Ken Takakura
- Acting
- February 16, 1931 · Nakama, Fukuoka, Japan
- November 10, 2014
Biography
Ken Takakura (高倉 健, Takakura Ken), born Gouichi Oda (February 16, 1931, in Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, Japan), was a Japanese actor best known for his brooding style and the stoic presence he brings to his roles. 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, Showa Zankyo-den (Remnants of Chivalry in the Showa Era), in which he played an honorable old-school yakuza among the violent post-war gurentai. A graduate of 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 Denko Karate Uchi (Lightning Karate Blow) in 1956. 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 and trade. His breakout role would be in the 1965 film Abashiri Prison, and its sequel Abashiri Bangaichi: Bokyohen (Abashiri Prison: Longing for Home, also 1965), in which he played an ex-con antihero. By the time Takakura would leave Toei in 1976, he had appeared in over 180 films. Takakura gained international recognition after starring in the 1970 war film Too Late the Hero as the cunning Imperial Japanese Major Yamaguchi, the 1975 Sydney Pollack sleeper hit The Yakuza with Robert Mitchum and is probably best known in the West for his role in Ridley Scott's Black Rain (1989) where he surprises American cops played by Michael Douglas and Andy García with the line, "I do speak fucking English". He again proved himself bankable to Western audiences with the 1992 Fred Schepisi comedy Mr. Baseball starring Tom Selleck. While he has slowed down a bit in his older years, he is still active. His most recent film was the 2005 Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles by Chinese director Zhang Yimou. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ken Takakura, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Filmography
- Ken San · Self
- Dearest · Eiji Shimakura
- Black Rain: Making The Film · Self
- Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles · Gou-ichi Takata
- The Firefly · Yamaoka Shuji
- Railroad Man · Otomatsu Sato
- SMAP×SMAP · Bistro Guest
- The detective whose path was crossed by a snake
- 47 Ronin · Kuranosuke Oishi
- Korekara: Umibe no Tabibitotachi
- Mr. Baseball · Uchiyama
- An Elegy of Tyrole · Tateishi Jiro
- Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star · Self
- Buddies · Kadokura
- Black Rain · Masahiro
- Umi e, See You · Eiji Honma
- Demon · Shuji
- A Portrait of the Author · Self
- Choji Snack Bar · Eiji
- Antarctica · Ushioda
- The Longest Tunnel · Go Akutsu
- Karate Cop · Detective Mikami
- Station · Eiji Mikami
- A Distant Cry from Spring · Kosaku Tajima
- The Revolt · Keisuke Miyagi
- Never Give Up · Takeshi Ajisawa
- Winter's Flower · Hidetsugu Kano
- Older brother · Eiji
- The Yellow Handkerchief · Yusaku Shima
- Mount Hakkoda · Captain Tokushima
- Manhunt · Morioka
- The International Gang of Kobe · Masato Dan
- The Bullet Train · Tetsuo Okita
- Great Jailbreak · Ichiro Kozue
- Path of Japanese Chivalry: Story of All-Out Attack
- The Yakuza · Tanaka Ken
- The Homeless · Jokichi Anabuki
- Third Generation Boss
- Golgo 13 · Duke Togo / Golgo 13
- Yakuza of the Present · Ryoichi Shimaya
- Japan's Top Gangster · Kazuo Taoka
- Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Traitor Shall Die
- New Abashiri Prison Story: Honor and Humanity, Ammunition That Attracts the Storm
- The Pledge
- Lullaby for a Tough Guy
- The Kanto Scarlet Cherry Gang · Kuramoto
- New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Snowbound Deserter
- The Man
- Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: Forbidden Love · Hidejiro Hanada
- New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Stormy Cape
- Patience Has An End · Isamu Tekada
- Dagger
- Bloodiest Flower
- The Path of the King · Ryutaro Fudo
- New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Stray Wolf in Snow
- The Domain: Rising Dragon
- The Last Kamikaze · Koji Yashiro
- Brutal Tales of Chivalry 7: Hell Is a Man's Destiny
- New Prison Walls of Abashiri: High Stakes at Abashiri
- Yukyo-retsuden
- Too Late the Hero · Major Yamaguchi
- The Japan Derby Race
- A Hoodlum At The Risk Of His Life
- House of Gamblers
- Brave Red Flower of the North
- Gambler's Legacy · Tsukuda Ginjiro
- New Prison Walls of Abashiri: The Vagrant Comes to a Port Town
- Brutal Tales of Chivalry 6
- Memoir of Japanese Assassinations · Saburo Aizawa
- New Prison Walls of Abashiri 2
- Samurai Geisha · Shimada Seikichi
- The Domain: Flower and Dragon · Kingoro Tamai
- Brothers Serving Time
- The Biggest Gamble · Shuzo Honjo
- Red Peony Gambler: Second Generation Ceremony · Koji Yashiro
- Brutal Tales of Chivalry 5: Man With The Karajishi Tattoo · Hanada Hidejiro
- Red Peony Gambler: Flower Cards Game · Shogo Hanaoka
- New Prison Walls of Abashiri · Katsuji Suehiro
- Gambler Biography
- The Day the Sun Rose