Tomisaburo Wakayama

Tomisaburo Wakayama was a Japanese actor and martial artist who starred in many films and television series, especially in the genre of jidaigeki (period drama). He was born in a family of kabuki performers and followed his father and younger brother, Shintaro Katsu, in the theater. He began to study judo at the age of 13 and achieved the rank of 4th dan black belt. He also practiced other martial arts such as kenpo, iaido, kendo, and bojutsu. He gave up theater performance after touring the United States with the Azuma Kabuki troupe in 1952. He then taught judo until he was recruited by Toho as a new martial arts star in their films. He used different stage names throughout his career, such as Jo Kenzaburo and Wakayama Tomisaburo. He appeared in between 250 and 500 films, playing a variety of roles. He was best known for playing Ogami Itto, the scowling, 19th-century ronin warrior in the six Lone Wolf and Cub samurai films, based on the manga series by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. He also starred in the television series The Mute Samurai, The Bounty Hunter, and The Yagyu Conspiracy. He had only two roles in American movies: as a baseball coach in The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978) and as a yakuza boss, Sugai, in Ridley Scott's Black Rain (1989). He died of acute heart failure on April 2, 1992, in a hospital in Kyoto. He was survived by a son, Kiichiro Wakayama, also an actor.