Toshiro Mifune

Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese screen actor and producer, born on 1 April 1920 in the Japanese-occupied Chinese city of Qingdao, who died on 24 December 1997. He built a career of more than 180 screen credits and is remembered above all for sixteen films with the director Akira Kurosawa, among them Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo. His rough, commanding presence made him the best known Japanese actor to audiences abroad, and his samurai and ronin characters, wise but ill-mannered, became an archetype that Western films later borrowed. He also worked with Hiroshi Inagaki on the Samurai Trilogy, founded Mifune Productions in 1962, directed one film, Legacy of the 500,000, and later took roles in Hollywood and television, including Lord Toranaga in the miniseries Shogun. He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice for Yojimbo.