
Ken Takakura
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.
Acting (188 movies)

The Longest Tunnel
1982

Black Rain
1989

Operation Diamond
1962

The Yellow Handkerchief
1977

47 Ronin
1994

Tokyo Gang vs. Hong Kong Gang
1964

South Pacific Waves Are High
1962

A Dead Drifter
1959

Never Give Up
1978

Rogue
1968

The Yakuza
1974

Men Fighting Whales
1957

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
2005

Tokyo Untouchable
1965

The Kamikaze Guy
1966

Antarctica
1983

The Bullet Train
1975

Mannen Taro and His Feminine Colleagues
1961

Mr. Baseball
1992

The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Whirlwind
1961

Railroad Man
1999

Blackmail
1963

Red Peony Gambler
1968

Manhunt
1976

Main Street in the Underworld
1964

An Outlaw
1964

A Distant Cry from Spring
1980

Golgo 13
1973

Hell's Companion
1959

Red Peony Gambler: Flower Cards Game
1969

The Outsiders
1958

Tokyo's Business District
1962

Brave Red Flower of the North
1970

Miyamoto Musashi V: Musashi vs Kojiro
1965

Mount Hakkoda
1977

Buddies
1989

Station
1981

A Fugitive from the Past
1965

Dearest
2012

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 2
1966

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Lone Wolf
1966

Demon
1985

Manchurian Sunset
1956

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry 4
1967

Brutal Tales of Chivalry 5: Man With The Karajishi Tattoo
1969

Brutal Tales of Chivalry
1965

Showdown in Blood
1957

If You're Man Enough
1960

Abashiri Prison
1965

Wolves, Pigs & Men
1964

All Rascals
1962

The Man
1971

Karate Cop
1982

Tokyo Untouchable: Escape
1963

The Kanto Scarlet Cherry Gang
1972

Uragirimono wa jigoku daze
1962

Winter's Flower
1978

The Firefly
2001

G-men of Japan 4: Special Armed Unit Mobilization
1956

Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star
1991

The Domain
1964

The Homeless
1974

A Portrait of the Author
1984

Too Late the Hero
1970

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: Forbidden Love
1971

Lightning Karate Blow
1956

Prison Boss
1968

Choji Snack Bar
1983

The Path of the King
1971

The Deep Blue Sea
1957

Classmates
1967

The Last Kamikaze
1970

The Revolt
1980

With Songs in My Heart
1958

The Sand City in Manchuria
1960

Prison Walls of Abashiri 4
1965

New Prison Walls of Abashiri
1968

Flower, Storm and Gangster
1961

Four Hours of Terror
1959

Devil's Nursery Rhyme
1961

Jet Air Base 101
1957

Detective Duel
1958

Sister with Sister
1958

A Fishwife's Tale
1961

Glorious Fights
1966

Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza
1968

The International Gang of Kobe
1975

The Prickly Mouthed Geisha and the Girl of Osaka
1962

Ken San
2016

365 Nights
1962

Feisty Edo Girl Nakanori-san
1961

Tales of President Mito
1962

The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Rush
1960

No Advice Taken
1958

Outlaw Under a Blue Canopy
1960

The Bullet and the Horse
1966

Patience Has An End
1971

House of Gamblers
1970

The Pledge
1972

The Prickly Mouthed Geisha, Part 4
1961
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