Tetsuro Tamba, 1922 - 2006.

There don't seem to be too many reports out there yet, but Tetsuro Tamba died a few days ago at the age of 84. Japan Today has a brief item and, because he was in You Only Live Twice, so does MI6 News.

Tetsuro Tamba's IMDb pages testify to an amazingly prolific career; his Wikipedia entry may be brief but does a fine job of noting the highlights, including performances in Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri and Kwaidan, Yoji Yamada's The Twilight Samurai and several films by Takashi Miike, including The Happiness of the Katakuris, Yakuza Demon and Gozu. He was also the voice of the Cat King in Hayao Miyazaki's The Cat Returns.

Update: Just saw that David Austin has a very fine remembrance at Cinema Strikes Back.

Posted by dwhudson at September 26, 2006 7:22 AM