Legendary Japanese Actor Ken Takakura Died

Legendary Japanese actor Ken Takakura died on 10 November 2014 of lymphoma at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 83.

Ken Takakura
• Born as Goichi Oda in Fukuoka, southern Japan in 1931, he was recruited by a major film production after graduating from a university in Tokyo.
• Famously known as the Clint Eastwood of Japan, Takakura was renowned for his brooding style and stoic roles in several Japanese yakuza and action movies.
• He starred as a tough Japanese police officer alongside US actor Michael Douglas in the 1989 Ridley Scott film Black Rain.
• Among his well-known films were The Yellow Handkerchief, 1977 and Poppoya (Railroad Man), 1999 for which he won the best actor prize at the Montreal World Film Festival.
• The 2012 award-winning movie Dearest became his last of more than 200 films he starred.