Mihashi Tatsuya

[Aaron Gerow]

News agencies reported that the action movie star, Mihashi Tatsuya, 
died on the 15th of a myocardial infarction. He was 80 years old. 
Mihashi started out in the movies in 1951 and worked at Daiei, 
Shochiku, and Nikkatsu before settling down at Toho. He garnered 
applause for important supporting roles in such Kurosawa films as The 
Bad Sleep Well and High and Low, but made his mark as an action star in 
the 1960s. On an international scale, his Kokusai himitsu keisatsu 
series was used by Woody Allen for the notorious What's Up Tiger Lily, 
and he had a featured role in Tora! Tora! Tora!. He had largely retired 
from film in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, appearing mostly in TV mystery 
dramas, until Shinozaki Makoto brought him on to play a former gangster 
in Wasurerarenu hitobito, a role for which he shared a best actor award 
at the Nantes Film Festival. He also played the gangster boss in Kitano 
Takeshi's Dolls, and appears in Casshern, currently on release in 
Japan. The JMDB lists him as appearing in 140 films.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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