Takakura Ken

Takakura Ken (高倉健) was born on February 16, 1931. Takakura Ken movies and tv shows: Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles 2005 (China), The Firefly 2001 (Japan), Railroad Man 1999 (Japan), 47 Ronin 1994 (Japan), Buddies 1989 (Japan)...

Takakura Ken was a Japanese actor best known for his brooding style and the stoic presence he brought to his roles. He won the Japan Academy Prize four times, more than any other actor.

After graduating from Meiji University in Tokyo, Takakura attended an audition on impulse in 1955 at the Toei Film Company while applying for a managerial position. Toei found a natural in Takakura as he debuted with Denko Karate Uchi (Lightning Karate Blow) in 1956. In 1959 he married singer Chiemi Eri, but divorced in 1971. 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 left Toei in 1976, he had appeared in over 180 films.

He gained international recognition after starring in the 1970 war film Too Late the Hero as the cunning Imperial Japanese Major Yamaguchi, the 1974 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 appeared to Western audiences with the 1992 Fred Schepisi comedy Mr. Baseball starring Tom Selleck.

(Source: Wikipedia)