Hideyo Amamoto

Hideyo Amamoto (天本 英世) was born on January 2, 1926. Hideyo Amamoto movies and tv shows: Godzilla, Mothra, & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack 2001 (Japan), Eko Eko Azarak II 1996 (Japan), My Soul is Slashed 1991 (Japan), Rainbow Kids 1991 (Japan), Ronin Gai 1990 (Japan)...

a prolific Japanese actor from the Wakamatsu ward of Kitakyūshū best known for portraying Dr. Shinigami in the original Kamen Rider series as well as many other characters in tokusatsu films and the Godzilla series. Eisei Amamoto started out his acting career with the Hayuza group, and was noticed by Toho due to his unusual size and appearance. He started out his career playing several small roles in the late 50's and early 1960's. Amamoto even managed to land a small role in Kurosawa's masterpiece Yojimbo (1961) as a henchmen. Amamoto also played a "snake-handling gangster" in the film Key of Keys (1965), better known to westerners as the Woody Allen film What's Up, Tiger Lily?. Amamoto eventually garnished a cult following in Japan, due to his roles in Toho movies and other Japanese television shows such as Kamen Rider. Kaneko would give Amamoto his last role in the film Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack (2001) as the Prophet Isayama, Amamoto's part in the film was written especially for him. Was sometimes credited as Hideo Amamoto later in his career.Amamoto also used the pseudonym of Eisei Amamoto for most of his career, Eisei being a misreading of the kanji in his real name, Hideyo. He died on March 23, 2003 from acute pneumonia at the age of 77. (Imdb,Tohokingdom)