Chiba Sonny

Chiba Sonny (千葉 真一) was born on January 22, 1939 in Japan. Chiba Sonny movies and tv shows: Owakon TV...
Chiba Sonny is a member of Japan

Shin'ichi Chiba, also known as Sonny Chiba, is a Japanese actor, singer, film producer, film director, and martial artist.

Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience.

Born Sadaho Maeda in Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan, he was the third of five children in the family of a military test pilot. When he was four years old, his father was transferred to Kisarazu, Chiba, and the family moved to Kimitsu, Chiba.
After Chiba went to junior high school in Kimitsu, the physical education teacher advised him to do artistic gymnastics. He also was passionate about track and field sports, baseball and volleyball. He participated in those four sports championships of Chiba Prefecture. In high school, Chiba dedicated himself to artistic gymnastics and won the National Sports Festival of Japan while in his third year. He enjoyed watching Western movies like Shane and High Noon.
Chiba went to the Nippon Sport Science University in 1957. He was a serious candidate for a place in the Japanese Olympic team in his late teens until he was sidelined by a back injury. While he was a university student, he began studying martial arts with the renowned Kyokushin Karate master Masutatsu "Mas" Oyama (whom he later portrayed in a trilogy of films), which led to a first-degree black belt on October 15, 1965, later receiving a fourth-degree on January 20, 1984.

China appeared in many Western films such as "Kill Bill", "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift", "Sushi Girl" and "Aces: Iron Eagle III".

Chiba divorced his first wife, actress Yoko Nogiwa with whom he has a daughter, Juri Manase, also an actress. He has two sons from his second marriage; actor Mackenyu Arata born on November 16, 1996 and Gordon, born in 1998. He currently lives in Yokohama, Japan. His younger brother, Jirou Yabuki (also known as Jiro Chiba), is also an actor.