Ken Takakura
Ken Takakura (高 仓 健jap, Takakura Ken, born February 16, 1931 in Nakama, Fukuoka Prefecture as Goichi Oda (小田 刚 一, Oda Goichi ) ) is a Japanese actor, known as a "Japanese Clint Eastwood ".
Takakura learned life in the filled with crime and gang warfare world of the Japanese post-war firsthand. He already got used to as a young man, a confident manner to what it significantly easier life amid a controlled and competitive of the Yakuza Prefecture. During his high school years he was active in a boxing club, as a student he was a member of an Aikido club.
In 1954, he graduated in Business Studies respectable Meiji University in Tokyo in 1955 and took more out of fun at a casting of the film company Studio Toei part. He made his film debut in 1956 in Fujio Tsudas Denko Karate Uchi. Takakuras natural charisma and presence won him within a few months more film roles, mainly in Karate, detective and gangster films. In the following decades he became a sought-after actor in gangster films and history. He was often co-star of the actress Hibari Misora . In 1963, Takakura occurred in three yakuza films and recommended itself as Yakuza actor in series. In particular, his stoic characterization of the main character in the series Abashiri Bang Aichi (1965 ) established his role as a taciturn loner image, which was very popular in the 1970s.
In the West he is best known for roles in Black Rain (1989) and Mr. Baseball (1992). He worked with great directors such as Sydney Pollack, Ridley Scott and Zhang Yimou and has played more than 200 films, including the commercially highly successful in Japan Taro and Jiro Adventure in Antarctica and Kon Ichikawa historical film 47 Ronin.
For his most recent starring role in Zhang Yimou's film Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005), he received great praise, although he no action role but a reclusive older man embodied in this film. The role of the father -son relationship was written by Zhang specially for Takakura.