion of Astro-Monster (top-billed; Honda, 1965), Gojira, Ebira, Mosura Nankao no Daiketto/Ebirah, Horror of the Deep/Godzilla vs the Sea Monster/Motta, het vliegende Dracula-Monster (top-billed; Jun Fukuda, 1966), Gojira tai Mosura/Godzilla vs. Mothra (Takao Okawara, 1992) en Gojira Fainaru Wozu/Godzilla: Final Wars (Ryuhei Kitamura, 2004). Filmdebuut in Mizugi no hanayome/Bride in a Bathing Suit (Toshio Sugie, 1954). Voorts onder meer in Jû jin yuki otoko/Half Human (top-billed als alpinist; Honda, 1955), Kon’yaku sanbagarasu/Three Young Men and a Dream Girl (top-billed; Sugie, 1956), Hadashi no seishun (top-billed; Senkichi Taniguchi, 1956), Gokurakuto monogatari/Story of an Island Paradise (top-billed; Kozo Saeki, 1957), Waga mune ni niji wa kiezu/A Rainbow Plays in My Heart (top-billed; Honda, 1957), Daigaku no ninkimono/The College Hero (top-billed; Shûe Matsubayashi, 1958), Aru kengo no shogai/Samurai Saga/Life of an Expert Swordsman (Hiroshi Inagaki, 1959), Nippon tanjô/The Three Treasures (Inagaki, 1959), Arashi o yobu gakudan/The Poem of the Blue Star (top-billed; Umetsugu Inoue, 1960), Musume tsuma haha/Daughters, Wives and a Mother (Mikio Naruse, 1960), Seppun dorobô/The Dangerous Kiss (top-billed; Yuzo Kawashima, 1960), Yoru no nagare/The Lovelorn Geisha (Naruse en Kawashima, 1960), Honkon no yoru/A Night in Hongkong (top-billed; Yasuki Chiba, 1961), Sekai daisensô/The Last War (Matsubayashi, 1961), Kohayagawa-ke no aki/The End of Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, 1961), Futari no musuko/Different Sons (top-billed; Chiba, 1961), Onna no za/A Woman’s Place (Naruse, 1962), Sono basho ni onna arite/Woman of Design (top-billed; Hideo Suzuki, 1962), Horo-ki/A Wanderer’s Notebook/Her Lonely Lane (Naruse, 1962), Chûshingura (Inagaki, 1962), Onna no rekishi/A Woman’s Life (Naruse, 1963), Xiang Gang Dong Jing Xia Wei Yi/Honolulu, Tokyo, Hong Kong (top-billed; Chiba, 1963), Chi to daiyamondo/Blood and Diamonds (top-billed; Fukuda, 1964),
Hyappatsu hyakuchu/Ironfinger (top-billed; Fukuda, 1965), Kingu Kongu no Gyakushû/King Kong Escapes (Honda, 1967), Kuso tengoku/Fancy Paradise (Takeshi Matsumori, 1968), Hyappatsu hyakuchû: Ôgon no me/Golden Eyes (top-billed; Fukuda, 1968), Ido zero daisakusen/Latitude Zero/De vernietiging van de Alpha (top-billed; Honda, 1969), Ageman/Tales of a Golden Geisha (Juzo Itami, 1990), Minbo no onna/Minbo (Itami, 1992), Marutai no onna/Woman in Witness Protection (Itami, 1997), Kantoku Banzai! (Takeshi Kitano, 2007), Sansan/A Sparkle of Life (Bunji Sotoyama, 2013), Daibutsu kokaiku/The Great Buddha Arrival (top-billed; Hiroto Yokokawa, 2018) en Dansu wizu mî/Dance with Me (Shinobu Yaguchi, 2019). Gescheiden van schoonheidskoningin Akiko Kojima (Miss Universe 1959).