Ken Takakura

Known For: Acting
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: February 16, 1931
Day of Death: November 10, 2014 (84 years old)
Place of Birth: Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, Japan
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.
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Actor
Brave Red Flower of the North
Actor
Brutal Tales of Chivalry 7: Hell Is a Man's Destiny

Actor Major Yamaguchi
Too Late the Hero

Actor Koji Yashiro
The Last Kamikaze

Actor
House of Gamblers

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The Japan Derby Race

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New Prison Walls of Abashiri: Stray Wolf in Snow

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New Prison Walls of Abashiri: High Stakes at Abashiri

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The Domain: Rising Dragon

Actor
A Hoodlum At The Risk Of His Life

Actor
Yukyo-retsuden
1969

Actor Shogo Hanaoka
Red Peony Gambler: Flower Cards Game

Actor Hanada Hidejiro
Brutal Tales of Chivalry 5: Man With The Karajishi Tattoo

Actor
Brutal Tales of Chivalry 6

Actor
New Prison Walls of Abashiri 2

Actor Shimada Seikichi
Samurai Geisha

Actor Kingoro Tamai
The Domain: Flower and Dragon

Actor Saburo Aizawa
Memoir of Japanese Assassinations

Actor
Brothers Serving Time

Actor Tsukuda Ginjiro
Gambler's Legacy

Actor Koji Yashiro
Red Peony Gambler: Second Generation Ceremony

Actor Shuzo Honjo
The Biggest Gamble

Actor
New Prison Walls of Abashiri: The Vagrant Comes to a Port Town
1968

Actor Isamu Oba
Rogue

Actor Naoki Katagiri
Red Peony Gambler

Actor
Prison Boss
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The Day the Sun Rose

Actor Katsuji Suehiro
New Prison Walls of Abashiri

Actor
Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza

Actor Ken Kato
The Drifting Avenger

Actor
The Domain: Severed Relations

Actor
Histories of the Chivalrous

Actor
Gambler Biography
1967

Actor
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 4

Actor First Lieutenant Kenmochi
Classmates

Actor Ryuma Ibuki
The Chivalrous Life

Actor Shin-ichi Tachibana
A Story from Abashiri Prison—Duel in Snow Storm

Actor
Abashiri Prison: Duel in Hokkaido

Actor Shin-ichi Tachibana
Abashiri Prison: Challenge to the Evil

Actor
The Domain: White Blade

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The Domain: Where The Blade Enters
1966

Actor Fumio Kuroki
The Kamikaze Guy

Actor
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 2

Actor
Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Lone Wolf

Actor Ichiro Takita
Glorious Fights

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The Bullet and the Horse

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Abashiri Prison: Duel in the Snow Country

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Abashiri Prison: Duel in the South

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Showdown of Men

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The Domain: Kanda Festival Showdown

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The Domain: Duel at Thunder Gate
1965

Actor Sasaki Kojiro
Miyamoto Musashi V: Musashi vs Kojiro

Actor Ajimura
A Fugitive from the Past

Actor Seiji Terajima
Brutal Tales of Chivalry

Actor Shinichi Tachibana
Abashiri Prison

Actor Shin'ichi Tachibana
Prison Walls of Abashiri 4

Actor Shinichi Tachibana
Prison Walls of Abashiri 3

Actor Shinichi Tachibana
Prison Walls of Abashiri, Part 2

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The Domain: Kanto Legends of Chivalry

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The Boss

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The Domain: The Naniwa Story
1964
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Operation Diamond

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South Pacific Waves Are High

Actor Yoshio Harada
Tokyo Untouchable

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Tokyo's Business District

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All Rascals

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Uragirimono wa jigoku daze

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The Prickly Mouthed Geisha and the Girl of Osaka

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365 Nights

Actor Sukesaburo Sasa
Tales of President Mito

Actor Shuhei Tategami
Song of Kagoshima

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The Escape

Actor Naomori
Lady Sen and Hideyori

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Hell's Kitchen
1961

Actor Tarô Mannen
Mannen Taro and His Feminine Colleagues

Actor Tarō Senpū
Tenka no Kaidanji Senpū Tarō

Actor 'Smiley' Ken
Flower, Storm and Gangster

Actor Kosuke Kindaichi
Devil's Nursery Rhyme

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A Fishwife's Tale

Actor Kenichi Oka
Feisty Edo Girl Nakanori-san

Actor Kenichi Hanamura
The Prickly Mouthed Geisha, Part 4

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The Prickly-Mouthed Geisha Goes to Sado

Actor
Hell's Juggler