Tatsuya Nakadai, Japanese actor admired by Kobayashi and Kurosawa, dies at 92

Japanese theater and film actor Tatsuya Nakadai Who starred in Akira Kurosawa’s film series, including “to run”, He died at the age of 92, the acting school reported Tuesday.

Nakadai rose to fame in Japan … And internationally thanks to director Masaki Kobayashiwho cast him in an epic anti-war trilogy called The Human Condition from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His acting school, Mumeijuku, did not reveal the date of Nakadai’s death or provide further details.

Nakadai had a supporting role in Kurosawa’s 1954 classic “Seven Samurai”, but later effectively replaced Toshiro Mifune as the famous director’s regular leading man after Mifune went his own way. He was the main protagonist of Kurosawa’s “Kagemusha” (1980), which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Actor too He played the role of an ill-fated warlord who divided his kingdom among his sons in “Ran.”Kurosawa’s 1985 film is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play “King Lear.” Nakadai also starred in Kurosawa’s 1961 samurai film “Yojimbo,” alongside Mifune, and worked with other directors, including Hiroshi Teshigahara and Kon Ichikawa.

In 1975, he founded Mumeijuku Company, a private acting and theater school, in collaboration with his late wife, actress Yasuko Miyazaki, to train young actors.