Yūnosuke Itō on:
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was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than ninety films from 1947 to 1979.
Career
Itō made his film debut at
Toho
is a Japanese entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. ...
in 1946,
and although mostly a prominent supporting actor—playing memorable figures such as the novelist in
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...
's ''
Ikiru
is a 1952 Japanese tragedy film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay co-written with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. The film examines the struggles of a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat (played by Takashi Shimura) and his final quest ...
''—he also was cast in leading roles such as
Kon Ichikawa
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary '' Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won t ...
's ''
Mr. Pu''.
He is acclaimed as "one of the...extremely talented character actors who populated Japanese movies in
Shōwa">Shōwa_era.html" ;"title="he Shōwa era">Shōwaera, playing a broad range of roles."
Itō received the 1962 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Supporting Actor">Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actor
The Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actor is as part of its annual Blue Ribbon Awards for Japanese film, to recognize a male supporting actor who has delivered an outstanding performance.
List of winners
References
External linksBlue Ri ...
for his dual role in the seminal ninja film ''Shinobi no Mono''. Film scholar Stuart Galbraith IV has noted that the "horse-faced actor...was a real chameleon, despite his instantly recognizable, distinctive features...[and] gives what may be the performance of his career
sone of the all-time great Japanese movie villains.
The son of
kabuki
is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...
actor Sawamura Sōnosuke I (1886-1924), Itō was the brother of actor Sōnosuke Sawamura (1918-1978), who was born Keinosuke Itō and took the name Sawamura Sōnosuke II when their father died, appearing on stage until the 1950s when he also became a TV and film actor, though never achieving his younger brother's renown.
Itō penned a memoir in 1968 in which he recounted his difficult path to fame, titled ''Radish Actor'' (a term of disdain for hammy performers). In 1977, he was urged to record the wistful song "Square Box" by its lyricist, Haruka Homura. Released as a single by
Warner Records
Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...
, a planned follow-up
LP was never recorded, as Itō died while practicing the several songs Homura had written for it.
Legacy
In 2008, Itō was one of the actors commemorated in the ''Seven Supporting Characters'' film festival held at the now-defunct Cinema Artone in Tokyo's
Shimokitazawa
is a neighborhood in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. It is located in the southwestern corner of the Kitazawa district, hence the name "Shimo-kitazawa" ( ''lower Kitazawa''). Also known as "Shimokita", the neighbourhood is well known for the density o ...
entertainment district.
Tokyo's arthouse theatre Laputa Asagaya curated a 30-film retrospective in 2011 titled ''Great Character Actor of the Century: Fantastic Yūnosuke Itō''.
In July 2019, Tokyo's Cinemavera Shibuya celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth by screening 11 of his films in a shared festival honoring Itō and actor
Kō Nishimura
was a Japanese actor.
Known in the Western world, West primarily for supporting roles in such films as Akira Kurosawa's ''The Bad Sleep Well'' and ''Yojimbo (film), Yojimbo'', Kihachi Okamoto's ''Sword of Doom'', Yoshitaro Nomura's ''Zero Focus ...
.
A character designed as a caricature of Itō is regularly featured in the cat-oriented
manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
''Mon-chan and Me'', published in
Fusosha's popular
webzine
An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the computer ...
''Joshi Spa!'' (Women's Spa!).
Selected filmography
Films
Television
References
External links
*
1919 births
1980 deaths
Male actors from Tokyo
Japanese male film actors
{{Japan-film-actor-stub