Minoru Chiaki(1917-1999)
- Actor
Japanese character actor equally adept at comic or seriously unsavory
roles. Chiaki graduated from the University of Chuo with degrees in
economics and commerce, but almost immediately found that his interest
lay more with the theatre. In 1937, he began to study with the
Shin-Tsukiji Gekidan ("The New Tsukiji Theatre Troupe"). During the
Second World War, he served as director of the Bara-Za theatre company.
Director Akira Kurosawa saw Chiaki in a stage production of the play "Dataii"
(from which Kurosawa would later adapt for: The Silent Duel (1949) ) and advised him
to enter films. Chiaki became a favorite of the great director, who
cast him in Stray Dog (1949) and nearly a dozen other films. Chiaki was notable
as the good-natured Heihachi in Seven Samurai (1954) and as the comic deserter Tahei
in _Kakushi toride no san akunin (1958)_. In 1975, Chiaki suffered a stroke. He recovered and in 1985
won Japan Academy Award for Best Actor in Hana ichimonme (1985). The last survivor of
Kurosawa's Seven Samurai title players, Chiaki died of coronary and
pulmonary failure in 1999.
