Ken Takakura

'Ken Takakura' (qv) was a Japanese actor best known for his brooding style and the stoic, honorable presence he brought to his roles.Known as the "Clint Eastwood" of Japan, Takakura gained his streetwise swagger and tough guy persona watching yakuza turf battles over the lucrative black market and racketeering in postwar Fukuoka. This subject was covered in one of his most famous movies, _Brutal Tales of Chivalry (1965)_ (qv) in which he played an honorable old-school yakuza among the violent post-war gurentai.A graduate of the prestigious Meiji University in Tokyo, Takakura happened by an audition in 1955 at the Toei Film Company, and decided to look in. Toei found a natural in Takakura as he debuted with _Denkô karate uchi (1956)_ (qv) (Lightning Karate Blow) in 1956. As luck would have it, Japan experienced a boom in gangster films in the 1960s as the Japanese people struggled with the generational differences between those raised in pre-war and post-war Japan and these were Takakura's stock in trade. His breakout role came in 1965 playing a ex-con antihero in _Abashiri Bangaichi (1965)_ (qv). By the time he left Toei in 1976, he had appeared in over 180 films.Takakura gained international recognition after starring in the 1975 'Sydney Pollack' (qv) sleeper hit _Yakuza (1974)_ (qv) with 'Robert Mitchum' (qv) and is probably best known in the West for his role in 'Ridley Scott' (qv)'s _Black Rain (1989)_ (qv) in which he surprises American cops played by 'Michael Douglas' (qv) and 'Andy Garcia' (qv) by showing he can speak English. He again proved himself bankable to Western audiences in the 1992 'Fred Schepisi' (qv) comedy _Mr. Baseball (1992)_ (qv) starring 'Tom Selleck' (qv).While he slowed down a bit in his older years, he remained active. His later films included _Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005)_ (qv), by Chinese director 'Yimou Zhang' (qv).::Anon