Denis Van Akiyama (May 28, 1952 – June 28, 2018) was a Canadian

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

, best known as providing the voice of Iceman/Bobby Drake, Silver Samurai/Kenuichio Harada and Sunfire in ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in 1970 due to lo ...

'' and

Malachite Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fracture ...

in the original English version of '' Sailor Moon''. He played Shinji in ''

Johnny Mnemonic "Johnny Mnemonic" is a science fiction short story by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It first appeared in '' Omni'' magazine in May 1981, and was subsequently included in ''Burning Chrome'', a 1986 collection of Gibson's short fiction. ...

''.

Personal life, career and death

Akiyama was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada to a Japanese family. He was also a frequent guest star on '' Katts and Dog'' as well as voiced and played a number of role in ''

The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comi ...

'' animated series and '' Mayday''. In 2015, he appeared in the feature film ''

Pixels In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the sm ...

''. Akiyama was also a gifted musician having played trumpet in The Pukka Orchestra. Akiyama died on June 28, 2018, from a "very rare and aggressive cancer". He and his wife Danielle had two children, Kintaro and Miya. He was 66 years old.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

References

External links

*
Denis Akiyama Memorial Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akiyama, Denis 1952 births 2018 deaths Canadian male actors of Japanese descent Canadian male film actors Canadian male television actors Canadian male video game actors Canadian male voice actors Male actors from Toronto 20th-century Canadian male actors 21st-century Canadian male actors