Kunie Tanaka
Actor
Biography
Kunie Tanaka (田中 邦衛 Tanaka Kunie, November 23, 1932 - March 24, 2021) was a Japanese actor. He had his first notable role in 1960 as a thug in Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well, and worked with the director again on Sanjuro. Tanaka is well known for his roles in Kinji Fukasaku's yakuza films, namely the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series. He also appeared in Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan.
He has been nominated for five Japanese Academy Awards, winning the Best Supporting Actor statuette for Gakko in 1993. He appeared as the lecherous Shinjiro Ishiyama, nicknamed Aodaishō, the antagonist of the hero, played by Yūzō Kayama, in all of the Wakadaishō series of films. The character Kizaru, from Eiichiro Oda's manga series One Piece, is modeled after Tanaka.
Filmography
Kwaidan
as Yasaku (segment "Hoichi the Earless") 1965
The Face of Another
as Mentally Ill Man #1 1966
The Bad Sleep Well
as Hitman 1960
The Sword of Doom
as Senkichi 1966
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity
as Obara Nitôhei 1959
Dodes'ka-den
as Hatsutaro Kawaguchi 1970
The Hidden Blade
as Kanbê Katagiri 2004
Battles Without Honor and Humanity
as Masakichi Makihara 1973
Pitfall
as Man in White Suit 1962
Sword of the Beast
as Tanji 1965
Goyokin
as Hirosuke 1969
The Bullet Train
as Koga's Brother 1975
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War
as Masakichi Makihara 1973
Graveyard of Honor
as Katsuji Ozaki 1975
Zatoichi's Pilgrimage
as Storyteller 1966
Evil of Dracula
as Dr. Shimomura 1974