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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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
Actor
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
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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
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Abashiri Prison: Duel in Hokkaido
Actor Shin-ichi Tachibana
Abashiri Prison: Challenge to the Evil
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The Domain: White Blade
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The Domain: Where The Blade Enters
1966
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The Kamikaze Guy
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Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 2
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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
Actor
The Prickly Mouthed Geisha and the Girl of Osaka
Actor
365 Nights
Actor Sukesaburo Sasa
Tales of President Mito
Actor Shuhei Tategami
Song of Kagoshima
Actor
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 Tarô Senpû
Tenka no Kaidanji Senpû Tarô
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
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Hell's Juggler
