Sonny Chiba
Sonny Chiba (born January 23, 1939 - August 19, 2021), also known as Shin'ichi Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience. Born in Fukuoka, Chiba played a variety of sports in high school, including baseball and volleyball. He also practiced gymnastics and participated at the National Sports Festival of Japan in his third year. When he was a university student, he learned martial arts, earning a black belt in Kyokushin Karate in 1965 and later receiving a fourth degree in 1984.
Chiba's career began in the 1960s, when he starred in two tokusatsu superhero shows. In his first role, he replaced Susumu Wajima as the main character Kōtarō Ran/Seven Color Mask in Seven Color Mask (Nana-iro Kamen) in the second half of the series. However, his breakthrough role was in the 1974 film The Street Fighter. Before retiring, Chiba had also appeared in a number of English language American films, including Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift (2006).
Chiba died of COVID-19 complications at the hospital in Tokyo on 19 August 2021, at the age of 82.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Sonny Chiba, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting
Movie
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
as Hattori Hanzo
2003
Movie
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
as Hattori Hanzo
2004
Movie
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
as Uncle Kamata
2006
Movie
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
as Hattori Hanzo
2011
Movie
Battle Royale II: Requiem
as Makio Mimura
2003
Movie
Survive Style 5+
as Azama
2004
Movie
Sushi Girl
as Sushi Chef
2012
Movie
The Street Fighter
as Takuma Tsurugi
1974
Movie
The Storm Riders
as Lord Conqueror
1998
Movie
Return of the Street Fighter
as Takuma Tsurugi
1974
Movie
Virus
as Dr. Yamauchi
1980
Movie
Iron Eagle III
as Horikoshi
1992
Movie
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima
as Katsutoshi Otomo
1973
Movie
The Bullet Train
as Aoki
1975
Movie
Sister Street Fighter
as Seiichi Hibiki
1974
Movie
Message from Space
as Prince Hans
1978
Movie
The Street Fighter's Last Revenge
as Takuma Tsurguri
1974
Movie
Shogun's Samurai
as Jûbê Yagyû
1978
Movie
Born to Be King
as Ichiro Kusakari
2000
Movie
Samurai Reincarnation
as Jubei Yagyu
1981
Movie
Wolf Guy
as Akira Inugami
1975
Movie
G.I. Samurai
as Lt. Yoshiaki Iba
1979
Movie
Legend of the Eight Samurai
as Inuyama Dosetsu Tadatomo
1983
Movie
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka
as Yasunori Hijikata
2002
Crew
Movie
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Fight Choreographer
2004
Movie
G.I. Samurai
Action Director
1979
Movie
Yellow Fangs
Director
1990
Movie
Vixen Highway 2006: It Came from Uranus!
Thanks
2010
Movie
Fighting Fist
Director
1992
Movie
The Blazing Valiant
Action Director
1981
Movie
Oyaji
Writer
2007
Movie
Sensei
Producer
1989